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The Squatter and the Don
A historical romance with an activist heart, and an impassioned critique of U.S. expansionism—with an introduction by Ana Castillo, author of So Far from God
A fiercely partisan novel based on the author’s own experiences, The Squatter and the Don follows two families living near San Diego shortly after the United States’ annexation of the Alamares of the landed Mexican gentry, and the Darrells, the New Englanders who seek to claim the Alamares’ land. When young Clarence Darrell falls in love with Mercedes Alamar, the stage is set for a conflict that blends the personal with the political.
A scathing critique of corporate capitalism, this story exposes the true historical plight of californios as their lands are taken away by a government with incestuous ties to the railroad monopoly—institutions laced with the greed and racism of nineteenth-century America’s expansionist agenda.
The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.
A fiercely partisan novel based on the author’s own experiences, The Squatter and the Don follows two families living near San Diego shortly after the United States’ annexation of the Alamares of the landed Mexican gentry, and the Darrells, the New Englanders who seek to claim the Alamares’ land. When young Clarence Darrell falls in love with Mercedes Alamar, the stage is set for a conflict that blends the personal with the political.
A scathing critique of corporate capitalism, this story exposes the true historical plight of californios as their lands are taken away by a government with incestuous ties to the railroad monopoly—institutions laced with the greed and racism of nineteenth-century America’s expansionist agenda.
The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1885
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
September 4, 2009
The first novel composed in English by a Mexican-American writer, The Squatter and the Don is to the Chicano/a literary movement a magisterial accomplishment, a must-read historical fiction about the blue-eyed Mexican aristocratic families who remained in the United States after — and were marginalized by the lackluster upholding of — the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty that ended the war with Mexico.
The author, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, sets her novel thirty or so years after the signing of the treaty in 1848, in the fledgling southern Californian town of San Diego (maybe you've heard of it?), home to the regal Mexican-American Alamar family. The Alamares are not the Mexicans you've encountered in western books and movies set at this time period: They are light-skinned, vigilantly polite and cosmopolitan. They hire French tutors for their children, and when they honeymoon in San Francisco, they attend operas in Italian. They sit in the box seats.
Don Mariano Alamar, the family's magnanimously open-minded patriarch, represents the last in a line of a family of Mexican aristocrats and the end of the now-forgotten era of dignified southern California rancho culture. It's no coincidence that "Alamar" sounds so much like "Alamo".
In their introduction, Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita invite us to read Ruiz de Burton's work on two levels, first as a piece of historical fiction, second as a traditional American romance. This is a smart move.
Here's why: The romance/adventure component of The Squatter and the Don is absolutely unmasterful. It is predictable, many of its (white) characters' motivations are unexplored, and — this is what had me retching — the anguished banter between the lovers is trite and maudlin. "Did you not say our wedding had better be postponed? And does that not mean that it may never, never be?" Clarence asks. His intended, the ravishing Mercedes, affirms her love, and he continues, "My own, my sweet wife. Oh! how dearly I love you! The strength of my love makes my heart ache."
Clarence's heart aches, and my stomach turns.
For all their talk about approaching this book "doubly", I suspect that Sánchez and Pita too are underwhelmed by Ruiz de Burton's invocation of American romantic conventions, although they do take advantage of the opportunity to compliment the author's use of an American literary tradition to not-so-favorably depict American cultural/political traditions — You know, you use the master's tools to dismantle the master's house, etc. Anyway, they devote forty-seven of the forty-eight pages in their introduction to The Squatter and the Don's utility as a history lesson and, in their words, an "acerbic critique" of the forces that solidified the Anglo-American foothold in southern California — at the expense of the "native" Spanish-speaking population.
Sánchez and Burton concoct several nifty charts, like this one which "schematize" the cultural and communal forces/tensions at play between the various characters in the novel. These tensions come to a head in the last third of the book, when Ruiz de Burton shifts focus from the Mexican-American/Anglo-American (don/squatter) dichotomy to the more nuanced struggle between the Mexican-American and Anglo-American San Diego residents, and the corrupt muckety-muck politicians who ravish San Diego from their Washington, D.C., offices.
