Summary Of Married To The Daughter Of The Land By Raquel Casas

California, the golden state, a state where minorities are majorities. California a melting pot of interracial couples and children. In the year 2016, it is not rare to see couples of different race together. However, before the 20th century inter-racial relationships were a major deal in California society. In Raquel Casas’s book, Married to the Daughter of the Land, Casas gives a deeper understanding of interracial marriages between Americans and Californianas. In the beginning of Raquel Casas book, she gives a historical context as to why Mexicans and Americans would engage in relations. When the Spanish conquered the new world, they classified indigenous women “daughters of the land”, However by the 19th century in California the term …show more content…
Casas writes about the life of Concepcion Arguello and Apolinaria Lorenza. Both of these women denied the idea of marriage due to economic uncertainties. Since neither of them married life was quite difficult for both. Apolinaria was young, she had to fend for herself taking part of both the home and labor work. Her life was filled with uncertainties when it came to providing a place for her to live. Concepcion on the other hand was already an elderly women, which made her life to an extent easier for her since she was taken care of economically. Married Califronianas lived a different life from both Concepcion and Apolinaria. Casas explains that “what to Euro-Americans seemed as an obvious waste of money was to Californianos an obvious mean of maintaining social and class norms”(ch.5). Since Euro-Americans began to demonstrate their own lavish belongings, Californianas especially had an obsessive behavior with how they dressed because their Euro-American husbands were able to afford such luxury. Casas provides the example of Maria Guadalupe Zamorano, Zamorano was fourteen when she married a forty-four year old Englishman by the name of Henry Dalton in 1847. After Zamorano’s parents had died she chose a wealthy husband who would be able to take care of her. After her wedding to Dalton, she ordered $626 worth of fine clothing and expensive furniture from England. This marriage worked for both parties because …show more content…
Casas use of facts and life stories from women in the 19th century provides a clear image of how relations between Spanish/Mexicans and Euro-Americans went from an initial peace to a melting pot of interethnic people in