Using archival materials that have largely escaped study, Michael J Gonzalez presents a bold new interpretation about life in Los Angeles between 1821 and 1846, the years that Mexico governed California. Gonzalez goes beyond descriptions of cattle, ranchos, and aristocratic landowners who disdained Mexico -- all the elements central to the romance of the 'California Pastoral' -- and introduces an alternative view. He argues that the people of Los Angeles, the angelenos, feared Indians. To ease their minds and find reassurance that they did not stand alone against the Indian menace, the angelenos imitated the life and ways of their compatriots in the Mexican interior. Gonzalez makes his case by focusing on a petition composed in 1846 and selects particular words to trace the progress of angeleno thinking. He begins by explaining why the angelenos felt threatened by Indians. He then shows that one of the qualities the angelenos admired most about Mexican life was liberal thought. To remove the Indians, and adopt the liberal principles they coveted, the angelenos used war and violence. When they had killed or subdued the Indians, Gonzalez concludes, the angelenos fashioned the identity they had long cherished and believed, as one man proclaimed, that they were now 'Mexican to the four sides' of their heart.
