Dreams of Small Countries: How Californios, Land Conflicts, and Race Shaped the Golden State

Prior to US conquest, a group of elite, mixed-race Mexicans called Californios nurtured the dream of patria chica (“small homeland”) in what is now the state of California. Californios' settler dreams of wealth and privilege depended upon controlling Indigenous land and labor, but after Anglo settlers and the US Army arrived, Californios struggled to hold onto their own way of life.

Camille Suárez shows that rather than challenge the new regime, elite Californios allied with both the US Army...