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- [00:00]
Tracy V. Wilson
This is an I Heart podcast.
- [00:05]
Holly Fry
Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the old gays are pulling back the curtain with their new podcast, Silver Linings with the Old Gays brought to you in partnership with iHeart's Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare, hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jesse serve their lifetime of wisdom when it comes to love, sex, community and whatever else they've got on the gay agenda. So check out Silver Linings with the old gays on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:37]
Commercial Announcer
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- [01:37]
Tracy V. Wilson
Key Listen to High Key, a new weekly podcast.
- [01:40]
Holly Fry
You better listen.
- [01:42]
Tracy V. Wilson
Speaking of tanning, I was sunning my.
- [01:43]
Holly Fry
Nether regions because I read that you're.
- [01:45]
Tracy V. Wilson
Supposed to like get sun not only.
- [01:47]
Holly Fry
In your mouth but also in your other orifices. Wait, are you talking about you put.
- [01:52]
Tracy V. Wilson
Your hole into the sun?
- [01:53]
Holly Fry
I did. That's crazy.
- [01:55]
Tracy V. Wilson
Downward dog mooning the sun. I was gonna say. Is it cheeks open? It's cheeks open all the way wide. It's your cheeks open.
- [02:01]
Commercial Announcer
Uh huh.
- [02:02]
Tracy V. Wilson
Who's holding them?
- [02:04]
Holly Fry
Enough of that nonsense. Now listen to High key on the iHeartRadio Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:13]
Commercial Announcer
Divorce can leave you feeling isolated, like you're stuck on an island with no direction. But you don't have to go through it alone. At hello Divorce, we guide you step by step, offering everything from legal advice to financial planning so you can find your way back to solid ground for 90% less. Start your divorce journey with the support you need@hellodivorce.com and Schedule A free consultation.
- [02:38]
Tracy V. Wilson
Foreign.
- [02:43]
Holly Fry
Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.
- [02:54]
Tracy V. Wilson
Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
- [02:57]
Holly Fry
And I'm Holly Fry.
- [02:58]
Tracy V. Wilson
On August 21st of 2025, the White House website published something called President Trump is right about the Smithsonian. This was a bulleted list of supposedly objectionable content from Smithsonian museums. Parts of this list cite the conservative online magazine the Federalist or the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute and the American Conservative. So like, if you try to follow the links to see what they're talking about, you're going to these websites, not to the Smithsonian. The first thing on this list involves material from a portal called Talking About Race from the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which continues to be a very favorite Go to source of complaints about the Smithsonian even though it was removed five years ago. It's like the thing that gets trotted out every time somebody wants to complain that the Smithsonian does not match their ideological views. A lot of what is in this list is really pulled out of context or distorted. And it also includes stuff just like flying pride flags at the museum.
- [04:17]
Holly Fry
How dare.
- [04:18]
Tracy V. Wilson
Right? You can tune in on Friday for our behind the Scenes for my thoughts on a number of things about this article because I have them. It won't even be all of my thoughts because there's too many. But what is relevant to today's episode was this quote. The National Museum of the American Latino describes the post Mexican American War. California describes a Californio family losing their land to American squatters. In that quote, the words Californio and squatters are in scare quotes as though there's something fishy about those words. Also, if you're thinking Tracy, did you read that right? Because that did not make any sense. I read it exactly as it is written. Something is garbled in it. It looks like maybe the middle part of it was cut out, I don't know. But a Californio family losing their land to American squatters is just a straightforward description of how when what is now California became part of the United States, there were Spanish speaking people who already lived there. They are known as Californios. They lost their land to newly arrived English speaking Anglos who claimed that land through squatting. In other words, this is just a deeply normal thing for a museum about American Latinos to talk about. So when I followed the link to see what this mangled sentence was in reference to, it actually did go to the Smithsonian website Unlike a lot of the other ones, it went to a page about an 1880s printing press. It is referencing a caption about a novel that was printed in 1885. That novel was called the Squatter and the Don, and it was published under the name C. Loyal, which is a pen name of Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, who we are talking about today.
- [06:16]
Holly Fry
Maria Amparo Ruiz was born on July 3, 1831. According to most sources, she was born in Laredo, Mexico, but it's possible that she was born in La Paz. At the time, these were both small communities, and the capital of Baja California Sur, or Southern Lower California, moved from Laredo to La Paz a few years before Maria was born. The uncertainty about her birthplace is because official records from both towns are incomplete. La Paz has been the site of a series of indigenous uprisings and had been abandoned at a couple of points. And the Capitol moved out of Laredo after that town was hit with heavy rains and flooding. The records held in La Paz were also damaged later on during the Mexican American War. We know that Maria lived in La Paz when she was in her teens, but not exactly when she got there.
