Scholars Skewer Myths, Highlight Minorities’ Roles in History of Southwest

History will show that the group talking today at the Huntington Library about the old days is an open-minded bunch.

They are taking note of Mexican women who helped shape the American West a century ago. And of gays who played a role in the California Gold Rush, Native Americans in Arizona who kept their culture alive against all odds and a religious group in New Mexico that survived hundreds of years of persecution.

But that’s to be expected when scholars, students and amateur historians from five states sit down to grapple with the issue of “the power of ethnic identities in the Southwest.”

The two-day conference that began Friday is showcasing the work of researchers trying to fill in the blanks left in past history books--and correct a few historical errors along the way.

“The field of history has gotten real exciting in the last five or six years,” acknowledged William Deverell, a history professor at UC San Diego who helped organize the symposium. “There are a lot of old myths that have been turned upside down.”

Like the notion that the old West was a time of rugged individualism and personal freedom. Or that it was made into a laboratory for democracy by kind-hearted and fair-minded settlers.

“We know it really wasn’t that simple. There was violence, discrimination and imperialism. My sense is that the rugged individualists were the ones who died. People had to work together--the times were severe,” Deverell said.

Seminars continuing at 9:30 a.m. today at the San Marino landmark will examine the power of identity and the relationship between “insularity and endurance” among various ethnic groups that have inhabited the Southwest.

The conference will close with an afternoon discussion of the “crypto-Jews”--residents of New Mexico who secretly kept Jewish traditions for hundreds of years after the Spanish Inquisition, according to Stanley Hordes, a history professor at the University of New Mexico.

Friday’s sessions explored why some ethnic groups’ contributions to the early development of the Southwest have gotten short shrift.

One reason may be that some historians in the late 1800s and early 1900s tailored their writings to the expectations of the white power structure, which was paying for their work, suggested Albert Hurtado, a University of Arizona history professor.

But sexism and other forms of prejudice may have sometimes been to blame as well, offered Susan Johnson, a history professor from the University of Michigan.

Johnson told of how evolving stories about California bandit Joaquin Murrieta changed him from villain to victim--and how some Mexicans’ version of the legend put a feminist spin on it by involving Murrieta’s widow at the end.

Johnson’s mention of the legacy left by a pair of homosexual Forty-Niner gold miners raised some eyebrows among the conference audience of 75. But most seemed to feel that a little eye-opening is appropriate for those who read--and write--American history.

“The issues at work here are increasingly important,” said James Brooks, a UC Davis graduate history student. “Just look at Proposition 187,” which would deny many public services to illegal immigrants.

Larry Simkins, a high school social studies teacher from Phoenix, said recognition of issues such as ethnicity and women’s rights in history is long overdue.

Some at the conference, such as UC San Diego graduate history student Delfino Rangel, worried that historical “revisionism” that helps some groups could end up hurting others. “I don’t want to bring out new truths at the expense of somebody else,” he said.

But Wilbur Jacobs, a retired UC Santa Barbara professor, said new ideas about history will always be healthy.

“It’s not a matter of being politically correct,” Jacobs said. “It’s a matter of telling the truth.”