071: Tales of Mexican California Part 2: Antonio Coronel's Memoirs

Tales of Mexican California: Antonio Coronel's Memoirs - Part 2

To hear Part 1, go to Episode 065.

In this episode of the California Frontier Podcast, Damian Bacich continues exploring the memoirs of Antonio Franco Coronel. Coronel's account provides a riveting look into his experiences as a Superior Court Judge in Mexican California during the 1840s, a time marked by political instability and frequent criminal conduct by soldiers. 

The memoir sheds light on key historical moments, including the failed colonization efforts, the uprising against Governor Manuel Micheltorena, and the early signs of American annexation. Coronel's detailed recounting of robberies and kidnappings from New Mexico and his interactions with notable figures like Pio Pico, Jose Castro, and John Sutter offer valuable insights into a tumultuous period in California history.

00:00 Introduction to Antonio Franco Coronel's Memoirs

00:21 Arrival and Early Challenges in Alta California

01:36 Political Instability and New Governance

03:34 The Crimes of the Permanent California Battalion 

05:25 The Great Robbery at Don Vicente Sanchez's House

12:13 Banditry and Contraband on the Old Spanish Trail

13:18 The Case of the Stolen Turkeys

20:52 Rebellion Against Governor Micheltorena

25:17 Failed Negotiations and Micheltorena's Dilemma

30:16 Conclusion and Reflections on Coronel's Memoirs

Purchase a copy of Tales of Mexican California. 

