MOMENTUM: Race, Class and Gender in Mid-1800s California
12/4/2024
11:30 am to 1:00 pm
California History Center
This MOMENTUM panel discussion will feature Ruben Abrica, emeritus instructor, Spanish Language and Culture, and David Howard-Pitney, emeritus instructor, History.
Ruben and David will share observations about the roles of race, especially regarding Indigenous persons, and gender in determining social-political standing in Mexican versus Anglo-governed California.
Many differences related to the more varied and fluid notions of race and class found in Mexican Californio society versus more binary absolutist notions of race held by Anglo-Americans.
Ruben will illustrate these issues through the life of Dońa Juana Briones, an Indigenous woman who achieved high status in Alta California.
David will focus on debates and decisions of delegates to California’s 1849 Constitutional Convention concerning the rights of Indigenous people in early American California.
The MOMENTUM series is sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Division. Refreshments will be available.