- [07:13]
Tracy V. Wilson
Maria's mother was Isabel Ruiz Maturena, and she had a brother named Federico. One of the sources that I used for this episode says that her father's last name must have been Arango, based on how Maria's name appeared on her marriage license. But another source said that her father was Jesus Maturena. Either way, there's almost no mention of her father in her surviving correspondence, and it really doesn't seem like he was really a part of her life.
- [07:40]
Holly Fry
The surname Maria used until her marriage was that of her maternal grandfather, Jose Manuel Ruiz, and that name carried some prestige. The Ruizis were not wealthy, but they had land and respect. Prior to Mexico's independence from Spain, Jose Manuel Ruiz had served in the Spanish army, and his service had earned him a land grant, which became Rancho and Sonata de Toro Santos. After Mexico became independent, he was appointed governor of Baja California Sur and served for three years. The Ruizis also had connections to the Carrillo family, who were prominent landowners who helped found and lead a number of communities in what is now California. By the time Maria was born, her grandfather had retired and he died when she was about 4 years old.
- [08:29]
Tracy V. Wilson
Maria was 15 and living in La Paz on May 13, 1846, when the United States declared war on Mexico. For a quick recap, Texas had been part of Mexico, but had declared itself an independent republic in 1836, and then the United States had annexed Texas and in 1845. But the Southern border of Texas was in dispute. The United States claimed that border was at the Rio Grande, while Mexico claimed that it was farther north at the Nueces River.
- [09:03]
Holly Fry
President James K. Polk appointed John Slidell as Minister to Mexico and sent him to negotiate with the goal of establishing the border at the Rio Grande and purchasing Mexican territory in what is now the southwestern United States. When Mexican President Jose Joaquin Herrera refused to meet with Slidell, Polk ordered troops to the disputed region. When Polk received words that those troops had been attacked by Mexican forces, he characterized it as a Mexican invasion into US Territory, even though from the Mexican perspective, that is what the US had done. Not long after that, Congress declared war.
- [09:45]
Tracy V. Wilson
A lot of the writing about the Mexican American war is focused on places that are along what is now the border between the United States and Mexico. That's been the case on prior episodes of our show too. But the US Also wanted to capture the Baja California peninsula, that long peninsula that's between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California, the western part of what's now Mexico. A volunteer regiment from New York was dispatched as part of this effort, traveling by sea around Cape Horn and arriving at Yerba Buena, which is now San Francisco, California, in April and May of 1847.
- [10:26]
Holly Fry
Two companies under the command of Lt. Col. Henry S. Burton arrived in La Paz on July 21, while ranchers and the Mexican army fought back on other parts of the peninsula and attacked the garrison at La Paz later on. At first this was fairly peaceful. After taking control of La Paz, Burton handed things back over to the civil government and allowed people to retain control of their land under the condition that they side with the United States. Some of the more prominent families in La Paz threw balls and other festivities to entertain the soldiers. Maria Amparo Ruiz and Henry S. Burton met at one of these events.
- [11:07]
Tracy V. Wilson
The United States and Mexico fought over parts of the peninsula into early 1848, and a lot of local people sided with one or the other as the US army and Navy took control of different regions and settlements on the peninsula. People living there were told that it was going to become part of the United States and that they would have all of the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship. When that happened, President Polk and multiple high ranking military leaders repeatedly said that the peninsula would be part of U.S. territory once the war was over. Of course, there were people who remained loyal to Mexico who did not want that at all. There were also other people who did.
- [11:50]
Holly Fry
But once the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Baja California Peninsula wasn't part of the territory Mexico ceded to the United States. The US Military arranged for refugees from the peninsula who wanted to become U.S. citizens to be taken to what's now California aboard American naval ships with about 480 people being transported. Of course, not everyone went. Some people had been opposed to the invasion and never wanted to be part of the US in the first place, and others were sympathetic to the US but also wanted to stay where they were because they had land or family or just some other reason that they didn't want to go.
- [12:33]
Tracy V. Wilson
One of the people who left the peninsula after the Mexican American War was Maria Amparo Ruiz, and we will have more on that after a sponsor break.
