California History in Another Context

When viewed in isolation from such a revisionist perspective the Yankee conquest of California appears a terrible injustice of some sort (“The Nasty Truth About How California Was Won,” June 14). However, when viewed in the historical context of its era, it is nothing other than a lite version of the norm.

Europe was undergoing bloody, foundation-shattering conquests and revolutions, African societies were trembling under several hundred years of incredible excesses of the industrialized slave trade as well as massacres, and China was beginning to crumble under the avid British marketing and sale of opium to its peoples in the name of conducting free trade.

Mexico itself continued its oppression of the indigenous inhabitants that goes on in some respects to this day.

So, all in all, a ramshackle band of Yankee agent provocateurs is indeed shocking, given today’s expectations, but is in line with the generalized history of the world.

--DOUGLAS PETERSEN

Palm Desert

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There were a number of European countries vying for control of the continent now referred to as the Americas, and in the very early days there were such people as Velasquez, De Cordoba and a fellow by the name of Cortez, and the rest is history. Was Cortez a dubious hero? How were the Aztecs treated by this man and his followers? A lot less kindly than “we” treated the other tribes on this continent.

Based on these observations, whom did “we” steal this territory from? It wasn’t the Aztecs, but from the Spanish who stole it from the Aztecs, so if we want to be completely fair, we should all bug off to where we came from, and give the place back to the Aztecs, the Hopi, the Navajo, the Anastasi, and the rest of the tribes, or shut our mouths and try to live with our sins.

--BERNARD WILLIAMS

Glendale