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The Grapes of Conquest

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View the page of Julia Ornelas-Higdon

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Julia Ornelas-Higdon analyzes the development of wine cultivation under Spanish, Mexican, and American rule, tracing its decline post-Prohibition.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 8, 2024

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This video video discusses the significant role of California wine in the state's economy and its historical roots. California is the main wine producer in the U.S., generating over $40 billion annually from wine-related sales and tourism. Despite this economic importance, little is known about the state's wine industry before World War II. The author, a historian of the American West, investigates the industry's origins, particularly in relation to labor, race, and colonialism.

Wine growing in California began with Spanish missionaries, who needed local wine for religious ceremonies. They coerced native populations into vineyard labor, effectively using wine as a tool of conquest and cultural assimilation. Under Mexican rule, the wine industry commercialized, allowing for greater trade and expansion. Post-American conquest in the late 1840s, diverse immigrant groups contributed significantly to the industry. German immigrants helped cultivate land, while Chinese workers played a crucial role in creating subterranean wine caves.

This video video also mentions the impact of the Temperance Movement and Prohibition, which surprisingly increased grape sales for home wine-making. Overall, the author highlights the contributions of marginalized laborers in the wine industry and encourages readers to appreciate these historical contexts as they enjoy wine today.

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00:00.255 --> 00:03.595
The impetus behind this project is really the role

00:03.865 --> 00:06.595
that California wine occupies in

00:06.595 --> 00:08.955
contemporary California.

00:09.615 --> 00:11.515
If we look at things like wine sales

00:11.695 --> 00:15.075
and wine tourism, we see that they are a huge part

00:15.075 --> 00:17.915
of the state's agricultural economy and tourist economy.

00:18.935 --> 00:22.755
We see wine tourism driving the economy in places like

00:22.855 --> 00:27.835
Sonoma, Napa, but also farther flung places like Temecula

00:27.975 --> 00:29.035
and the Central Coast.

00:30.215 --> 00:33.955
And we know that wine is absolutely fundamental

00:33.955 --> 00:35.035
to the state's economy.

00:35.135 --> 00:39.875
In fact, looking at the figures, California wine,

00:40.335 --> 00:42.635
is really the main producer

00:42.695 --> 00:44.035
of wine across the United States.

00:44.065 --> 00:47.875
Here we're producing over 91% of American wine,

00:48.095 --> 00:51.555
and the annual sales across the industry are over

00:51.555 --> 00:52.875
40 billion a year.

00:52.975 --> 00:56.195
So this is not an insignificant industry.

00:57.305 --> 01:01.155
Despite this scholars know relatively little about the

01:01.305 --> 01:02.995
pre-World War II industry.

01:04.015 --> 01:08.595
So as a 19th century historian of the American West,

01:09.635 --> 01:12.635
I looked at the contemporary wine industry with fascination,

01:12.975 --> 01:17.475
and I wondered where its historical roots lay relative

01:17.475 --> 01:20.275
to other, well-known industries, specifically citrus.

01:21.195 --> 01:24.335
And you know, I took questions like,

01:25.355 --> 01:27.005
when had the first vineyards been planted?

01:27.225 --> 01:29.725
Who planted them? Who were the laborers?

01:29.785 --> 01:32.885
Who was producing the wine? What were market sales like?

01:33.905 --> 01:37.285
And when I went to the literature, I found a huge gap there.

01:38.265 --> 01:40.405
So I did what most historians do.

01:40.605 --> 01:41.805
I went to the archives,

01:41.865 --> 01:45.565
and what I found there was an absolutely intriguing story

01:45.625 --> 01:47.645
of race, of labor and,

01:47.645 --> 01:52.005
and really of conquest in California's long 19th century.

01:52.835 --> 01:57.205
Like most historians, I use the methodology that works best

01:57.205 --> 01:59.845
for us, which is turning to the archives

01:59.865 --> 02:02.045
to understand the world of wine making.

02:02.065 --> 02:03.125
In the 19th century,

02:03.855 --> 02:06.885
these archives included ones across the state ca

02:06.905 --> 02:10.605
of California, UCLA, the Bancroft Library,

02:11.405 --> 02:14.925
Stanford University, the Huntington among others,

02:15.195 --> 02:18.245
including smaller county historical societies.

02:19.165 --> 02:22.605
I went to Washington DC to look at the Smithsonian's records

02:23.305 --> 02:26.125
and the sources that I pulled from those archival libraries

02:26.525 --> 02:30.525
included things like documents from the Spanish missions,

02:30.525 --> 02:33.805
including the writings of Franciscan missionaries.

