Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California

by Douglas Monroy

Every California schoolchild's first interaction with history begins with the missions and Indians. It is the pastoralist image, of course, and it is a lasting one. Children in elementary school hear how Father Serra and the priests brought civilization to the groveling, lizard- and acorn-eating Indians of such communities as Yang-na, now Los Angeles. So edified by history, many of those children drag their parents to as many missions as they can. Then there is the other side of the missions, one that a mural decorating a savings and loan office in the San Fernando Valley first showed to me as a child. On it a kindly priest holds a large cross over a kneeling Indian. For some reason, though, the padre apparently aims not to bless the Indian but rather to bludgeon him with the emblem of Christianity. This portrait, too, clings to the memory, capturing the critical view of the missionization of California's indigenous inhabitants. I carried the two childhood images with me both when I went to libraries as I researched the missions and when I revisited several missions thirty years after those family trips. In this work I proceed neither to dubunk nor to reconcile these contrary notions of the missions and Indians but to present a new and, I hope, deeper understanding of the complex interaction of the two antithetical cultures.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

337 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 1990

Reviews

[Beth]

This is a historical monograph of the indigenous people of California. It’s very informative and eye-opening in giving the history of people whose narratives have typically been erased or silenced. I learned a lot about the Native inhabitants and their interactions with the Iberians and later groups of Anglos.

[Kristen]

This book wasn't too bad of a read for a class book. It is interesting to learn a lot of the history of Mexicans in america.

[Jessica]

It was alright. Not very interestingly written, but good info.