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I'm Damian Basich, host of the California Frontier Podcast, and on this episode I'm going to bring you some more of the memoirs of Antonio Franco Coronel, entitled Tales of Mexican California. Now, as you might recall, Coronel arrived in California in the 1830s as part of a colonizing expedition sent from Mexico. In fact, he arrived in 1834, to be precise. And if you haven't, I recommend you go back and listen to episode 65, Tales of Mexican California, part one, where you'll hear about Antonio's origin story and how he and his family arrived in Alta California from Mexico. Now, they came with what was called the Ijar Padres Expedition, and it was meant to establish a new pueblo in Alta California, which would basically become its administrative capital, and its members would become the ruling class of the territory. They were, however, rejected by the local population, and the plan was eventually disbanded. The town was never founded. and its members were eventually absorbed into the local population. Antonio, after a while, moved to Los Angeles, and when we pick up here, he's working as a superior court judge. Now, over the previous years, Mexican Alta California had experienced a degree of instability with locally born officials moving from state to state. actually rebelling against some of the governors sent from Mexico City to administer the territory. Now in 1842, due to constant bickering between political factions in Alta California, the Mexican government again sent a governor, but this time he was a general, an army general, a real button up guy named Manuel Michel Torrena. And he was accompanied by a group of 800 soldiers known as the Permanent California Battalion. And it was said that they were mostly convicts, right? At least among the local population said that. Now the soldiers basically lived up to their reputation, and their criminality wound up pushing again the population to support. throwing off this new governor. So when we listen to, uh, Antonio's memoirs here, we're going to hear about this, the beginnings of this uprising and the problems that it represented. And we're also basically going to be brought up to the eve of US, uh, annexation of California, almost. And we're going to hear how Nichel Turena, who was the last governor sent from Mexico to rule over California, eventually, uh, goes down the path of, of himself being expelled from the territory. We're going to pick up here in 1842. Antonio says, As Superior Court Judge, I was kept busy with constant robberies committed by the Permanent Battalion of California, which I just mentioned. If I told about all their crimes in detail, I'd never be done. So I will only relate a few of the most interesting cases. One night, when there was a ball at Don Vicente Sanchez's house, which is no longer standing, now remember he, he wrote down these memoirs or dictated them in the 1870s, I stationed a guard of twelve soldiers in what I had requested from Michel Turena, since that was the only way to keep order in those times. There was a great crowd at the dance. And this is a dance that they had organized in order to welcome the new governor. In high spirits, most of the principal people of the town were there. We entered on the ground floor. The guard was posted next to the bedroom of the lady of the house, who happened to be there. In the room were eight or ten trunks full of the lady's clothes and ornaments. At that time, it was not unusual to have wardrobes. The common custom was to keep, Oh, excuse me. At that time, it was not usual to have wardrobes. The common custom was to keep things in Chinese trunks. And this is also very interesting because it points to the fact that trade with the far East was an important factor in California at that time. Chinese trunks means trunks from China or the Philippines. At about four in the morning, Senor Sanchez came down to his wife's room a little while after the guard was dismissed. Immediately he noticed that one trunk containing money Jewelry and valuable clothing was missing. He ran back upstairs, and he informed me. I immediately went down to take appropriate measures. I ordered the streets closed off, so no one could leave until dawn. There was an Indian village nearby, and I had the chiefs keep it closed up too. so I could examine the tracks or traces and find out which direction the trunk had been taken. Daylight came, and between the Indians and practiced Californians, the tracks of the four of Michel Torrena's booted soldiers were discovered. With my men, I followed the trail along an alley between two walled gardens some eight hundred or a thousand yards. where we found the broken and emptied trunk. The footprints showed they had split up the loot there. I followed the clearest trail across an orchard on what is now Main Street, and back then was the only street in that part of the city. I went towards the hills to the west of the populated area, following a creek in the so called Ditch of the Kings. About halfway up it, I found some of the loot buried in the bank and suspected there was more nearby, which turned out to be the case. I went on searching and found some more things buried under the stones in the Abila Brook. All I found were clothes, no jewels nor money. And here I want to stop the Ditch of the Kings, which I imagine was Zanja de los Reyes and Avila Brook. If somebody's familiar with, uh, L. A. geography or nomenclature, it'd be interesting to know if those two place names, uh, still exist or what they referred to. Back to the text. Now, it remained for me to determine the culprits. I continued my investigation with the exactitude required by the judicial practice of that time and discovered the guilty parties. Michel Torreina permitted me to supersede military privilege in making a case against them and presenting it to him. Michel Torreina was convinced of their guilt in spite of their experience in defending themselves against criminal charges. and sentenced them to the terrible punishment of lashes