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Beyond the Rancho

其他書名	Four Generations of Del Valle Women in Southern California, 1830-1940
出版	University of California, Irvine, 2011
ISBN	11244917759781124491776
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=7N6pAQAACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Challenging long standing assumptions that Californio families were victims of land loss and social dislocation after the Mexican American War of 1848, "Beyond the Rancho" argues that through the strategic use of social networks and cultural representation, the del Valle family, successfully navigated the U.S. conquest of California and the development of Los Angeles as a major metropolis. Through an examination of four generations of women (1830-1940), this dissertation examines how the del Valles drew on the resources of friendships and family to maintain their land, Rancho Camulos, and thus their stakes in southern California society. Under the leadership of Ysabel del Valle and her daughter Josefa del Valle Forster, the family took advantage of southern California's commercial and industrial development and efficiently transformed the rancho into a thriving agricultural enterprise that grew to regional prominence. Attracting the attention of novelist and Indian rights activist Helen Hunt Jackson, Rancho Camulos served as the model rancho for her novel Ramona. Despite this connection to Ramona and California's Spanish fantasy past, the del Valle's role in the propagation of this cultural phenomenon has gone overlooked. By closely examining how the del Valle family participated in the promotion of Ramona's idyllic mythology, "Beyond the Rancho" suggests that multiple versions and motives of California's Spanish fantasy past existed in late nineteenth and early twentieth century California. Through the lives of Lucretia del Valle, an actor turned women's rights activist, and Lorenita Forster, the custodian of family memories, I contend that the del Valle family engaged with these myths as a means to secure their political and social relevance in southern California while maintaining their Californio identity. Drawing on rich archival research, this dissertation recovers the central role Californianas played in the processes to formulate and preserve the family's social prominence and regional identity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Stressing the continuing significance of the family and social networks as strategies to manage cultural change, "Beyond the Rancho" charts new narrative of the conquest and development of California from the point of view of Californios.