02:34.105 --> 02:37.805
It included letters that were written from the Franciscans

02:37.905 --> 02:40.925
to their superiors in Mexico City.

02:41.505 --> 02:45.445
It included newspapers, government documents, letters,

02:45.445 --> 02:49.245
agricultural treatises, sometimes employment records,

02:49.625 --> 02:54.325
and, you know, data about how much workers were paid,

02:54.625 --> 02:57.245
as well as ephemeral things, things

02:57.245 --> 02:58.445
that should have been thrown away.

02:59.105 --> 03:01.965
I'm thinking of things like 19th century wine labels.

03:01.965 --> 03:04.805
So those were all part of my body of research.

03:05.375 --> 03:07.285
Today we look at California wine

03:07.625 --> 03:10.805
and we think it's this elite project product.

03:11.315 --> 03:13.245
It's an elite product that we associate

03:13.475 --> 03:16.445
with wealthy Americans, often white Americans.

03:17.425 --> 03:20.645
But the history of California wine really

03:21.365 --> 03:24.965
challenges those stereotypes today.

03:25.305 --> 03:28.885
And really we see that the history of California wine is one

03:29.115 --> 03:30.925
that is about race and conquest.

03:31.385 --> 03:32.445
And here's what I mean by that.

03:33.495 --> 03:38.165
First wine growing in California was truly born out

03:38.165 --> 03:41.125
of the Spanish mission project to colonize

03:41.145 --> 03:43.325
and conquer California natives

03:43.325 --> 03:45.845
and of course secure the territory for Spain.

03:46.825 --> 03:50.965
So as Spanish Franciscan came to Alta California,

03:51.435 --> 03:53.845
they oversaw the building of the missions here,

03:55.145 --> 03:59.565
and they needed a reliable supply of wine

03:59.665 --> 04:03.605
to say the mass and de demonstrate transubstantiation

04:04.545 --> 04:08.125
or the conversion of the bread and wine into the body

04:08.125 --> 04:10.805
and blood of Christ to California.

04:10.915 --> 04:15.245
Natives without the wine, they could not

04:15.945 --> 04:19.445
say the mass and convert and colonize California natives.

04:20.305 --> 04:21.565
So to do this

04:22.105 --> 04:26.125
and really make their own wine here, not rely on supply

04:27.165 --> 04:31.885
ships from Mexico, they conscripted local Indians

04:32.425 --> 04:34.565
to clear land for vineyards across

04:34.635 --> 04:39.085
what is now southern California, to plant vineyards,

04:39.085 --> 04:41.765
harvest and crush the grapes and turn them into wine.

04:42.465 --> 04:44.685
And this was of course, on top of the labor

04:45.155 --> 04:48.005
that these California natives were already doing in building

04:48.005 --> 04:51.325
mission churches, buildings, planting gardens,

04:51.385 --> 04:52.445
and fields of grain.

04:53.825 --> 04:55.445
So vineyards

04:55.985 --> 04:59.605
and wineries in early California had the dual purpose

05:00.145 --> 05:03.365
of producing wine for the mass for conversion purposes,

05:03.825 --> 05:08.445
but also they had the purpose of sizing Indians

05:08.465 --> 05:10.445
by forcing them to learn

05:11.525 --> 05:13.725
European agricultural prac practices.

05:13.725 --> 05:17.125
So this is all embedded in conquest.

05:18.385 --> 05:20.245
At the same time, they're doing all this work.

05:21.015 --> 05:23.205
California natives were strictly

05:23.795 --> 05:27.405
forbidden from enjoying wine that they had made.

05:27.875 --> 05:29.325
They could have some during the mass,

05:29.465 --> 05:33.565
but beyond the mass, they could not imbibe in wine.

05:33.745 --> 05:37.165
So the literal fruit of their labors was

05:37.695 --> 05:41.085
completely prohibited to them under Spanish law.

05:41.785 --> 05:45.045
So we see wine early on from its inception

05:45.745 --> 05:49.045
as being a tool conquest, a tool conversion,

05:49.585 --> 05:51.885
and also one of Spanish imperial control.

05:53.425 --> 05:56.925
So second, I wanna pivot and talk about wine

05:57.055 --> 05:58.285
Under Mexican rule.

05:58.955 --> 06:01.725
Here. The wine industry is commercialized

06:01.785 --> 06:03.325
and expanded for the first time

06:04.075 --> 06:07.325
following Mexican independence from Spain in the 1820s

06:08.025 --> 06:10.725
Mexico liberalized trade laws.