- [12:45]
Commercial Announcer
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- [13:42]
Holly Fry
That's washablesofas.com Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the old gays pull the curtain on their brand new podcast Silver Linings with the Old Gays. Brought to you in partnership with iHeart's Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare. With over 300 years of experience between them, hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jesse serve four lifetimes of wisdom when it comes to love, sex, community and whatever else they've got on the gay agenda. Listen in to these fabulous friends swap stories exploring how queer life has evolved over the decades and the silver linings they've collected along the way. Each episode dives into hot topics, from safe sex and online dating to untangling Gen Z lingo, as well as insights on how music, art and fashion show up in queer culture. So check out Silver Linings, a show about how pride ages like fine wine. Available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [14:49]
Tracy V. Wilson
You can make.
- [14:50]
Holly Fry
A difference in someone's life, including your own with a job in home care. These jobs offer flexible schedules, health care, retirement options, and free training. They also provide paid time off and opportunities for overtime. Visit oregonhomecarejobs.com to learn more and apply. That's oregonhomecarejobs.com.
- [15:18]
Mario Lopez
Hey, what's up? It's Mario Lopez. Back to school is an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions. Whether you're a parent, teacher, coach or neighbor, check in, ask questions, stay connected. Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report@dhs.gov blue campaign.
- [16:01]
Tracy V. Wilson
As we mentioned before the break, the war between the United States and Mexico ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. Under the terms of that treaty, Mexico ceded roughly 525,000 square miles of land to the United States, including what is now California, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico, as well as parts of Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. This cession was more than half of Mexico's territory. The treaty also established the border of Texas at the Rio Grande, which is what the United States wanted. So all of that seemed like an obvious win for the United States. But there was also some controversy.
- [16:50]
Holly Fry
U.S. president James K. Polk had expected the treaty to be negotiated in Washington, D.C. but instead, Nicholas Trist, chief clerk of the State Department, decided to handle it on his own in the town of Guadalupe Hidalgo, where the Mexican government had retreated after the United States captured the capital of Mexico City. Among other things, Trist thought the government in Washington, D.C. was out of touch with the realities of what was happening in Mexico.
- [17:20]
Tracy V. Wilson
Honestly, it's wild to me that he was just like, I'll just negotiate this international treaty myself.
- [17:25]
Holly Fry
You don't get it anyway, let me go. Yeah, let me take a ride.
- [17:30]
Tracy V. Wilson
There was probably some truth to the idea that Washington, D.C. wasn't super connected to the realities of what was happening in Mexico. As an example, it took six weeks for a message recalling Trist to Washington to actually get to him there, but communications within Mexico could be kind of slow as well. US Forces on the Baja California peninsula took the town of Todo Santos more than a month after the treaty was signed, at which point the United States was officially no longer trying to claim that territory.
- [18:04]
Holly Fry
Many of the US Military figures involved thought leaving Lower California out of the Mexican session was an abandonment and an injustice for example, on April 4, 1828, Lieutenant Henry W. Halleck wrote a letter to Colonel Richard B. Mason, Governor of Alta California or Upper California, which said in part, quote, in this conflict, some who thus sided with us lost their lives, many their property, and all have exposed themselves to the vengeance of the Mexican government. But these losses and dangers they have willingly encountered in the hope of obtaining the better government of the United States. They have regarded these promises as made in good faith and have been guided in their conduct by the assurances thus held out to them by the agents of the American government. And now for the United States to voluntarily surrender this country to the Republic of Mexico and leave these Californians exposed to the loss of life and confiscation of property for having sided with us under the assurances thus held out to them would not only be itself a breach of national faith, but would make us appear in the eye of the world guilty of the most deliberate and cruel deception.
- [19:19]
Tracy V. Wilson
The US Military effort on the Baja California peninsula and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had multiple direct effects on Maria Amparo Ruiz and her family. As we've already said, they left their home. They were transported off the peninsula as refugees after the war was over. After arriving in what's now California Under Article 9 of the treaty, they later became U.S. citizens. That Article read, quote, the Mexicans who in the territories aforesaid shall not preserve the character of citizens of the Mexican Republic conformably with what is stipulated in the preceding article shall be incorporated into the union of the United States and be admitted at the proper time to be judged of by the Congress of the United States to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States according to the principles of the Constitution, and in the meantime shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property and secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction.
