Monroy, Douglas. Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. 1993. 337p.
In Thrown Among Strangers, Douglas Monroy strives to present a more complete history of California to the reader than just the simple missions and Indians concept until recently taught within the California school system. Historically, the story of Europeans in California, Spanish in California, Indians in California and Mexicans in California were told as separate allegories. Monroy, through the writing of this book attempts to picture the California Diaspora with a validation emphasis on the acknowledgement of Chicano history within California.
California history is, at best, subjective to the viewpoints of those recording the history. Reading a Spanish historical account reveals a different California than reading an Indian account or a Mexican account. Thusly, there are many different California stories and putting them together in a definitive way is a job of epic proportion but historical relevance. The thread that emerges when Monroy attempts this as a historical scholar is one of people thrown among strangers for the purpose of labor demands or religious proselyzation. Following upon this thread, one may illustrate exactly how cultural and historical changes take place, view the changes occurring by the interaction among the people's undergoing the change, changes that may be conflictual, adaptive or even lethal.
Monroy is able to paint us a wonderful picture of pre-1700's life in California. By learning that the Spanish were not evil controlling monsters, nor were the Indians nanve pliable fools Monroy brings us to an understanding of the many reasons why the people (indigenous or immigrant) acted in the manner they did. In this way it is foreseeable that violence among the cultures was inevitable. The nice point about the book's presenta...