Paul Bryan Gray

During 1873 a jury trial took place in San Diego to decide whether Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, had been the victim of a fraud by his brother-in-law, John Forster.Pico claimed title to the huge Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores land grant in southern California, located approximately 208 square miles north of San Diego on the California coastline, and today occupied by Camp Pendleton.Pico's battle to retain that grant in the face of formidable legal challenges from John Forster and others, provides an absorbing view of California during its transitional era and Americanization.The introductory chapters are a sweeping view of early California history with an account of the important roles the Pico family and John Forster played in it. Based on meticulous research, including many records, letters, and photographs never before published, the intimate lives and foibles of some of California's most colorful historical figures are examined in unprecedented detail.After a full description of the trial, a definitive analysis of the evidence is given which proves that the controversial verdict should have been different. The underlying circumstances and motives of the struggle between Forster and Pico are fully explained.

A dramatic response to American racism occurred in Los Angeles during 1855 when eighteen-year-old Francisco P. Ramírez published a Spanish-language newspaper, El Clamor Público. Ramírez called upon a Mexican American majority to seize control of their destiny by electing themselves to public office.Ramírez was a radical liberal in a town controlled by white conservative Southerners with antebellum values. Nevertheless, from 1855 to 1859, he railed against slavery and ridiculed those in Los Angeles who supported it. His demands for Mexican equality, the abolition of slavery, free elections, and education for women were well ahead of his time. He was the first civil rights activist in Los Angeles. In December 1859 El Clamor Público bankrupted for lack of popular support. For three decades afterward Ramírez was involved in every major political and social movement of his day. He continued to champion equality and civil rights as a San Francisco newspaper editor and the only Mexican American lawyer in Los Angeles.

During 1873 a jury trial took place in San Diego to decide whether Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, had been the victim of a fraud by his brother-in-law, John Forster.Pico claimed title to the huge Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores land grant in southern California, located approximately 208 square miles north of San Diego on the California coastline, and today occupied by Camp Pendleton.Pico's battle to retain that grant in the face of formidable legal challenges from John Forster and others, provides an absorbing view of California during its transitional era and Americanization.The introductory chapters are a sweeping view of early California history with an account of the important roles the Pico family and John Forster played in it. Based on meticulous research, including many records, letters, and photographs never before published, the intimate lives and foibles of some of California's most colorful historical figures are examined in unprecedented detail.After a full description of the trial, a definitive analysis of the evidence is given which proves that the controversial verdict should have been different. The underlying circumstances and motives of the struggle between Forster and Pico are fully explained.