Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir

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Sources Permissions and Images The following images were supplied courtesy of the author: cover photo of Deborah Miranda; Madgel Miranda and Alfred Miranda; Madgel Miranda, Deborah Miranda, and Alfred Miranda; Genealogy of Violence; Deborah Miranda fourth grade picture; Deby’s mission; Thomas Miranda at Mission San Miguel; Witness to Mark of Isabel Meadows; “A Few Corrections to My Daughter’s Coloring Book,” based on California Missions, Spizzirri Publishing; “Mission <strong>Indians</strong> of Southern California Making Baskets and Hair Ropes,” by Paul Frenzeny (originally appeared in Harper’s Weekly 22, no. 20 (October 1877); mission register, baptism of Tomas Santos Miranda; María Inés (Agnes) García; Tomás Santos Miranda; Carmel Indian gathering; Tom Miranda Sr., Al Miranda Sr., and Al Miranda Jr.; Guadalupe Robles and José Robles; Thomas Anthony Miranda as a young man; Tom Miranda,
dandy; Al Miranda, Keta Miranda, and Tommy Miranda Jr.; Alfred Edward Miranda portrait; Al Miranda in the garden; Al Miranda goofing off in the kitchen; “Power,” Al Miranda Jr. and Deborah Miranda; “Protection,” Al Miranda Jr. and Deborah Miranda; “Seattle Center,” Al Miranda Jr. and Deborah Miranda; “Before the Concert,” Al Miranda Jr. and Deborah Miranda; “Santa Monica Beach,” Alfred E. Miranda and Deborah Miranda. Glossary, Fig. 1, Adobe Bricks: “Padre Directing Mission <strong>Indians</strong> to Build,” from Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Juan Capistrano Mission: scan courtesy of Pentacle Press. Glossary, Fig. 3, Bells: “El Camino Real” mission bell drawing from Mrs. A.S.C. Forbes, California Missions and Landmarks: El Camino Real. Glossary, Fig. 4, Discipline: “The administrator of the royal mines punishes the native lords with great cruelty…in the mines,” from Nueva crónica y buen gobierno (drawing 211) by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. Glossary, Fig. 5, Flogging: “Notebooks of Tonayuca, drawing by a Native artist, Mexico, c. 1567. Courtesy of the Granger Collection, NYC.
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© 2013 by Deborah A. Miranda All r
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P.O. Box 9145, Berkeley, CA 94709 (
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Table of Contents Title Page Copyri
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Chairwoman, Ohlone/Costanoan-Essele
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DeAnna Rivera, Wendy Teeters, Kimbe
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Introduction California Is a Story
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heels and tight dresses. She’d tr
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Theirs was the kind of desire that
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ut who are we, when we have survive
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the way Tonto spoke if you wanted t
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as a truth. As a whole. Even if the
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South while simultaneously requirin
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those giant dioramas behind glass),
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video project must have been a lot
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where voices can speak after long a
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Los Pájaros based on writings by J
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ut the women were caught with Spani
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When arrows were raining everywhere
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Deby Miranda, fourth grade picture
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Tell them to dig a big round basin
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Mission San Miguel campanario, circ
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lusty songs out beyond the padres
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Discipline Due to their animal-like
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customs.” Luckily, the Spaniards
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Also known in Spanish as azotes (st
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striking force. The whips might be
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Wooden club used to strike quickly;
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tuned-up souls. These reconditioned
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grandchildren, was never legally an
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Padre Figure 11. Franciscan mission
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we were his beloved and abused floc
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Dear Vicenta
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Well, I shouldn’t complain. Those
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Vicenta, I keep thinking of how you
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Mission to the chapel in Monterey,
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Not conquered. Nimasianexelpasaleki
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Meadows knew she was a valuable res
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sacred, and we have a right to spea
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Isabel Mar. [19]37 understands “j
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amongst the men, passed as just men
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seek every kind of way to feed them
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his plump arm, swung him around acr
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Bridges: Secularization Post- 1836-
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Wear their heavy aprons, high-necke
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Ularia’s Curse “Pero la maldici
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“Will you miss us, River?” she
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and Santa Clara, and as editor of t
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From The Argonauts of ’Forty-nine
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or near the goldfields in ’49, sh
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In 1857 the California State Legisl
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So when I see this woman’s image,
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Exorbitant amounts of money are mad
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Ms. Hawthorne shared that this phot
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have so many questions. What kind o
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as humiliating and opprobrious. It
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face. Oh let black smoke rise above
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ecognizable. Old News 1. It is diff
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with great desperation. 2. Sacramen
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3. San Francisco Bulletin, January
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killed one Indian, wounded several
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Jacinta’s Medicine Jacinta Gonzal
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They pierce the body like knives, l
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including my great-grandfather Tom
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If there was a connection to the mi
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in Monterey, was working to raise i
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Fr. Casanova’s Mass at Carmel, 18
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Mission register, baptism of Tomás
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María Inés García, probably on h
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Tomás Santos Miranda died in 1943.