- [20:26]
Holly Fry
The treaty, as negotiated by Nicholas Trist, also contained provisions regarding land grants that people had received from the Spanish or Mexican government prior to July 7, 1846. Quote, all grants of land made by the Mexican government or by the competent authorities in territories previously appertaining to Mexico and remaining for the future within the limits of the United States shall be respected as validation to the same extent that the same grants would be valid if the said territories had remained within the limits of Mexico.
- [21:00]
Tracy V. Wilson
That language is not in the final treaty, though. When presenting the treaty to the Senate for ratification, Polk said of this language, quote, to the tenth article of the treaty, there are serious objections and no instructions given to Mr. Trist. Contemplated or authorized its insertion. The public lands within the limit of Texas belong to that state, and this government has no power to dispose of them or to change the conditions of grants already made. All valid titles to land within the other territories ceded to the United States will remain unaffected by the change in sovereignty, and I therefore submit that this article should not be ratified as part of the treaty. The U.S. senate struck that language out before ratifying the treaty on March 10, 1848, with a vote of 38 to 14.
- [21:54]
Holly Fry
The question of what would happen to land grants from the Spanish or Mexican government in territory that became part of the US Would later be a huge part of Maria Amparo Ruiz's life, and we'll be getting back to it. But the more immediate impact of all of this on her was that after she and her mother were taken to Monterey in what is now California, she enrolled in school to learn English in addition to the French and Spanish that she already knew. And on July 7, 1849, she married Captain Henry S. Burton. This was a few days after her 17th birthday and Henry Burton was 28.
- [22:33]
Tracy V. Wilson
This marriage was also so controversial. It wasn't unheard of for girls in Maria's social class to get married in their late teens, and the difference between their ages to doesn't seem to have been regarded as particularly unusual. But marriages between Anglo men and Mexican women really were not common in the aftermath of this war, at least in the immediate aftermath. This was also more than just an Anglo man and a Mexican woman. Maria was from a very prominent, respected and well connected Mexican family, and Henry was one of the leaders of the US Invasion of Mexico. So some people saw Maria and her family as traitors.
- [23:15]
Holly Fry
Another issue was religion. Henry was Protestant, while Maria and her family were devoutly Catholic. So some people just thought a marriage between the two of them was heresy. Also, during the Mexican American War, at the request of Franciscan Padre Jose Gonzalez Rubio, military Governor Richard B. Mason had issued an order that California officials not authorize marriages in which one of the parties was Catholic. The Catholic bishop of Alta and Baja California refused to sanction Maria and Henry's marriage. One of Maria's old suitors also went to church authorities to try to stop it.
- [23:56]
Tracy V. Wilson
Contemporary accounts describe Maria as beautiful and Henry as in love with her, and they ultimately got married. In spite of all of this, the Reverend Samuel H. Willie conducted a Protestant ceremony at the home of General Ers Canby, who later had to explain his actions in this to his superior officers. The couple also had a private Catholic ceremony in Santa Barbara before Two witnesses.
- [24:23]
Holly Fry
In spite of all this controversy, the wedding at the Canby home was a huge social affair. One account described Canby's wife as being at the ceremony, along with nearly every Protestant in Monterey. Among Anglos, Maria was regarded as Mexican aristocracy, attractive, charming and well educated. And there's even speculation that she was the inspiration for an 1848 ballad called the Maid of Monterey, which describes the arrival of the Maid of Monterey as silencing the gunfire of a battle during the Mexican American War and then giving comfort and aid to the injured soldiers. That ballad ends quote, here's to that bright beauty who drove death's pang away, the meek eyed senor, the Maid of Monterey.
- [25:12]
Tracy V. Wilson
About a year into their marriage, Maria and Henry had a daughter, Nelly. And then a couple of years later, they had a son also named Henry. The children grew up speaking both English and Spanish.
- [25:24]
Holly Fry
California was admitted to the United states as the 31st state on September 9, 1850, at which point it was in the frenzy of the Gold rush. The elder Henry remained in the U.S. army, and in 1852 he was transferred to San Diego. He purchased land that had belonged to Pio Pico, the last governor of Alta California when it was Mexican territory. This land had been granted to Pio Pico by the Mexican government and then sold to four other men whose rights to it Henry purchased. Henry started a ranch called Rancho Jamul, which totaled more than half a million acres.
- [26:03]
Tracy V. Wilson
San Diego was a military town, which Maria described as, quote, frightfully dull and dry and dusty. She became responsible for arranging entertainment and cultural activities for the soldiers and their families. This included writing and staging an adaptation of Don Quixote with the soldiers playing all of the parts. Apparently, Maria had to work to convince the ones that were cast in women's roles to wear dresses for it.
