Looking at the Cosmopolitan Community of the Pueblo of San Diego in the Mexican Period in California: 1821-1846

Summary

Following the successful conclusion of the Mexican Revolution, many soldiers from the old Spanish Presidio of San Diego moved down the hill to found a civil pueblo. The soldiers themselves represented a diverse background of people from Mexico to which were added local Native Americans as wives and, more often, as servants. With the opening of the province of California to foreigners under the new Mexican regime, a variety of men of European and American descent including merchants and sailors arrived at San Diego and entered the village. For a short period (1825-1830) San Diego was the seat of government for the two Californias (Alta and Baja) under the leadership of José María de Echeandía. Recent research on the peopling of San Diego has expanded our knowledge of this diverse community, including the sizable number of Indian servants who have generally escaped the attention of historians. This paper seeks to broaden our understanding of how this cosmopolitan community worked.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The Forging of Communities in Colonial Alta California, 1769-1834

Keywords

Spatial Coverage