That Ruiz de Burton intended her book to serve as a history lesson — or as a correction to history lessons that were already in the 1880s depicting as glorious the Anglo-American annexation of the savage California bush — is not debatable. She subtitles the book A Novel Descriptive of Contemporary Occurrences in California and gives a few of the chapters overtly historical-political names like "Chapter II: The Don's View of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo", "Chapter XVI: Spanish Land Grants Viewed Retrospectively", "Chapter XXXII: A False Friend Sent to Deceive the Southerners" and, my personal favorite, "Chapter XXXIV: The Sins of Our Legislators!". I've read other postbellum novels with similar political projects (Margaret Mitchell's stellar Gone With the Wind comes to mind) but never have I encountered a fiction that so bluntly skewers the legislators who fueled or were complicit with the laws that crippled communities that had the misfortune to fall below the Mason-Dixon line.
The final chapters of the book, in which the narrator and her characters both summon Herbert Spencer's and Thomas Carlyle's arguments in support of acting morally rather than selfishly, read less and less like a novel, more and more like a manifesto.
The voices of the characters who have been wronged by unjust federal legislation merge with the voice of Ruiz de Burton's vastly omniscient narrator until, in the final chapter, which is titled only "Conclusion", there is no mention of Don Mariano, or of Clarence and Mercedes Darrell. There is only the author's political and ethical condemnation of an America that allowed a greedy powerful few to drag into muddy poverty the whole of the hard-working well-educated Spanish-American Californian many.
Despite its imperfect (I'm being generous) literary style, I find The Squatter and the Don easy to endorse, particularly for its treatment of the so-called Mexican-American experience. My recommendation: Pay close attention to the introduction, revel in the speeches to and about the politicians who were bribed into opposing the expansion of the Texas-Pacific Railroad, and hold your nose whenever Clarence and Mercedes are alone in a room together.
The author, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, sets her novel thirty or so years after the signing of the treaty in 1848, in the fledgling southern Californian town of San Diego (maybe you've heard of it?), home to the regal Mexican-American Alamar family. The Alamares are not the Mexicans you've encountered in western books and movies set at this time period: They are light-skinned, vigilantly polite and cosmopolitan. They hire French tutors for their children, and when they honeymoon in San Francisco, they attend operas in Italian. They sit in the box seats.
Don Mariano Alamar, the family's magnanimously open-minded patriarch, represents the last in a line of a family of Mexican aristocrats and the end of the now-forgotten era of dignified southern California rancho culture. It's no coincidence that "Alamar" sounds so much like "Alamo".
In their introduction, Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita invite us to read Ruiz de Burton's work on two levels, first as a piece of historical fiction, second as a traditional American romance. This is a smart move.
Here's why: The romance/adventure component of The Squatter and the Don is absolutely unmasterful. It is predictable, many of its (white) characters' motivations are unexplored, and — this is what had me retching — the anguished banter between the lovers is trite and maudlin. "Did you not say our wedding had better be postponed? And does that not mean that it may never, never be?" Clarence asks. His intended, the ravishing Mercedes, affirms her love, and he continues, "My own, my sweet wife. Oh! how dearly I love you! The strength of my love makes my heart ache."
Clarence's heart aches, and my stomach turns.
For all their talk about approaching this book "doubly", I suspect that Sánchez and Pita too are underwhelmed by Ruiz de Burton's invocation of American romantic conventions, although they do take advantage of the opportunity to compliment the author's use of an American literary tradition to not-so-favorably depict American cultural/political traditions — You know, you use the master's tools to dismantle the master's house, etc. Anyway, they devote forty-seven of the forty-eight pages in their introduction to The Squatter and the Don's utility as a history lesson and, in their words, an "acerbic critique" of the forces that solidified the Anglo-American foothold in southern California — at the expense of the "native" Spanish-speaking population.
