Life in California... another historical perspective

 

Recently I've been reading Life In California During A Residence Of Several Years In That Territory by Alfred Robinson.  Robinson arrived in California in 1829, about a half decade before Dana.  He published Life in California Before the Conquest in 1846 (a little more than a half decade after Dana's Two Years Before The Mast) which is the body of this, larger book, which brings California history beyond Bear Flag.

Unlike Dana, Robinson stayed in California, marrying into the Guerre family, a wedding described in Two Years Before The Mast. 

As a contemporary of Dana and a Bostonian, I expected a bit of glossing over some of the nastier bits of history, so I was shocked to find his bluntness in describing the native people being driven to mass under a whip, and watched over during mass. 

This is an important observation, because it shows just how fiercely the indigenous population opposed their conversion and labor which the Spanish Missionaries imposed on them. I have to wonder if such observation is due to his connection to the land and people, perhaps deeper than Dana's since he chose to marry into a Mexican family and remain in California, whereas Dana could barely wait to get back to New England. 

The other thing that Robinson wrote about differently than Dana was the dress of the Californians. In particular, he contradicts Dana's statements about the quality and type of clothing between classes, and describes the chamise and skirt being worn by the women of middle class, at least in warm Southern California.

I think, perhaps, I could do a whole study just on the history and wearing of the reboso, and recently read this synopsis of the topic on Mardreluna.com  

For the time being I plan on keeping with primary sources.  I am not overly fond of some of the information which is colored more deeply by time and changes in attitude.  The first person descriptions of the actual events, especially where they describe what is seen and heard and felt, are, to my mind, much more interesting and reliable than those strained through the filter of modern history writers.

Class, gender, and fashion have been tied together in various parts of the world for centuries, and examining the clothing, culture, gender roles, and class roles has become a point of interest to me, and more specifically the roles of women, class and color in textile design.