REFLECTIONS ON THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENT CALIFORNIANS.

 

By Sealtiel Enciso Pérez

For many years, while examining the texts left to us by those priests who traveled from distant lands to evangelize our Californian ancestors, I have come to realize that they possessed a rich culture of myths and beliefs. Reflections on natural phenomena and answers to profound and unfathomable mysteries led them to seek explanations, just as civilizations around the world did. However, if we question them in essence, we will say that they were left unfinished and lacking in the richness that could have been given to them if more time had been devoted to their refinement.

Life in a place like the Baja California peninsula was never easy: a desert land that, although fertile, lacked its complement, cahel, water, and therefore seemed sterile and always reluctant to offer fruit and seeds to its inhabitants. Even those who lived on the beaches, where abundant fishing guaranteed them food all year round, had to struggle against the lack of sources of drinkable water. The occupations of our Californians were always about covering the minimum quota of food that would allow them to survive one more day, something that the first European settlers who arrived in this mythical land could witness in the most violent way during their early years of stay.

Perhaps if the climate had been more benign with its inhabitants, as it was in other parts of the world, they could have devoted long hours to contemplation and thus developed a more complete and refined Cosmovision like that of our brothers the Nahuas, Mayas, Toltecs, etc. However, we cannot in any way assume that there was no culture in ancestral California, or that it was so poor and limited that it is not worth talking about. To assume this would be to join a small group of scholars, unfortunately and dangerously entrenched in strategic positions, who perhaps, being locked in their "crystal caves," value the cultures of other peoples more than the one that existed in this beautiful peninsula, and the ideological constructs of the Cochimíes, Guaycuras, and Pericúes are relegated to last place.

The ancient inhabitants of the peninsula managed to establish a series of beliefs about their origin as human beings, the existence of beings beyond this world, invisible but watching over them, giving them their food or causing their death if they acted against their designs. They were able to develop a complex network of rules or "commandments" to regulate group coexistence and also to maintain hierarchy and authority.

In this complex web, the preponderant role of the Guamas, sorcerers or "liars" was the derogatory term applied by the Ignacians, as the guardians of the beliefs and rituals of their people, is discovered. These individuals, who from a very young age were trained in secret schools by the oldest officials, had the heavy burden of alleviating the sick and, when this was not possible, helping them to die and have a funeral according to what their traditions dictated. At parties and dances, they were responsible for starting and at the same time narrating to all attendees the essence of their traditions. On many occasions, these Guamas had to impose their authority through a series of punishments and reprimands, which were classified as savage by the newcomers, but to some extent necessary to exercise authority among groups of men and women forged in an indomitable environment.

There are very interesting passages that are scattered throughout 4 of the most complete works currently available on the ancient groups that inhabited California. Many hours of study and analysis are necessary to extract the most relevant data and annotate them in a didactic way to make them attractive to both the novice public and those interested in using them as a didactic or ethnographic/sociological research source. The significance of the historiographic research of the Ancient Californians lies in exclusively addressing this topic and interpreting the beliefs and worldview that permeated the inhabitants of this peninsula, in light of making a comparison with other human groups that existed during this period. Additionally, it highlights that in our Calisurean land, there was a predominantly oral identity tradition that sought to explain natural and paranormal phenomena in a simple and pragmatic way, as was their way of thinking.

Now more than ever, it is necessary for the rich history of our Californians to be brought to light and disseminated in all spaces, in order to generate a sense of belonging and identity that is necessary if we wish to face the challenges that our future holds with determination and courage. No civilization has been able to reach its full potential while ignoring its roots or minimizing or denying its past.