and prison. The leader of the criminals had been in attendance to the general the night of the robbery. They all suffered the lashes and prison term, but they never revealed what became of the jewels and money. The jewels were well known because so few people lived in the country. And fewer still had jewelry. It would have been very difficult to dispose of them without being caught. However, they never did turn up. A little Paiute Indian girl. And here I'm, I suppose he's referring to Paiute Indians, uh, in that extend, you know, in the Great Basin. Into Utah, a little Paiute Indian girl who had been raised as a daughter in the Sanchez's household gave the information leading to the capture of the principal thief. Sanchez had bought her from some New Mexicans in exchange for some animals. It should be noted that although it was forbidden by law, At that time, the buying of Indians from New Mexico was tolerated in view of the great benefits to the Indians. They were educated and treated as members of the family. And here he's mentioning something which, which was very true that along the Santa Fe Trail from New Mexico, excuse me, the Old Spanish Trail. from New Mexico into L. A. and further up, you had parties of people who were basically trafficking in Indian children. And he mentions here this girl who had been bought and was raised as a family member in the Sanchez household. So, like I said, this happened a lot, and it's not clear, right? I'm sure that some of the families, uh, raised them, uh, in all charity and like their own children, and I'm sure that, that some of these children were definitely exploited. So, as he mentions, this was illegal, in effect. Slavery of indigenous people was illegal in the Spanish Empire back to the 1600s. Um, so anyway, a part of California history that we need to be aware of. So going on. At that time, and before and after it, bands of New Mexicans came with loads of goods to exchange for broodmares, horses, and mules. On each trip, they took back one or two thousand head. Occasionally, they came as thieves and stole immense herds. One of these great robberies occurred in the time of General Figueroa, so that would have been between 1833 and 1840, I believe. And the last big one I heard was the work of a Frenchman or Canadian called Charlie Foe. who got away with something like 2, 000 horses and mules between 1844 and 1845 during the war with Michel Torrena. Armed men from Los Angeles pursued them, but the thieves outnumbered and outgunned the Angelinos, who returned disappointed. So this points to an issue that was taking place at that time of banditry, contraband, raids along this so called Old Spanish Trail between Los Angeles and Santa Fe. Right? And it's something that continued very much into, uh, the 1840s. Another curious episode, and here I'm quoting, uh, Coronel again, about Michel Torrena's mestizos. And that was one of the things that was also mentioned is that they were, uh, Michel Torrena's soldiers were all, uh, mestizos, uh, mixed ethnicity. Which I think was used in this case as a, um, pejorative, even though most of the population of California at that time were also, uh, mixed race, mixed ethnicity. So, another curious episode about them. Don Manuel Requena sent word to me that some turkeys had been stolen from his poultry yard. And he had been told it was one of the soldiers who took them. An Indian woman described the thief and when she was taken to the barracks, identified him. But before that, I had asked the officer on duty if a soldier hadn't come in with some domestic fouls. He said no. The only thing any soldier had brought into the barracks was a violin. When the thief was identified, the officer demanded why he had said it was a violin he had under his arm in the bundle. The soldier answered, Sir, that's what we call young turkeys. Asked what happened to the turkey, he said, Well, didn't you get some chili from my woman? You ate it up, and so did we. Damian. He claimed he hadn't stolen the turkey. He had only used a bit of broken needle to tie kernels of corn to a piece of string. For amusement, passing Requeña's house, he had thrown the string and the corn over the wall to see if it would catch a crow or something like that. He felt a tug on the line and reeled it in with some difficulty, afraid it would break. And he saw that he had caught a turkey polt, a young turkey. He decided it was his by right, and wrapped it up in his sarape. The officer told him that was theft, and he answered the theft was when you took something against the wishes of the owner, but the turkey had come to him out of its own free will. This argument didn't save him from the whipping the officer commanded. There you go. Uh, the lash, which was a common punishment, not just in Alta, California, but in all of 19th century society. In fact, if you If you read, um, Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, he has a very, uh, graphic account of a sailor who, uh, receives a bunch of lashes, whipping for an offense that he committed on board the ship. So, back to Corona. Those soldiers stole so often I was in perpetual motion. I must say, General Michel Turena was aware his men were a bad lot, and didn't tolerate such behavior. Both as civil governor and military commander, he fully supported whatever measures I wanted to take to preserve order, and he dealt out severe punishment to anyone found guilty of a crime. The General, in private conversations with me, lamented his precarious situation. Abandoned by the central government, struggling with the depravity of the troops given him. He was aware that their conduct reflected unfavorably on himself, in spite of his earnest desire to win the esteem of the Californians by good government. At the end of 1843, Michel Torrena marched north with most of his troops and all of his officers, but two or three. During the long stay in Los Angeles, Captain José María Flores, who comes into this history later, married the daughter of Colonel Agustín Vicente Zamorano, and Ensign Garfías married Luisa Ávila.