- [26:31]
Holly Fry
In 1859, Henry was transferred to the East Coast. Maria and the children went with him, while her mother and brother stayed behind to run the ranch. Maria and the children stayed on the east coast for the next decade, including when Henry returned to California on leave before the start of the Civil War and when he was briefly stationed at Alcatraz Island.
- [26:54]
Tracy V. Wilson
As long as Henry was on the East Coast, Maria seems to have moved with him whenever he did. It's possible that during some of that time the children were sent to a boarding school. Over the years, they lived in Rhode Island, New York, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, D.C. maria attended the first inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln in March of 1861, and she later became friends with First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. After the Civil War Henry was stationed at Fort Monroe in Virginia, where Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his wife Verena were being held as prisoners of war, and Maria also became friends with Verena.
- [27:36]
Holly Fry
Henry was promoted several times during his career with the US army and was eventually breveted as a brigadier general. Unfortunately, his military service also led to his death at the age of just 51. He was part of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia in 1865, which is where he contracted malaria, and on April 4, 1869, he died of a malaria related stroke. He was buried at West Point with military honors.
- [28:05]
Tracy V. Wilson
That left Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton as a widow with two children at the age of 37. Her only immediate source of income was her widow's pension of $30 a month. That was not enough to support the three of them. She decided to return to California to try to make a living for herself and the family at Rancho Hamul.
- [28:26]
Holly Fry
We will talk more about that after we pause for a sponsor break.
- [28:33]
Commercial Announcer
Picture it 1852 a scandal erupts in Charleston not over politics, but over a ruined velvet settee. A guest spilled Madeira wine and tried to blame the dog. If only they'd had an Anabe Washable Comfortable, practically drama proof, Anabe, a modern sofa for lives as messy as history itself. Built with machine washable covers, modular design and customizable comfort, it's made to survive every spill, splash and social mishap. Starting at just 6 and with up to 60% off right now, there's never been a better time to upgrade. So skip the scandal, head to washablesofas.com and relax, knowing history won't repeat itself in your living room. Shop Anna bay today@washablesofas.com and get 60% off your new washable sofa. That's washablesofas.com.
- [29:33]
Holly Fry
Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the old Gays pull back the curtain on their brand new podcast, Silver Linings with the Old Gays, brought to you in partnership with iHeart's Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare. With over 300 years of experience between them, hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jesse serve four lifetimes of wisdom when it comes to love, sex, community and whatever else they've got on the gay agenda. Listen in to these fabulous friends, swap stories exploring how queer life has evolved over the decades and the silver linings they've collected along the way. Each episode, dot dives into hot topics from safe sex and online dating to untangling Gen Z lingo as well as insights on how music, art and fashion show up in queer culture. So check out Silver Linings, a show about how pride ages like fine wine. Available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [30:36]
Commercial Announcer
You can make a difference in someone's life, including your own, with a job in home care. These jobs offer flexible schedules, health care, retirement options, and free training. They also provide paid time off and opportunities for overtime. Visit oregonhomecarejobs.com to learn more and apply. That's oregonhomecarejobs.com.
- [31:05]
Mario Lopez
Hey, what's up? It's Mario Lopez. Back to school is an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions. Whether you're a parent, teacher, coach or neighbor. Check in, ask questions, stay connected. Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report@dhs.gov blue campaign.
- [31:48]
Tracy V. Wilson
When Maria Emparo Ruiz de Burton returned to California in 1870, it had changed dramatically from when she left. It had been through the boom and the bust of the Gold Rush and the construction of the transatlantic railroad. There had also been massive demographic shifts at the start of the war between the United States and Mexico. The overwhelming majority of the non indigenous residents of what's now California were of Spanish or Mexican descent. By the time California was admitted as a state, its Anglo population had risen dramatically, and only about 15% of its non indigenous population spoke Spanish. When the Burton family got back to Monterey after a decade on the east coast, only about 4% of the population of California was Spanish speaking. The state of California and its Anglo residents had also carried out a genocide against the indigenous population. In the span of about 20 years, about 80% of the indigenous population had been murdered or died of introduced diseases or of overwork after being enslaved and forced to work on ranches and in mines.
