The Scholarship That Informed the Student Quest: Lincoln, Californio Miners, and Tejano Students

David Hayes-Bautista presents the findings of his book, notably the support of Californios for the Union cause in California. It would seem unlikely that the very same Californios who had scored the only victories in the U.S.-Mexican War against the invading U.S. Army only 15 years before would then rally to the U.S. flag, particularly given the abuses they had suffered since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had ceded California to the United States. The main answer lies in the Californios’ solidarity with President Lincoln as a champion of the Republics of the Americas against threats posed by Confederates and Imperialists alike. The book also underscores the high price that Mexican Americans paid for solidarity with Lincoln and the Union, including a march across Death Valley in the summer and the price he himself paid for publishing a history of Latinos’ merit as Americans in the mid-nineteenth century. Finally, Hayes-Bautista shares with the audience his own outreach to the public: timing publication of the book with the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Puebla, early outreach to Western history museums, broadcasting of those presentations on podcasts, culminating most recently in a presentation in Washington, D.C., on Lincoln’s birthday at the invitation of MOLLUS