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Damian Bacich's video recording 18:12

On the journey to Monterey, Michel Torrena had to depend entirely on the charity of private

(Cont.) 071: Tales of Mexican California Part 2: Antonio Coronel's Memoirs

Damian Bacich's video recording 18:18

citizens and a few missions that still had the wherewithal. One of his first acts of economy was to suppress the prefectures and the sub prefectures and the superior courts. I don't remember what happened in that part of the territory during the rest of his term. The same complaints we had here about the permanent battalion of California's transgressions became a pretext for the rebellion in Monterey. The principal citizens really wanted to control and benefit from the territorial income in the form of salaries. So it was the, the principal leaders of the, of the population there. that led the uprising against him. And in particular, we're talking Juan Bautista Alvarado, who would, who had been governor, would become governor of California again, and Jose Castro, who would be the military commander in, uh, Mexican California. Since before the revolt, and here I return, since before the revolt, the general had recognized The grave danger of invasion by the Americans. And in consequence, he set about organizing militias according to the law. He sent captain Andres Pico to Los Angeles with the rank of battalion commander to work with the civil authorities in forming an auxiliary militia. So they're already concerned about American designs on Alta, California. The justices of the peace ordered the enrollment of recruits and tried to persuade the citizens to cooperate voluntarily. But there was resistance, particularly from a group headed by Hilario Barela and others, even armed defiance. So the militia was never formed. So there was no California wide militia. To resist against a U. S. invasion when it came ultimately in 1846. Things stayed in this sorry state for some time, during which Don Joaquin de la Torre appeared one night. with a small band to surprise the guard at the house of the parish priest, which was Lieutenant Medina's temporary headquarters. Although surprised and outnumbered, the guard fought back, losing one man but wounding De La Torre in the leg. The rebels took the house And arrested the mayor, Don Vicente Sanchez. I think there were other arrests too. That was the beginning of the revolt against Michel Torrena in this part of the country. Shortly afterwards, Castro and Alvarado arrived with their band of revolutionaries pursued by Michel Torrena in person. Alvarado and Castro begin organizing their forces here, mustering all the prominent citizens capable of bearing arms. The territorial assembly convened, presided over by Don Pio Pico. Pio Pico would eventually be the last Mexican governor of California, not sent from Mexico, but born in California. Don Pio Pico, senior member. and declared it did not recognize the authority of Michel Torrena. There were some communiques previous to the declaration, but I omit them as I assume they must be in the public records. Now here, we're going to hear how the confrontation took place. Michel Torrena's army approached. including a rifle company of foreigners and a disciplined force of Indians commanded by Captain John A. Sutter. And if you've never heard of Sutter, he was basically, he was a Swiss, um, colonist who came and set up himself in, along the Sacramento River. Uh, became a Mexican citizen, received a big land grant along the Sacramento River, which he called New Helvetia, after Switzerland. And that eventually was, um, he was the epicenter of the discovery of gold in California, and he was also an important, um, ally of the Bear Flag Revolt. So, already early on, Sutter is involved in the struggles between Californios, native born Californians, and the Mexican governor. The rebels turned out to oppose them under Don Jose Castro and Don Juan Bautista Alvarado, getting to San Buenaventura. So, Mission San Buenaventura is where the city of Ventura is today. And Michel Turena got as far as the Rincón, this side of Carpentaria, nine miles from Santa Barbara. So if you're familiar with that part of the coast, this is all near, uh, between Ventura and Santa Barbara. Uh, the Rincón, this side of Carpentaria. Rincon, as it's known today, a very famous surfing spot. Um, but it's that area along the coast between Ventura and Santa Barbara. Michel Torrena barricaded himself in the Rincon, and the rebels did the same in San Buenaventura for several days. Senor Pico, who styled himself governor of the insurgents, appointed a negotiating committee to see if the matter could be settled without the inconvenience of fighting. The committee was made up of Don Vicente Sanchez, Don Juan Wilson, and myself. Sanchez and I set out as soon as possible for Michelturena's camp, where Wilson, who styled who lived in Santa Barbara, would meet us. So according to the notes here, uh, this Don Juan Wilson was actually a man named Benjamin Davis Wilson, who later wrote his own memories of the events that took place here. Before approaching Michel Turena, we held a meeting at Wilson's house to give him Pico's instructions and those of the insurgent leaders. with whom we had consulted on the way. Having agreed on the main points, we then proceeded to Santa Barbara, where Michel Touraine was staying, although his troops were encamped at the Rincón. This was about 8 p. m. on the 4th of February, 1845. We presented our credentials, and explain to the General our desire to see if some amicable, honorable, and fair resolution could be found for the current difficulties. Michel Torrena answered that his