Beyond the Devil's Road - (Before Gold: California Under Spain and Mexico) by Jeremy Beer (Hardcover)
About this item
Highlights
- The explorations of Francisco Garcés, an intrepid Franciscan friar of the eighteenth century, led to the opening of the first overland route from Mexico to California, produced new knowledge of unmapped terrain and unknown peoples, and revived dreams of Spanish imperial expansion.
- Author(s): Jeremy Beer
- 474 Pages
- History, United States
- Series Name: Before Gold: California Under Spain and Mexico
Description
About the Book
"The explorations of Francisco Garcâes, an intrepid Franciscan friar of the eighteenth century, led to the opening of the first overland route from Mexico to California, produced new knowledge of unmapped terrain and unknown peoples, and revived dreams of Spanish imperial expansion. Beyond the Devil's Road tells, for the first time, the full story of this extraordinary man's epic life and journey and his critical place in the history of the American Southwest. From the moment he took up residence at the lonely mission of San Xavier del Bac in 1768, Garcâes stood out among his fellow Spaniards for both the affection he showed the region's Native peoples and his bravery. Traveling thousands of miles through modern Arizona, California, and Nevada to gather information for his superiors and preach to the unbaptized, he engaged the Indians of the Southwest with a respect for their ways and customs unprecedented among his peers, presaging a new-and better-model for cultural encounters. Along the way, he contacted more Indigenous groups than any other missionary of his time, often as the first European to do so. Garcâes also paved the way and served as a guide for the famous expeditions of Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774 and 1775-76, bringing the first Spanish settlers to California-before the road he'd helped to open led to his death in the Quechan uprising of 1781. Consulting archives on three continents, including previously untapped sources and Garcâes's extensive diaries and letters, long obscured by unyielding language and handwriting, Beer crafts a nuanced and thoroughly engaging account of this incomparable explorer, groundbreaking missionary, and central actor in New Spain's final sustained effort to expand its dominion into the lands that would become the American Southwest."--Book Synopsis
The explorations of Francisco Garcés, an intrepid Franciscan friar of the eighteenth century, led to the opening of the first overland route from Mexico to California, produced new knowledge of unmapped terrain and unknown peoples, and revived dreams of Spanish imperial expansion. Beyond the Devil's Road tells, for the first time, the full story of this extraordinary man's epic life and journey and his critical place in the history of the American Southwest.
From the moment he took up residence at the lonely mission of San Xavier del Bac in 1768, Garcés stood out among his fellow Spaniards for both the affection he showed the region's Native peoples and his bravery. Traveling thousands of miles through modern Arizona, California, and Nevada to gather information for his superiors and preach to the unbaptized, he engaged the Indians of the Southwest with a respect for their ways and customs unprecedented among his peers, presaging a new-and better-model for cultural encounters. Along the way, he contacted more Indigenous groups than any other missionary of his time, often as the first European to do so. Garcés also paved the way and served as a guide for the famous expeditions of Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774 and 1775-76, bringing the first Spanish settlers to California-before the road he'd helped to open led to his death in the Quechan uprising of 1781.
Consulting archives on three continents, including previously untapped sources and Garcés's extensive diaries and letters, long obscured by unyielding language and handwriting, Beer crafts a nuanced and thoroughly engaging account of this incomparable explorer, groundbreaking missionary, and central actor in New Spain's final sustained effort to expand its dominion into the lands that would become the American Southwest.
Review Quotes
"Jeremy Beer's deeply researched and beautifully evocative study revolves around the impressive deeds of a too-little-known Spanish Franciscan, the friar and missionary Francisco Garcés. Readers who assume that all accounts of Spanish missionary efforts are tales of domination and cruelty toward native populations will find in the story of saintly Garcés and his interactions with the indigenous peoples of the Sonoran Desert a powerful challenge to their expectations." -- Wilfred McClay, Professor of History, Hillsdale College and author of Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story
"El Camino del Diablo, a path some likened to hell on earth, was a challenge few dared to face. In Beyond the Devil's Road, Jeremy Beer presents a unique perspective on the trailblazer Fray Francisco Garcés, among the first Europeans to embark on the epic journey. Drawing on anthropology, ethnohistory, history, and archival sources, Beer weaves a vivid narrative of Euro-Indigenous encounters along the Devil's Road and beyond. This is a tale of survival, beautifully told."--David Rex Galindo, author of To Sin No More: Franciscans and Conversion in the Hispanic World, 1683-1830
"With incisive research and compelling prose, Jeremy Beer puts friar Francisco Garcés in his rightful place as one of the greatest explorers of western North America."--Andrés Reséndez, author of A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca