History Commons^™

New Spain’s northwestern province, Alta California was a frontier for the Spanish empire’s imperial enterprises during the late 18th and  early 19th centuries  (Burbank  and  Cooper 2010:  8, 126).  For the  diverse colonists of Alta California, however, it was a frontier in which social, cultural, and ethnic  identities  could  be  negotiated,  transformed,  and  reconstructed (Hackel 2010; Sahlins 1999: xii). This study  examines how Alta California served as a frontier of  new beginnings for the founding colonial soldiers, or  soldados  de  cuera,  and  settlers,  or  pobladores  (Pubols  2009:  19).  More specifically, this study investigates  those soldados  and pobladores  identified with  the  …