Sánchez and Burton concoct several nifty charts, like this one which "schematize" the cultural and communal forces/tensions at play between the various characters in the novel. These tensions come to a head in the last third of the book, when Ruiz de Burton shifts focus from the Mexican-American/Anglo-American (don/squatter) dichotomy to the more nuanced struggle between the Mexican-American and Anglo-American San Diego residents, and the corrupt muckety-muck politicians who ravish San Diego from their Washington, D.C., offices.
That Ruiz de Burton intended her book to serve as a history lesson — or as a correction to history lessons that were already in the 1880s depicting as glorious the Anglo-American annexation of the savage California bush — is not debatable. She subtitles the book A Novel Descriptive of Contemporary Occurrences in California and gives a few of the chapters overtly historical-political names like "Chapter II: The Don's View of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo", "Chapter XVI: Spanish Land Grants Viewed Retrospectively", "Chapter XXXII: A False Friend Sent to Deceive the Southerners" and, my personal favorite, "Chapter XXXIV: The Sins of Our Legislators!". I've read other postbellum novels with similar political projects (Margaret Mitchell's stellar Gone With the Wind comes to mind) but never have I encountered a fiction that so bluntly skewers the legislators who fueled or were complicit with the laws that crippled communities that had the misfortune to fall below the Mason-Dixon line.
The final chapters of the book, in which the narrator and her characters both summon Herbert Spencer's and Thomas Carlyle's arguments in support of acting morally rather than selfishly, read less and less like a novel, more and more like a manifesto.
The voices of the characters who have been wronged by unjust federal legislation merge with the voice of Ruiz de Burton's vastly omniscient narrator until, in the final chapter, which is titled only "Conclusion", there is no mention of Don Mariano, or of Clarence and Mercedes Darrell. There is only the author's political and ethical condemnation of an America that allowed a greedy powerful few to drag into muddy poverty the whole of the hard-working well-educated Spanish-American Californian many.
Despite its imperfect (I'm being generous) literary style, I find The Squatter and the Don easy to endorse, particularly for its treatment of the so-called Mexican-American experience. My recommendation: Pay close attention to the introduction, revel in the speeches to and about the politicians who were bribed into opposing the expansion of the Texas-Pacific Railroad, and hold your nose whenever Clarence and Mercedes are alone in a room together.
October 19, 2012
I always feel too bad about giving books 1 stars but this one was pretty close to getting only that. While the history of the book was interesting the storyline was just awful for me. The romance parts made me want to gag, I couldn't stand the character of Mercedes. It was just overall very hard for me to read this book I had to force myself to finish it, and honestly, if I didn't have to read this for class I most likely would have abandoned it half-way through. The last hundred pages read like a soap opera and I'm just glad it is over, it doesn't even get a proper review from me. But it's over on to something else now.
January 7, 2020
As a novel, The Squatter and the Don is terrible. But as a historical document of the living conditions for California natives during the 1800s, the text is eye opening. Plus, props to Burton for being the first (known) Mexican American writer.
November 24, 2011
The current scholarship on the writings of Maria Ampara Ruiz de Burton’s most recognized novel, The Squatter and the Don, is relatively thin. Available criticism often addresses the themes of nationalism and racism prevalent in Ruiz de Burton’s literary treatment of the political fallout that followed the 1848 American annexation of California from Mexico. While her novel is most notable for her stunning ability to portray the emotional and economic impact of dividing and resettling the Mexican ranchos during the decades that followed annexation, it is also remarkable for its value in exploring feminist issues during the literary period of Realism. The novel successfully grants an efficacious role to one of the female protagonists, Mrs. Mary (Moreneau) Darrell. In the character of Mary Darrell, Ruiz de Burton creates a woman who uses her maternal role for power and her marital role for influence. A heroine with such characteristics is often lacking in the introductory courses of Realism.
In a preliminary course concentrated on female writers of Realism, the student is most often, sometimes exclusively, exposed to the works of Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. They are excellent authors; however, their most influential works tend to portray the hopelessness of being a woman. At the conclusion of The House of Mirth, the still unmarried Lily becomes a social pariah and drug addict, only to die of an overdose. The unrepentant adulteress of The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, commits suicide by allowing herself to drown, ridding herself of both children and husband. The protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper” retains her life, but she collapses into insanity. If these three examples conclude a student’s introduction to women authors in the Realism period, then the student might speculate that the only means by which a woman had any power or influence over her own life during the late nineteenth century was through death or insanity. To temper these examples of negative extremism, the canon might welcome The Squatter and the Don for its example of a woman’s ability to effectively and deliberately utilize her domestic role. Mary Darrell neither commits suicide nor suffers from mental illness; rather, she intentionally manipulates her influence within the family to her advantage. Though her primary role in the novel is presented through her mother-son relationship with Clarence or her wife-husband relationship with William, Mary emerges as a woman fully capable of securing her own destiny without succumbing to psychological aberration.
In a preliminary course concentrated on female writers of Realism, the student is most often, sometimes exclusively, exposed to the works of Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. They are excellent authors; however, their most influential works tend to portray the hopelessness of being a woman. At the conclusion of The House of Mirth, the still unmarried Lily becomes a social pariah and drug addict, only to die of an overdose. The unrepentant adulteress of The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, commits suicide by allowing herself to drown, ridding herself of both children and husband. The protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper” retains her life, but she collapses into insanity. If these three examples conclude a student’s introduction to women authors in the Realism period, then the student might speculate that the only means by which a woman had any power or influence over her own life during the late nineteenth century was through death or insanity. To temper these examples of negative extremism, the canon might welcome The Squatter and the Don for its example of a woman’s ability to effectively and deliberately utilize her domestic role. Mary Darrell neither commits suicide nor suffers from mental illness; rather, she intentionally manipulates her influence within the family to her advantage. Though her primary role in the novel is presented through her mother-son relationship with Clarence or her wife-husband relationship with William, Mary emerges as a woman fully capable of securing her own destiny without succumbing to psychological aberration.
April 7, 2023
there are some really great critiques of capitalism and monopolies in this work that get completely undermined by the fact that the author is actually classist af and is only mad about it because her own wealth was diminished. also! emphasizing pale skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair as a way to "legitimize" your characters and gain sympathy for them is... no. meanwhile, the single black character is a mammy caricature and the ACTUAL natives of California are regularly called lazy savages. not a great look tbh.
November 7, 2023
ruiz de burton will be like "US white anglo settler/squatter treatment of californios(/mexican-americans/whatever term you'd like to use) post-annexation was unjust and racist! congress does not have the best interests of the american people at heart! death to railroad monopolists!" and you'll be nodding along and then she'll follow it up with "so the solution to all of these problems is for white-passing californios who are historically rich in land to marry/otherwise join forces with anglo settlers who are newly rich in capital so we can BOTH consolidate our positions at the top of the emerging economic hierarchy of california and never develop any sense of solidarity with those in our society who are truly ostracized by their race and class" and you're like... okay wait no and how did we get here.
so. obviously this is an "it's easy to condemn from our vantage point in history- and we do condemn, wholeheartedly" moment, but precisely because of that, it is a fascinating portrait of this moment in california history from a very specific perspective. i was engaged. i was intrigued. and like, yes, the characters are pretty much all symbolic stand-ins for entire groups of people, but i still enjoyed their interpersonal drama- reading this at 2am because i couldn't sleep was a high point of last week. i was at the perfect stage of delirium to find clarence and mercedes' romance, for example, so ridiculous and fun.
so. obviously this is an "it's easy to condemn from our vantage point in history- and we do condemn, wholeheartedly" moment, but precisely because of that, it is a fascinating portrait of this moment in california history from a very specific perspective. i was engaged. i was intrigued. and like, yes, the characters are pretty much all symbolic stand-ins for entire groups of people, but i still enjoyed their interpersonal drama- reading this at 2am because i couldn't sleep was a high point of last week. i was at the perfect stage of delirium to find clarence and mercedes' romance, for example, so ridiculous and fun.