- [33:03]
Holly Fry
This genocide was connected to the US Effort to seize land in California for settlements, ranches and mines. And that circles back to those land grants that we mentioned earlier. Although the treaty Nicholas Trist had negotiated to end the Mexican American War had protected grants that had been made by the Spanish or Mexican government, the final treaty, as ratified by Congress, did not have that language. Some of these land grants were enormous, and the United States could not entice newcomers to move west if most of the land there was already claimed. In 1851, Congress passed an act to ascertain and settle private land claims in the State of California, also called the California Land act, and this was to assess those pre existing claims. This process could take years and about a quarter of the assessed grants were ultimately invalidated.
- [33:59]
Tracy V. Wilson
Since the land where Henry Burton had established Rancho Humul had been granted to Pio Pico and then sold to other people, there were multiple layers to sort through. In 1858, the California Land Commission had rejected the validity of Pico's claim, which meant that those later purchases and Maria's claim as Henry's widow were also considered invalid. Henry had tried to get that decision overturned when it first happened, but this whole process had been put on hold during the Civil War. Then Henry had died without a will, while only partway through the process of giving a man named Ephraim W. Morse power of attorney so that he could act on Maria's behalf while she was still on the East Coast. This was part of Maria's decision to return to California and she wound up in a legal battle over this land, land that would go on for the rest of her life.
- [34:58]
Holly Fry
She also had an ongoing fight over land near Ensenada on the Baja California Peninsula that had belonged to her grandfather. The Mexican government recognized this grant, but there were multiple people trying to claim it in addition to Maria. Maria hired good lawyers and got familiar enough with the law to write her own briefs. And she traveled, including to Washington D.C. to advocate for herself and her family.
- [35:26]
Tracy V. Wilson
While enmeshed in these legal battles, Maria did still have access to that land and she tried to support herself and her children on the ranch. As had been true of her family in Mexico, she was often in a position where she had land, at least in theory, but not really any money. She was usually trying to figure out how to manage and pay off various amounts of debt. With the help of some financial backers, she and her 18 year old son Henry established Tamul Portland Cement Manufacturing Company to make lime from limestone that was on their land. This company lasted from 1869 to 1891. They also raised cattle and they grew wheat and barley and rented wildflower meadows to beekeepers.
- [36:13]
Holly Fry
Ruiz de Burton also tried to earn money by writing her first novel, published in 1872 by J.P. lippincott, was titled who Would have Thought It? It was published anonymously, but its record in the Library of Congress lists the author as Mrs. Henry S. Burton. This is the first book by a Mexican American author known to have been published in English.
- [36:37]
Tracy V. Wilson
This novel wasn't exactly autobiographical, but it was deeply influenced by Ruiz De Burton's feelings and experiences as a Mexican woman who had lived through the Mexican American War, married an Anglo man, moved to the United States and spent years living on the east coast among soldiers and politicians and wealthy New Englanders during the Civil War. The central character of the book is Maria Dolores Medina, also called Lola, who was captured by indigenous people as a child and then placed in the custody of the Norval family after being rescued. Rescued.
- [37:15]
Holly Fry
One plot line is a love story between Lola and Julian Norval and there's also a lot of pointed satire and criticism of the people that Lola encounters. There are depictions of abolitionists as simultaneously self righteous and racist and hypocritical, with some of them disparaging Lola for her dark skin which was dyed black by her captors until they find out she is rich. One character is a caricature of a minister who was probably based on the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher and accusations that he was having an affair with Elizabeth Tilton, who was a married member of his church. The novel also points out the irony that abolitionists were fighting to end slavery which had been abolished in Mexico in 1821, decades before the US Civil War. While treating Mexican Americans as second class citizens in spite of the terms of of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This book also framed railroad monopolies as treating the people of the Southwest as slaves.
- [38:18]
Tracy V. Wilson
Ruiz de Burton's next publication was the text of Don Quixote de la Mancha, a comedy in five acts taken from Cervantes novel of that name. That's the play she had staged back in San Diego in the 1850s. It was published in 1876.
- [38:36]
Holly Fry
Ruiz de Burton's second and only other known novel is the one that was referenced on that page on the 1880s printing press at the Smithsonian website. The Squatter and the Dawn, a novel descriptive of contemporary occurrences in California and that was published in 1885. Ruiz de Burton published this under the name C. Loyal or loyal citizen In Spanish that's ciudadano leal, which was also a common sign off on official correspondence in Mexico.
- [39:07]
Tracy V. Wilson
Ruiz de Burton had initially planned for this to be a short story which her friend George Davidson suggested she write and then have published somewhere like a literary magazine. There was one called the Californian. When it turned out to be a way longer narrative than would fit in a short story, she started thinking that it might work as a serialized novel printed in the Californian or in some other journal. When that didn't work out either, she worked out a deal with Samuel Carson and Company, which was a small publisher in San Francisco. Carson also published the Overland Monthly, which was a successor to the Californian, but he doesn't seem to have thought this book was a good fit for the Journal, otherwise he might have decided to print it there. Also, he marketed it alongside travel books about the west, which, like that, is not the genre this book was.
- [40:01]
Holly Fry
Like the book who would have thought it? The Squatter and the dawn drew from Ruiz de Burton's own experiences and observations. Like the name suggests, it was related to her efforts to keep control of the land her husband had purchased and the laws that made it progressively harder for Californios to retain control of their land, including after squatters settled on it. We already mentioned the passage of the California land Act of 1851. The 1862 Homestead act allowed homesteaders to receive 160 acres of government land if they lived on and improved it, which prompted millions of people to move west with the hopes of staking a claim. Since it could take years or even decades for a California landowner to get their claims recognized by the United States, if the US Recognized them at all, it was possible to lose most or all of it to squatters while the legal process was being carried out. Squatters were also known to harass, intimidate, and in some cases even kill landowners.
- [41:05]
Tracy V. Wilson
The novel also depicts how this influx of newcomers to the west sparked tensions between ranchers who raised cattle and farmers who grew crops, and who was responsible for building and maintaining the fences that were needed to separate the crops from the cattle. The Trespass act of 1850 required the farmers to do it, but that was changed under the no fence law of 1874, which instead required it of ranchers. After the passage of the no Fence Law, a lot of people turned from ranching to farming rather than trying to fence in their cattle.
- [41:44]
Holly Fry
The Squatter and the dawn is set between 1872 and 1876, and it focuses on the Californio family of Don Mariano Alomar and their efforts to retain their land in the face of an influx of squatters and the demands of the incoming railroads. Alomar faces continual obstacles both to remove or negotiate the squatters and to work with the railroad to try to benefit from its construction.
- [42:11]
Tracy V. Wilson
In Ruiz de Burton's experience, Anglos often perceived California's as backwards and unable to keep up with the changes to the law and the culture and to developments in things like agriculture and ranching. But she depicts Don Mariano Alomar as smart and savvy and as trying to work with newcomers and educate them on farming and ranching techniques that would work in the Southwestern geography and climate, which of course were not at all the techniques that these folks were used to in the East. This shift in land use would eventually be part of things like the California water wars that we've talked about on the show before, including in our episode on Mary Hunter Austin that came out in March of this year.
- [42:57]
Holly Fry
Like who would have thought it? The Squatter and the dawn has a love story which is between an Anglo man named Clarence Darrell and a Mexican American woman named Mercedes Alomar. Their marriage has a tinge of idealism. It helps resolve some of the novel's racial and ethnic tensions by uniting these two sides.
- [43:18]
Tracy V. Wilson
This novel ends with a really straightforward criticism of laws like the Homestead act and the California Land act and the impact that they were having on Californios. Quote, our representatives in Congress and in the state legislature, knowing full well the will of the people, ought to legislate accordingly. If they do not, then we shall, as Channing said, kiss the foot that tramples us and in anguish of spirit must wait and pray for a redeemer who will emancipate the white slaves of California.
- [43:52]
Holly Fry
So white slaves. So much 19th century writing characterizes injustice in terms of slavery, which is what's happening here. But to be clear, Ruiz de Burton's focus was on Californios and their loss of land to Anglo squatters, not on the rest of the Mexican population of California. She also was not really focused on the Chinese laborers who were building the railroads, or on the indigenous peoples who had been forced off their land and killed as Spanish colonists and conquistadors started arriving in what is now the United States and after California became a state.
- [44:31]
Tracy V. Wilson
At the same time, Ruiz de Burton's writing and the way she lived her life are often seen as assimilationists. She saw the best way forward for Californios as acceptance into the more affluent, more influential class of Anglos in California, while also retaining their land. While she's the only Mexican American woman known to have published novels in English in the 19th century, what she was writing about was also at odds with a lot of middle and working class Mexican Americans who were way more focused on preserving their own culture while trying to attain the equal rights that they had been promised under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, rights that they were not being given at all. They were not so focused on the idea of assimilation with Anglos.
