Decline of the Californios - by Leonard Pitt (Paperback)

About the Book

""Decline of the Californios" is one of those rare works that first gained fame for its pathbreaking and original nature, but which now maintains its status as a classic of California and ethnic history."--Douglas Monroy, author of "Thrown among Strangers"

Book Synopsis

In his enduring study of Spanish-speaking Californians--a group that includes both native-born Californians, or Californios, and immigrants from Mexico--Leonard Pitt charts one of the earliest chapters in the state's ethnic history, and, in the process, he sheds light on debates and tensions that continue to this day. In a new foreword for this edition, Ramón A. Gutiérrez discusses the shaping and reception of the book and also views this classic work in light of recent scholarship on California and ethnic history.

From the Back Cover

"Decline of the Californios is one of those rare works that first gained fame for its pathbreaking and original nature, but which now maintains its status as a classic of California and ethnic history."--Douglas Monroy, author of Thrown among Strangers

Review Quotes

"Focuses on the circumstances that caused the native-born Californians, or Californios, to lose numerical supremacy, land, political influence, and cultural dominance, and become a disadvantaged social group. It is the story of the decline but no less of the . . . perseverance of a subgroup which in the twentieth century was transformed into the largest minority in the Far West--the Mexican-Americans."--"Choice

About the Author

Leonard Pitt is Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Northridge. He is the coauthor, with Dale Pitt, of Los Angeles A to Z: An Encyclopedia (1997). Ramón A. Gutiérrez is Associate Chancellor and Professor of Ethnic Studies and History at the University of California, San Diego, and is coeditor of Contested Eden: California before the Gold Rush (California, 1998).