April 9, 2010
Absolute misery to read-- never read this poshlost! I wish there was a no star option!
February 10, 2022
Very interesting, reminds me of uncle toms cabin in its language and plot style, more focus on morality rather than religion. Got romeo and juliet vibes at times, authors back then were really just writing anything…
Kinda analyzes how racial structures between Mexican American settlers, Native Americans, and enslaved Black people are created in this 19th century. I wish American high school education covered more of Mexican American struggles in the west, understanding the development of racial structures reveals a lot about socially constructed aspects of race.
Kinda analyzes how racial structures between Mexican American settlers, Native Americans, and enslaved Black people are created in this 19th century. I wish American high school education covered more of Mexican American struggles in the west, understanding the development of racial structures reveals a lot about socially constructed aspects of race.
April 7, 2024
this was way longer than it needed to be. And way too much time was spent on railroad politics. The only train I care about is Thomas the Tank Engine so please stop trying to get me to care about this
September 8, 2023
Read this book for Hispanic Heritage Month and I was not disappointed. It provides informative information about how squatter rights started or were present during those times. Although I don’t like the idea that someone can claim land or even a house just by stating it’s their’s now and making individuals go through all this whole legal process is just absurd. This law is still very much present now too. Overall such a great book to read.
April 23, 2008
This novel was assigned to me one year for an American Literature class. It was a bit difficult to get into, but it is a good story of how Americans stole land from Hispanics during the Gold-Rush era. The novel discusses the lives of an Hispanic family and an American family and how their lives differ, even though their lives are intertwined.
September 18, 2023
Romance amid corruption
Well written novel unmasking the injustice perpetrated against not only the Mexican American population but also the settlers of California by the railroad monopolies during the late 19th Century. Follows the storylines of several families and their interactions around the area of present day San Diego.
Well written novel unmasking the injustice perpetrated against not only the Mexican American population but also the settlers of California by the railroad monopolies during the late 19th Century. Follows the storylines of several families and their interactions around the area of present day San Diego.
November 25, 2018
Very nice story about Californios. I was assigned to read this for a Chicano literature class and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. The book is full of clever metaphors and is full of captivating characters.
September 16, 2019
Must read for understanding many of the roots of injustices to Californios in the 1800s. Rather classist based, but I really enjoyed this and could relate to the themes of loss, of assimilation, of acculturation and more
November 1, 2018
Ok, so this was not the most riveting read. The author missed some great opportunities for drama and Forbidden Love. Don Mariano's family and the squatter family somehow are instantly friends and their sons and daughters start marrying each other almost immediately...everything is very proper. I.e. dulllllllllllllllllllllllll.
But it IS interesting from the standpoint that it is a book written by a Hispanic woman in the late 1800s that criticizes politics and race issues. To a point. She didn't appreciate the way the new white American settlers treated the Hispanics, though ironically she still had her own awful prejudices against the Indians, from whom the Spanish stole the California lands from in the first place... Karma, baby.
It also gives an insider's perspective from a kind of obscure point in American history, which I was curious about.
But it IS interesting from the standpoint that it is a book written by a Hispanic woman in the late 1800s that criticizes politics and race issues. To a point. She didn't appreciate the way the new white American settlers treated the Hispanics, though ironically she still had her own awful prejudices against the Indians, from whom the Spanish stole the California lands from in the first place... Karma, baby.
It also gives an insider's perspective from a kind of obscure point in American history, which I was curious about.
October 3, 2021
Was not a fan of this book. I absolutely hated the romance between Clarence and Mercedes It was just so outlandish and the infantilization of Mercedes was gross. The squatter parts were better, but still pretty annoying. I had gone into the narrative thinking that it was going to present both the squatters and the native Californians in a sympathetic light, but this was not the case at all. The squatters were just actively horrible people. Yet Don Mariano kept saying that he didn't blame them, he blamed the government, but like... no, they were monsters. Blame them and the government.
Complaints aside though, it was quite depressing how the majority of governmental issues discussed at the end of the novel are still present today. The novel itself wasn't very good, but Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton seemed to be pretty in tune with the social issues of the time.
Complaints aside though, it was quite depressing how the majority of governmental issues discussed at the end of the novel are still present today. The novel itself wasn't very good, but Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton seemed to be pretty in tune with the social issues of the time.
September 6, 2023
An Absorbing and Informative Read ...
... told from the perspective of two families of different cultural heritages. One of the members of the so-called settlers (squatters in fact) who are interloping onto land owned by one of the original families in the area now known to us as San Diego County approaches the patriarch of the family who was given the land through an original Spanish land grant. The patriarch, Don Mariano, allows him to purchase the parcel that the young man's family has already built a house on. In the meantime both parties are hoping that the U.S. Congress will consider the Spanish land grants valid.
Conflicts between the American young man (Clarence) and his father as well as other squatters arise. Also a romance develops between Clarence and Don Marciano's youngest daughter -- just to further complicate matters.
... told from the perspective of two families of different cultural heritages. One of the members of the so-called settlers (squatters in fact) who are interloping onto land owned by one of the original families in the area now known to us as San Diego County approaches the patriarch of the family who was given the land through an original Spanish land grant. The patriarch, Don Mariano, allows him to purchase the parcel that the young man's family has already built a house on. In the meantime both parties are hoping that the U.S. Congress will consider the Spanish land grants valid.
Conflicts between the American young man (Clarence) and his father as well as other squatters arise. Also a romance develops between Clarence and Don Marciano's youngest daughter -- just to further complicate matters.
November 29, 2023
I read this novel for as part of a reading assignment for a history class I'm taking. It was very interesting to see how the lives of people who where natives to California were affected when California became part of the U.S.A.
I gave it 3 stars because it's not my favorite genre. But it was insightful when in comes to women in history, which is what the main subject of the history class I'm taking.
I'm glad my professor assigned this book for the class. Otherwise I don't think I would have known about it.
It takes place in the late 1880s. Cities mentioned in the novel, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Oakland(almost at the end)Alameda. And as the tittle says, squatters are.part of this story, which greatly affect Don Mariano and his family. And his land and cattle.
I gave it 3 stars because it's not my favorite genre. But it was insightful when in comes to women in history, which is what the main subject of the history class I'm taking.
I'm glad my professor assigned this book for the class. Otherwise I don't think I would have known about it.
It takes place in the late 1880s. Cities mentioned in the novel, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Oakland(almost at the end)Alameda. And as the tittle says, squatters are.part of this story, which greatly affect Don Mariano and his family. And his land and cattle.
January 17, 2024
What an interesting book. The author was the first Latina to write in English about the plight of Mexican American Californios after the state was annexed to the US. It is partially a romance (several marriages take place and unite three families). But its interest lies in the history conveyed. It is a blistering condemnation of politics in California and the US Congress, as witnessed by the treatment of the land-holding Mexican Americans, the bribery and extortion that impeded development in southern California and gave power and monopolies to select individuals and their cronies. Despite being an 1885 book, it is very readable.
March 14, 2019
Interesting historically. Terrible in reading. Boring, dull characters. You can tell the author has a lot to say politically, and I suppose the characters work as allegory, but not for 300+ pages. I’m mostly just relieved it’s over. Big yikes at the descriptions of African Americans and Native Americans, and the emphasis on the whiteness/blue eyes of Mercedes. I’m glad I read it, I suppose, but I’d rather point someone in the direction of a history textbook. It would read the same without the clunky bits.