conscience was clear, and he saw no excuse for the uprising at all. In public and private conduct, he had demonstrated his affection for the Californians. If he had been unable to do more for them, It was the fault of the central government in Mexico. He had no personal ambitions as governor. He wanted only order and peace in his term. Then honorable retirement in recognition of his duty done. He was always ready to compromise amicably and make any personal sacrifice in accordance with the law and justice. We were to inform the insurgents they had proceeded illegally up to this point. If they presented their claim through the proper channels, he would listen. And if it were just, he would concede even to resigning the governorship. In addition, he would not proceed against any of the insurgents, but let them present their case in the full enjoyment of their legal rights. Since Wilson was not well, and Sanchez was somewhat tired, they commissioned me to take the General's reply to San Buenaventura. I set out at 1 a. m. and got to Castro and Alvarado's camp. At dawn with the message. Alvarado reacted first. He said Michel Torrena had ignored the authority of the territorial assembly, that he was obliged to accept the reconciliation which the legally constituted body offered to settle the current unrest, and that he had refused all amicable solutions. Therefore, I was to tell the General. that he must resign the governorship on honorable terms to be arranged. Castro approved everything he said. I returned to Santa Barbara immediately and acquainted my colleagues with the reply. And we all went back to Micheltorena. The general said he would answer the message, although he considered it a waste of time. Since there was no possibility of an agreement. I went to rest a little in Santa Barbara. While I was asleep, Wilson and Sanchez tried to convince Michel Torrena to accept the terms. Or at least to make a counter offer, which they would immediately communicate to the other side. Then, I They went to San Buenaventura with no more results than I had gotten. Neither side would budge. Back in Santa Barbara, Michel Torena expressed his appreciation to all three of us for trying to keep the peace, although he was sorry we had not been successful. He also wished, if it were necessary for him to leave the country, to do so in a manner compatible with his dignity. Later the same day, he told me privately that he had sufficient force to resist the rebellion, and possibly crush it. But his position was critical. The government failed to support him, and he had no confidence in his troops. The Californians considered him their enemy. An American invasion was inevitable. It was just a year away. And he didn't want it all to explode in his face. He considered the present crisis a way out. If not exactly honorable, at least acceptable to the government. And he begged me not to worry anymore about the negotiations, because he knew how they would turn out. I took leave of Michel Turena to return to Los Angeles. Castro and Alvarado detained me at San Buenaventura, but I told them the same thing I told them before. No compromise on either side. I went back to Los Angeles. So, we're going to leave off here. I think this narrative is pretty interesting because you hear Cornell's wanting to stay out of trouble between the two sides, but he clearly has some sympathy for General Michel Torina. He portrays him as a reasonable and honorable man who's stuck in a difficult. Situation. And I think part of it has to do with the fact that cord, even though he came to Alta California as a young boy, he was born in the Republic of Mexico. And so when he comes to California, he still, he has a, he has an innate loyalty also to his home country, even though. He also loves his adopted country or his adopted territory. Obviously California is part of Mexico, so it's not a question of a different country, but you can see that his sympathies are not entirely with the, um, the officials like PO Pico Alvarado Castro, who are rebelling against Michel Tona, although he does. He obviously acknowledged the problems that his soldiers had caused in the country, but he, he portrays Michel Tona as someone who's seeking to do the best he can, and clearly Cornell portrays himself as somebody caught in the middle of a difficult situation. And the next time we take up with Antonio Coronel, we'll hear about the U. S. Mexico war in California, and get into some of his adventures during the gold rush. As always, it's important to remember that these are memoirs. that are written down multiple decades after the events in question, and they represent his personal views and recollections. For that reason, I personally don't take everything that is said here as gospel truth, since much of it would need to be verified and checked against other sources. And as you see, even in the, uh, the footnotes, I didn't read all the footnotes, but many of them correct. Some of the assertions he makes, names of people, etc. But I still think that this testimony gives us a very, very good insight from an eyewitness to a period in California's history that was very chaotic and is still very poorly understood. And for that reason, I consider it very valuable. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the California Frontier Show. If you'd like to support the show, the best thing to do is to let other people know about it. If you'd like to support it monetarily, there are a couple ways of doing that. One is by scrolling down in your podcast app to where it says support the show. There you can become a subscriber for as little as three dollars a month. 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