Antonio Franco Coronel

The title is something of a misnomer, because this is actually Coronel's memoir, written for H.H. Bancroft. Coronel came to California as a child with the Hijar-Padres Colony in 1834, which changed the face of Mexican California. Coronel went on to become an important man in California, taking part both in the colony's and then the state's politics and its various battles, including the battles between rival governors and the Mexican-American War, much of which he describes. After the events in this book, he went on to own Rancho los Feliz and compiled an important collection of Californiana, most of which is now in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and advised Helen Hunt Jackson. He was an interesting fellow, and it was an interesting and at times lively read… (mere)