September 28, 2023
Not all that interesting but...
it's still probably an important book. The Squatter and the Don tells the perspective of disenfranchised characters in the late 19th century that often goes overlooked and underappreciated nowadays, though the book's message is still relevant to today. My only issue was with the writing style, but that's more on me not really liking 19th century realism and exposition (found it kinda boring).
it's still probably an important book. The Squatter and the Don tells the perspective of disenfranchised characters in the late 19th century that often goes overlooked and underappreciated nowadays, though the book's message is still relevant to today. My only issue was with the writing style, but that's more on me not really liking 19th century realism and exposition (found it kinda boring).
January 17, 2025
Highly Recommended Reading
This was truly an exceptional novel. It delves into social issues of the 1870s so thoroughly and richly. The tension between Mexican landowners and American squatters in California was not something I knew anything about prior to reading this book. Ruiz de Burton captures brilliantly the frustrations of the period at both the individual level and at the institutional level.
This was truly an exceptional novel. It delves into social issues of the 1870s so thoroughly and richly. The tension between Mexican landowners and American squatters in California was not something I knew anything about prior to reading this book. Ruiz de Burton captures brilliantly the frustrations of the period at both the individual level and at the institutional level.
April 14, 2025
Read for school.
This was a slog to read, it was long and hard to intake but the story was really good and I kept being interested in what was going to happen next. I loved the western aspect, talking shit on the government, learning about the homestead act in a more serious way, and everything to do with the Alamares. A little too much romance that I didn’t care about that took up too much of the book which is why I have to give it 3 stars.
This was a slog to read, it was long and hard to intake but the story was really good and I kept being interested in what was going to happen next. I loved the western aspect, talking shit on the government, learning about the homestead act in a more serious way, and everything to do with the Alamares. A little too much romance that I didn’t care about that took up too much of the book which is why I have to give it 3 stars.
June 21, 2017
This novel brings together a number of interesting themes and topics: conflict between Californios and Anglos, changes in land use, railway expansion, racism, manifest destiny, government corruption. That's great. Unfortunately, it doesn't do so with a whole lot of tact, and the sentimental romance aspect of the novel often takes up more space than one would like.
February 4, 2023
for the historical context and moral arguments about america’s naked expansionism in the wake of taking california from mexico, the writing is impassioned and clear. the vehicle of a “romeo and juliet” style romances between members of american and californian families was a bit much to stomach — it all felt like a ridiculously overacted pantomime.
October 17, 2023
THE SQUATTER AND THE DON
MARIA AMPARO RUIZ DE BURTON GIVES THE CULMINATION OF THE CALIFORNIA DESTINY IN HER CLASSIC TREATISE THE SQUATTER AND THE DON. IN CALIFORNIA, THERE EXISTS THE TEXAS PACIFIC RAILROAD AND PERSONS WHO SEEM TO KNOW WHY IT IS OPERATIONAL TO OTHERS WHO DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT.
MARIA AMPARO RUIZ DE BURTON GIVES THE CULMINATION OF THE CALIFORNIA DESTINY IN HER CLASSIC TREATISE THE SQUATTER AND THE DON. IN CALIFORNIA, THERE EXISTS THE TEXAS PACIFIC RAILROAD AND PERSONS WHO SEEM TO KNOW WHY IT IS OPERATIONAL TO OTHERS WHO DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT.
September 7, 2023
Far too many unknown players in history
I love history and there are many unknown players of what makes this country so vast. I wish this was a book in school so Today's kids about it!
I love history and there are many unknown players of what makes this country so vast. I wish this was a book in school so Today's kids about it!
April 26, 2024
Kind of interesting. Falls into the social reform movement of the 1800s. Not amazing as far a literature, but an important part of CA history to learn about from the POV of the Mexican land owners and the Americans who wanted the land after the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo in 1848.
Read
April 27, 2020read for school
November 25, 2020
I mean--there was certainly a lot of fainting around the end.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews