This Land Was Mexican Once

<p>The territory of Napa County California contains more than grapevines. The deepest roots belong to Wappo-speaking peoples a group whose history has since been buried by the stories of Spanish colonizers Californios (today's Latinos) African Americans Chinese immigrants and Euro Americans. Napa's history clearly is one of co-existence; yet its schoolbooks tell a linear story that climaxes with the arrival of Euro Americans. In <i>This Land was Mexican Once</i> Linda Heidenreich excavates Napa's subaltern voices and histories to tell a complex textured local history with important implications for the larger American West as well.</p> <p>Heidenreich is part of a new generation of scholars who are challenging not only the old Euro-American depiction of California but also the linear method of historical storytelling-a method that inevitably favors the last man writing. She first maps the overlapping histories that comprise Napa's past then examines how the current version came to dominate-or even erase-earlier events. So while history in Heidenreich's words may be the stuff of nation-building it can also be the stuff of resistance. Chapters are interspersed with source breaks-raw primary sources that speak for themselves and interrupt the linear Euro-American telling of Napa's history. Such an inclusive approach inherently acknowledges the connections Napa's peoples have to the rest of the region for the linear history that marginalizes minorities is not unique to Napa. Latinos for instance have populated the American West for centuries and are still shaping its future. In the end <i>This Land was Mexican Once</i> is more than the story of Napa it is a multidimensional model for reflecting a multicultural past.</p>