On the trail of California’s Mexican past
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Christopher Reynolds take a trip into California’s Spanish-speaking past in this Los Angeles Times piece, encouraging readers to remember ‘that spell from the early 1820s to the late 1840s, when California, Alta y Baja, was Mexican.’ He writes:
Even without the historical underpinning, the route makes for a classic California road trip. But this way, you end up with an inkling of what went on after Junípero Serra retired and before that guy found gold at Sutter’s Mill.Depending on how you count, California’s Mexican era lasted 24 to 27 years. Longer than the Pony Express did business, longer than Billy the Kid lived, longer than Walter Alston managed the Dodgers.
California’s previous ownership has proved to be a controversial issue. In April this year, we published this blog post about an advertising campaign by vodka manufacturer Absolut, which made a visual gag on the theme in a map which had been redrawn, showing Mexico’s border very roughly where it lay before the Mexican-American War of 1848.
The campaign proved to be extremely controversial north of the border, attracting record levels of comments from readers. Read all about it here...
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City