06:11.195 --> 06:15.285
This meant that the law changed and allowed vineyards

06:15.465 --> 06:18.485
and wine makers to make and sell wine for the market

06:18.625 --> 06:22.925
and trade it with people not only here in Alda, California,

06:23.465 --> 06:26.605
but traders from around the Americas and even Europe.

06:27.185 --> 06:28.885
So here we have the genesis

06:29.145 --> 06:31.925
of California's first commercial wine industry.

06:32.785 --> 06:35.485
And this went on for about 20, 25 years

06:35.545 --> 06:40.325
or so until American conquest in 1848, which brings me

06:40.325 --> 06:41.405
to my third point.

06:42.905 --> 06:44.965
In the late in the 1840s

06:45.105 --> 06:47.765
and 1850s, we have a period of

06:48.365 --> 06:50.565
expanded immigration into California.

06:51.105 --> 06:53.285
I'm talking about diverse groups of

06:54.085 --> 06:56.605
Americans coming from the eastern states of

06:57.125 --> 07:00.085
Europeans coming here as well.

07:01.055 --> 07:03.155
And these new immigrants

07:04.135 --> 07:06.675
saw the agricultural promise of California.

07:06.855 --> 07:09.555
And what they did is they obtained land

07:10.295 --> 07:13.235
and they expanded vineyard acreage,

07:14.015 --> 07:15.555
and the commercial trade.

07:16.375 --> 07:17.755
Now I said diverse groups,

07:17.895 --> 07:19.675
and that that word is really important

07:19.675 --> 07:20.795
because we see

07:21.015 --> 07:23.395
so many different groups coming together in

07:23.395 --> 07:24.595
California's vineyards.

07:25.095 --> 07:26.675
The first that, I'd like

07:26.675 --> 07:28.915
to talk about are the German immigrants.

07:29.845 --> 07:33.075
These were, enterprising immigrants who came

07:33.215 --> 07:35.995
and colonized different parts of California,

07:36.425 --> 07:38.475
most notably Anaheim, California.

07:39.375 --> 07:44.235
And Americans celebrated them for bringing European culture

07:44.655 --> 07:47.075
and whiteness to Southern California.

07:47.855 --> 07:52.155
In short, they were helping to racially whiten the region

07:53.015 --> 07:54.915
and also to symbolize it

07:54.975 --> 07:56.995
and bring culture through their wine making.

07:58.095 --> 08:02.105
Another really important group that is rarely associated

08:02.105 --> 08:03.145
with wine making but is

08:03.145 --> 08:05.385
so important are Chinese immigrant men.

08:06.515 --> 08:10.095
Um, in the 19th century, they were fundamental

08:10.275 --> 08:12.735
to the success of the wine industry.

08:13.825 --> 08:15.695
After they came off of working

08:16.235 --> 08:21.055
in the Transcontinental Railroad in the, late 1860s,

08:21.685 --> 08:23.575
they moved into the wine industry

08:23.875 --> 08:25.015
and one of the areas

08:25.105 --> 08:28.415
where their work still remains is Napa and Sonoma.

08:29.265 --> 08:32.975
There Chinese workers used the skills that they had gained

08:32.975 --> 08:36.055
during the Gold Rush and in building the Transcontinental

08:36.415 --> 08:41.015
Railroad to dig into local volcanic rock using

08:41.335 --> 08:45.455
dynamite and construct subterranean tunnels and wine caves.

08:45.955 --> 08:48.215
Uh, these were used to age

08:48.275 --> 08:53.095
and store wines in cool, underground, wine cellars,

08:53.115 --> 08:54.695
and some of them are still in existence

08:55.215 --> 08:56.215
Today.

08:57.395 --> 09:00.925
Finally, if we look into the late 19th

09:00.985 --> 09:02.765
and early 20th century, we see

09:02.795 --> 09:05.525
that this brought about the Temperance

09:05.765 --> 09:07.005
Movement in the United States.

09:07.755 --> 09:11.005
This ramped up in the 1870s,

09:11.315 --> 09:15.405
with different groups advocating for the absolute abolition

09:15.505 --> 09:17.805
of alcohol sales in the us.

09:18.945 --> 09:22.565
Now, initially, wine growers in California responded to this

09:23.305 --> 09:25.125
by organizing new trade groups

09:26.065 --> 09:28.125
and by differentiating their product

09:28.715 --> 09:31.965
wine from hard alcohols like lemon whiskey.