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clearly were meant to keep rabbits
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a cookout. It reminds me of how my
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to turn tail and run for the hills.
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His hands—or rather, the one hand
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In 1877 it had been 107 years since
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through the infinite varieties of C
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yet still have an identity and comm
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Jr., circa 1981 I want Tom’s voic
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Also beneath the surface of this st
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a hell of a—he said, “I’m goi
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and of course, since he was old, hi
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stealing horses, drinking, and caro
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José Robles, circa 1879 Recently,
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would clear up and the air was clea
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“Well then, I can’t tell you ve
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two. I took my first drink when I l
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He Told Me, “Have You Ever Been i
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He says, “How high do you want to
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play cards all the time, but I didn
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I says, “You’re Slavonian, aren
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One morning George came up to the h
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I thought, “All these bastards ha
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The government can do some funny th
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never heard anything, Dad. They had
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out behind the church instead of as
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flogging in silence; oh renowned Yo
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dark civilization we endure. Teach
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though. I have arranged to talk to
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gangrene of the leg. I immediately
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ecord. 3. The ulcer on Juan’s leg
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John Peabody Harrington, April 29,
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Teheyapami Home Achiska: 1961-Prese
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luminous in the dark air, she is hu
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to me for that easy solution. My fa
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My lips are pressed so tightly toge
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But Buddy kisses my mama in a way t
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earth, bruised. And after my family
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What if it doesn’t kill him, what
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unwrapped, coming loose, unleashed
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kitchen knife—from my house, ride
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cost, but doesn’t transform. I fi
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want, though. Innocence; the almost
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calluses formed on my fingers from
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safe in Mommer’s kitchen. The pin
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In that cusp of time on the mountai
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disappearance at every turn. If I
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I am of the seventh generation sinc
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Eventually the woman who gave birth
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stalks were watered generously each
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around the gopher traps she’d wat
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asked, pointing to two girls runnin
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about the girl without a mother, th
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oom several times in an hour to wra
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After a second he asks, “Is this
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times” without success. I know he
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walked the woods and pastures toget
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ear-view mirror as he saw that conc
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where it floated around for decades
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of arms and legs, mind and humor, h
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design together, complement the sha
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uried their subversive tongues. Now
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I try to write all this down, but w
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And he saith unto them, Follow me,
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to apply that first year. After all
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of Life does not—cannot—teach C
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ut not over here, and secret techni
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Breath of Life tribe, located in th
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never occurred to any of us that Da
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want to use, the work of language r
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Mantuxite, mantuxite, It is true, i
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tourists, carry our ancestors out t
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Do you remember us? Do we look like
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of lumber, my father made bunk beds
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My father was pleased when I progre
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My father liked to cook. He was ver
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Sitting down to eat a meal cooked a
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steady carpentry jobs right from th
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uneven circles, slung them one by o
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lack coffee that he’ll let himsel
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My father, however, had one piece o
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Power: Al Miranda Jr. and Deborah M
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undemanding, gentle if withdrawn. B
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tolerate bed-wetting, for example,
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I remember Little Al trying to cove
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I knelt down and pulled the soaking
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kept moving. It was the drinking, i
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“Is Al Miranda there? Midge Miran
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Alcohol worked on him like an evil
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even changed her surname to Ramirez
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eucalyptus trees, dust, and sweat.
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leather belt from his waist, doubli
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That was the first time I really un
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very end, our father was alone. Al
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one, take a breath, swim to the nex
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I need a song with guts. I need a s
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“I have substantial evidence that
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pair of socks in Southern Californi
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green suitcase up and over curbs an
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Page 345 and 346: He risked a quick glance up at her
Page 347 and 348: Just as he straightened fully, suit
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Page 353 and 354: (see the sample report to learn the
Page 355 and 356: Mission Project Worksheet Name ____
Page 357 and 358: Please, parents, try to refrain fro
Page 359 and 360: Dear 4th Grade Students and Parents
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Page 363 and 364: World” “Art and literature and
Page 365 and 366: drawn toward a mysterious light whi
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Page 369 and 370: constructions that surrounded it, t
Page 371 and 372: Places of power are not tread on li
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Page 375 and 376: Hand-drawn map of El Potrero, as it
Page 377 and 378: In 1852, seven years after Fructuos
Page 379 and 380: died unexpectedly in 1893, at the a
Page 381 and 382: years were ended with drunkenness.
Page 383 and 384: Perhaps it seems strange to others,
Page 385 and 386: uglier alternative, suggested some
Page 387 and 388: looked at us, but it didn’t come
Page 389 and 390: (probably six feet tall at the most
Page 391 and 392: foot—pale cream, clean, nothing g
Page 393: from.” These are stories worth fo
Page 397 and 398: Smithsonian Institution, 1907-1957,
Page 399 and 400: most missions had two priests worki
Page 401: and Carmel: Eden by the Sea (Guilfo
Page 407 and 408: About the Author Deborah A. Miranda
Page 409 and 410: About Heyday Heyday is an independe
Page 411 and 412: Alice Guild; Walter & Elise Haas Fu
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