Thank you to Suzanne Adair for inviting me as a guest on her blog Relevant History.

Issues at the forefront of the news today—immigration and race, religion, and the treatment of women—were also important factors that, in 1775, helped shape the future of California and even the United States.

Approximately 240 colonists joined the expedition from Mexico to California.

In the blog post, I discuss these issues in the context of a colonization expedition in 1775–1776 from Mexico to California led by Juan Bautista de Anza, which is the setting for my novel Yakimali’s Gift.

You can read my blog post here. Enjoy!