09:32.465 --> 09:34.965
In fact, they advertise wine as a drink

09:34.965 --> 09:38.365
that could help prevent drunkenness,

09:38.365 --> 09:40.725
which is very strange for us to think about,

09:40.905 --> 09:41.965
in the modern era.

09:43.625 --> 09:46.205
Now, as many of, your viewers will know,

09:46.205 --> 09:49.645
the United States did ratify the 18th Amendment in 1919,

09:50.415 --> 09:54.085
which outlawed the production and sale of alcohol.

09:54.385 --> 09:57.725
But ironically, for California's vineyards,

09:57.935 --> 10:00.165
their grape sales actually went up.

10:00.675 --> 10:04.565
This is because the law had a loophole that made it legal

10:04.665 --> 10:06.205
for Americans to produce wine

10:06.205 --> 10:07.685
for their own home consumption.

10:08.265 --> 10:10.605
So there was a market for wine grapes

10:11.115 --> 10:14.645
whereby people would buy it and crush it and ferment it

10:14.645 --> 10:16.205
and turn it into a home brew

10:16.745 --> 10:18.725
for their own personal enjoyment.

10:19.245 --> 10:22.365
I hope readers take from this book an appreciation

10:22.425 --> 10:26.205
for the laborers who are behind every bottle of wine that

10:26.745 --> 10:29.085
we enjoy today.

10:29.085 --> 10:31.925
Uh, so as people, you know, people

10:31.925 --> 10:34.285
who pick up this book may enjoy a glass

10:34.285 --> 10:36.965
of wine in the present in the 21st century.

10:37.525 --> 10:38.525
I hope they take a moment

10:38.665 --> 10:41.685
to reflect on the wine industry's rich history.

10:42.315 --> 10:44.845
Perhaps they'll think about the Chinese men

10:44.905 --> 10:48.085
who planted vineyards across Napa and Sonoma,

10:48.185 --> 10:49.445
or who dug wine tunnels.

10:49.635 --> 10:53.605
Perhaps they'll think about, California natives who did

10:53.625 --> 10:57.365
so across Southern California in the 18th

10:57.365 --> 10:58.805
and early 19th century,

10:59.665 --> 11:02.725
and perhaps they might even raise a glass to

11:04.305 --> 11:08.875
show appreciation for the diverse workers who are making

11:08.875 --> 11:10.795
that wine for us today.

00:00 - The impetus behind this project is really the role that California wine occupies in contemporary California. If we look at things like wine sales and wine tourism, we see that they are a huge part of the state's agricultural economy and tourist economy.

00:18 - We see wine tourism driving the economy in places like Sonoma, Napa, but also farther flung places like Temecula and the Central Coast. And we know that wine is absolutely fundamental to the state's economy. In fact, looking at the figures, California wine, is really the main producer of wine across the United States. Here we're producing over 91% of American wine, and the annual sales across the industry are over

00:51 - 40 billion a year. So this is not an insignificant industry. Despite this scholars know relatively little about the pre-World War II industry. So as a 19th century historian of the American West, I looked at the contemporary wine industry with fascination, and I wondered where its historical roots lay relative to other, well-known industries, specifically citrus. And you know, I took questions like, when had the first vineyards been planted?

01:27 - Who planted them? Who were the laborers? Who was producing the wine? What were market sales like? And when I went to the literature, I found a huge gap there. So I did what most historians do. I went to the archives, and what I found there was an absolutely intriguing story of race, of labor and, and really of conquest in California's long 19th century. Like most historians, I use the methodology that works best for us, which is turning to the archives

01:59 - to understand the world of wine making. In the 19th century, these archives included ones across the state ca of California, UCLA, the Bancroft Library, Stanford University, the Huntington among others, including smaller county historical societies. I went to Washington DC to look at the Smithsonian's records and the sources that I pulled from those archival libraries included things like documents from the Spanish missions, including the writings of Franciscan missionaries.

02:34 - It included letters that were written from the Franciscans to their superiors in Mexico City. It included newspapers, government documents, letters, agricultural treatises, sometimes employment records, and, you know, data about how much workers were paid, as well as ephemeral things, things that should have been thrown away. I'm thinking of things like 19th century wine labels. So those were all part of my body of research. Today we look at California wine

03:07 - and we think it's this elite project product. It's an elite product that we associate with wealthy Americans, often white Americans. But the history of California wine really challenges those stereotypes today. And really we see that the history of California wine is one that is about race and conquest. And here's what I mean by that. First wine growing in California was truly born out of the Spanish mission project to colonize

03:41 - and conquer California natives and of course secure the territory for Spain. So as Spanish Franciscan came to Alta California, they oversaw the building of the missions here, and they needed a reliable supply of wine to say the mass and de demonstrate transubstantiation or the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ to California. Natives without the wine, they could not say the mass and convert and colonize California natives.