- [45:22]
Holly Fry
Conversely, while moving within Anglo circles, Ruiz de Burton clearly saw herself as different from them. She had strong connections to her ancestry and culture and her home on the Baja California peninsula. She made and maintained friendships with other Latinos wherever she lived. And she kept up with what was happening in Mexico. Everything from what was going on with friends and family members who were still there to major events like the Reform war over the Mexican Constitution of 1857. While her published work was in English, much of her personal correspondence was in Spanish.
- [45:59]
Tracy V. Wilson
Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton ultimately lost her fight for land in both Mexico and in the United States states. After decades of legal battles, she was awarded the title to some of her grandfather's land in Mexico. But then her mother Isabel sued her over it. Isabel claimed that she had been given paperwork to sign that had been written in English, so she didn't understand it well and she had thought that paperwork would give Maria power of attorney, not rights to the land. The Supreme Court of Mexico eventually overturned Maria's claim to her grandfather's Rancho Ensenada. Maria's claim on Rancho Hamul also went through a series of reversals and then reversals of those reversals, and more than a hundred squatters made claims on it and challenged Maria's title. In 1891, she finally lost nearly all of Rancho Humul, aside from Henry Burton's original homestead there. She did not give up though. And when she died on August 12th of 1895, she was in Chicago on a trip that was connected to these ongoing legal disputes.
- [47:11]
Holly Fry
In the years after her death, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton's work was largely forgotten. It started getting more attention in the early 2000s when new editions of her work were printed along with collections of her letters and books about her. Today she is known as one of the earliest Mexican American authors and a rare example of a first person Mexican perspective on things like the Mexican American War, the tumultuous and violent establishment of California as a state. Written in English for an English speaking.
- [47:42]
Tracy V. Wilson
Audience, that is Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton.
- [47:47]
Holly Fry
Do you have listener mail?
- [47:49]
Tracy V. Wilson
I do. I have a quick listener mail. I meant to read this a while ago. It's correcting something from an episode that has been out for a bit at this point, but I mislaid this email. This is from Amy and Amy wrote. Ladies, I started listening to you less than a year ago when I had to unplug from the news as an ally, pediatrician and staunch vaccine proponent. When the world brings me down, you are my rainbow. Thanks. Thank you for all you do. The recent Beatrice Kenner and Mildred Smith episode made me smile as my office manager is a Kenner Smith when telling her about the podcast the next day to share the smile, she recalled hearing about a great Aunt Bee growing up. Her daughter is a history major and will be starting down that genealogic rabbit hole soon. I did a double take when you spoke about the Busch Gardens traffic, as I only live one exit away and know that traffic. Well, Beatrice likely lived in the King's Mill, not Hill area, though betting this was a transcription error from an interview based on some of the other discrepancies you found for petax, I have attached two pictures of my Izzy. She is an amstaff hitty Pound rescue. The first is shortly after joining our family several years ago. The other is a more recent shot of her preferred cinnamon bun. Sleeping pose, Love and light Amy thank you so much Amy. When I got this email, I have been to Busch Gardens. I've been to that part of Virginia. Aside from going to Busch Gardens, as soon as I saw the word King's Mill, I was like, obviously it's Kings Mill. Why would it have said Hill? And I actually think that was just my typo that I didn't catch. And like, I don't know. I just. The second that I saw King's Mill, I was like, yes, obviously that's what it's called. Why would I have said anything else? I don't know. So I apologize for that typo, however it came to be. And then we have such a cute little puppy dog. Oh my goodness. One of the pictures doesn't want to load for me at the moment, but in the first one, this puppy dog has gotten into the shrubbery and she is peeking out from all the foliage with that smiling panting mouth that pitties do. Very cute. One ear is flopping over and the other ear is like kind of almost inside outed flopping around. Anyway, so cute. Thank you for that email and for that that correction that I meant to read like a month ago. If you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcast, we're at history podcastheartradio.com and you can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
- [50:59]
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- [51:58]
Holly Fry
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- [52:35]
Tracy V. Wilson
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Tracy V. Wilson
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Mario Lopez
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Tracy V. Wilson
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Mario Lopez
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Tracy V. Wilson
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2025C T mobile.com network hey, what's up? It's Mario Lopez. Back to school is an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach or neighbor. Check in, ask questions, stay connected. Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report@dhs.gov blue campaign.
- [53:41]
Tracy V. Wilson
This is an iHeart podcast.