Some people don't know it but at
one time Mexican California extended from Cabo all the
way to the Oregon border. This changed during James K.
Polk's Presidency. When Mexico rejected an offer by Polk
of 25 million dollars for California (mostly because of
the recent annexation of Texas by the US), Polk manufactured
a war by sending General Zachary Taylor ("Old Rough
and Ready") into a disputed area where a clash ensued
with US troops. Sixteen men were killed by Mexican soldiers
and Polk sent a angered message to Congress which declared
war on Mexico.
The US tried to ensure a quick and
bloodless resolve by contacting Santa Anna (then in Cuban
exile) and conspiring with him to take Mexico in a coup
d'etat after which he would make peace with the US and
deal with them with regard to California. But after his
arrival in Mexico, Santa Anna raised an army and marched
against the US.
Captain John C. Fremont had been dispatched
to California even before the outbreak of war, and as
soon as hostilities erupted, he was there to insite the
Americans in California to rebel against the Mexican government.
This rebellion resulted in the short-lived Bear Flag Republic
of 1846.
Gen. Zachary Taylor's efforts
in the Mexican desert earned him a reputation. At the
Battle of Buena Vista (Feb. 22-23, 1847) his 5,000 men
repulsed a force of 10,000 under Santa Anna, but could
not deliver a decisive victory. Later American forces
under General Winfield Scott ("Old Fuss and Feathers")
landed at Vera Cruz in early 1847 and battled its way
toward the Mexican capital, which was reached by Sept.
1847.
The war ended with the February, 1848 Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo . The treaty surrendered territory
totaling about 1/2 of Mexico to the US. This included
what became known as Upper California. Lower California,
or Baja, remained with Mexico due to its hostile environment,
wonderfully inhospitable to settlers.
For years the origin of the name
California was a mystery. Then in 1862 scholars discovered
a novel written in 1521 by Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo.
The book, called The Exploits of the Very Powerful
Cavalier Esplandian, Son of the Excellent King Amadis
of Gaul, described an exotic place:
"Know that to the right hand of
the Indies was an island called California, very near
to the region of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was populated
by black women, without there being any men among them,
that
almost like the Amazons was their style
of living. These were of vigorous bodies and strong and
ardent hearts and of great strength; the island itself
the strongest in steep rocks and great boulders that is
found in the world; their arms were all of gold, and also
the harnesses of the wild beasts on which, after having
tamed them, they rode; that in all the island there was
no other metal whatsoever. They dwelt in caves very well
hewn; they had many ships in which they went out to other
parts to make their forays, and the men they seized they
took with them, giving them their deaths, as you will
further hear. And some times when they had peace with
their adversaries, they intermixed with all security one
with another, and there were carnal unions from which
many of them came out pregnant, and if they gave birth
to a female they kept her, and if they gave birth to a
male, then he was killed...
"There ruled on that island of
California, a queen great of body, very beautiful for
her race, at a flourishing age, desirous in her thoughts
of achieving great things, valiant in strength, cunning
in her brave heart, more than any other who had ruled
that kingdom before her...Queen Calafia."
With such fantastic images planted
in the European imagination, it's little wonder Cortés
and his crew attached the name California to their territorial
claims from Baja California north to Alaska.
Twelve years after the appearance of this
novel, Baja California was discovered. During the early
1530s Cortés dispatched three ships under a kinsman,
Francisco de Ullo to search for a sea opening to the land
of Cíbola (the fabled Seven Cities of Gold). Finding
himself locked in a gulf, Ulloa retreated along the eastern
edge of the 800-mile-long peninsula that we call Baja
California, rounded its tip and continued north to within
130 miles or so of the present U.S.-Mexico border. No
inlets. His ships battered by adverse winds and his men
wracked by scurvy, he returned to Mexico.
Believing Baja to be an island was an understandable
mistake, given the titillating details and attractions
of Montalvo's tale. This misinterpretation of the Baja
California peninsula was faithfully recorded in maps of
the subsequent two centuries characteristically displaying
an “Isle of California” west of the North
American continent, notwithstanding practical confirmation
of Baja’s peninsular status as early as 1539, and
required the official statement of the Spanish government
as late as 1747 that “California is not an island.”
The myth of Calafia seems to have a strong
grip on the modern psyche. It appears in company names,
brand names, hotel names, wines, political bodies and
numberless other titles. Recently a rock group called
the Lassie Foundation wrote a tribute to the mythical
beauty. Here are the lyrics:
she's my true connection
she's singin' from afar
she's my Calafia croonin', but she's long gone
i've got no momentum
i'm dreamin' from a bar
she's my Calafia tarrying, but i'm gone
(chorus)
she's long gone
she's the coming sun
holdin' the hands of the Pacific Ocean
long gone
she's the one
she's the monument on
on my resurrection
she's my Calafia believin', but i'm long gone
(chorus)
(chorus)
Whatever the future holds for the Baja Peninsula,
the warrior queen Calafia seems destined to be along for
the ride.
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