04:20 - So to do this and really make their own wine here, not rely on supply ships from Mexico, they conscripted local Indians to clear land for vineyards across what is now southern California, to plant vineyards, harvest and crush the grapes and turn them into wine. And this was of course, on top of the labor that these California natives were already doing in building mission churches, buildings, planting gardens, and fields of grain.

04:53 - So vineyards and wineries in early California had the dual purpose of producing wine for the mass for conversion purposes, but also they had the purpose of sizing Indians by forcing them to learn European agricultural prac practices. So this is all embedded in conquest. At the same time, they're doing all this work. California natives were strictly forbidden from enjoying wine that they had made.

05:27 - They could have some during the mass, but beyond the mass, they could not imbibe in wine. So the literal fruit of their labors was completely prohibited to them under Spanish law. So we see wine early on from its inception as being a tool conquest, a tool conversion, and also one of Spanish imperial control. So second, I wanna pivot and talk about wine Under Mexican rule. Here. The wine industry is commercialized

06:01 - and expanded for the first time following Mexican independence from Spain in the 1820s Mexico liberalized trade laws. This meant that the law changed and allowed vineyards and wine makers to make and sell wine for the market and trade it with people not only here in Alda, California, but traders from around the Americas and even Europe. So here we have the genesis of California's first commercial wine industry. And this went on for about 20, 25 years

06:35 - or so until American conquest in 1848, which brings me to my third point. In the late in the 1840s and 1850s, we have a period of expanded immigration into California. I'm talking about diverse groups of Americans coming from the eastern states of Europeans coming here as well. And these new immigrants saw the agricultural promise of California.

07:06 - And what they did is they obtained land and they expanded vineyard acreage, and the commercial trade. Now I said diverse groups, and that that word is really important because we see so many different groups coming together in California's vineyards. The first that, I'd like to talk about are the German immigrants.

07:29 - These were, enterprising immigrants who came and colonized different parts of California, most notably Anaheim, California. And Americans celebrated them for bringing European culture and whiteness to Southern California. In short, they were helping to racially whiten the region and also to symbolize it and bring culture through their wine making. Another really important group that is rarely associated with wine making but is

08:03 - so important are Chinese immigrant men. in the 19th century, they were fundamental to the success of the wine industry. After they came off of working in the Transcontinental Railroad in the, late 1860s, they moved into the wine industry and one of the areas where their work still remains is Napa and Sonoma. There Chinese workers used the skills that they had gained during the Gold Rush and in building the Transcontinental

08:36 - Railroad to dig into local volcanic rock using dynamite and construct subterranean tunnels and wine caves. these were used to age and store wines in cool, underground, wine cellars, and some of them are still in existence Today. Finally, if we look into the late 19th and early 20th century, we see that this brought about the Temperance Movement in the United States.

09:07 - This ramped up in the 1870s, with different groups advocating for the absolute abolition of alcohol sales in the us. Now, initially, wine growers in California responded to this by organizing new trade groups and by differentiating their product wine from hard alcohols like lemon whiskey. In fact, they advertise wine as a drink that could help prevent drunkenness, which is very strange for us to think about,

09:40 - in the modern era. Now, as many of, your viewers will know, the United States did ratify the 18th Amendment in 1919, which outlawed the production and sale of alcohol. But ironically, for California's vineyards, their grape sales actually went up. This is because the law had a loophole that made it legal for Americans to produce wine for their own home consumption. So there was a market for wine grapes

10:11 - whereby people would buy it and crush it and ferment it and turn it into a home brew for their own personal enjoyment. I hope readers take from this book an appreciation for the laborers who are behind every bottle of wine that we enjoy today. so as people, you know, people who pick up this book may enjoy a glass of wine in the present in the 21st century. I hope they take a moment

10:38 - to reflect on the wine industry's rich history. Perhaps they'll think about the Chinese men who planted vineyards across Napa and Sonoma, or who dug wine tunnels. Perhaps they'll think about, California natives who did so across Southern California in the 18th and early 19th century, and perhaps they might even raise a glass to show appreciation for the diverse workers who are making that wine for us today.

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