First, I realized that the paintings and petroglyphs we found in each of the seven Sierras of Baja California was a record left by Indigenous Californians of real people and events including their fierce resistance to the Spanish conquistadors and Jesuit padres beginning with the expeditions of Hernan Cortés in 1533. Second, was the realization that the current ranchers in the Sierras are the living descendants of native women and spanish soldiers that chose to settle in the same places that had the water and natural resources to support the Pericu, Guaicura, Cochimi, PaiPai and Kumeyaah tribes that had occupied the region for thousands of years. I found these ranchers to be endearing hosts, smart and the amazing product of two very different cultures – hunters and gathers with a more technologically advanced European invader. These ranchers were the survivors of this existential conflict that lasted over three centuries. I was fascinated by both stories which led to 50 years of research and compelling discovery.

The book’s central argument is that Spain colonized California first in its imagination, driven by a 1510 chivalric novel that described a gold-laden island ruled by a Black queen named Califa. How did a piece of medieval fiction become a military policy?

Shortly after the “discoveries” of the new world by Columbus in the 1490s, writer Garci Ordoñez de Montalvo captured Europe’s fascination with the world’s expanding horizons and wrote a fabulous novel featuring exotic cultures, adventure and of course gold, jewels and wealth beyond comparison. With the conquest of the Aztec empire, Hernan Cortés used phrases from Montalvo’s novel, in his letter to the King asking for funding to continue his conquest northwards from México City. The “Island of California” became a desired destination. Later, with the discovery of the profitable Manila trade route and the appearance of English pirates Francis Drake and Thomas of Cavendish, the successful completion of colonies and ports in California became imperative to the protection of the Manila galleons and the flow of treasure down the coast of California to México City and eastwards to Spain.

No, I don’t. The California history taught today in schools within the State of California is the history of Alta California beginning with 1767 and the expeditions of Junipero Serra and the founding of the San Diego mission. For centuries California included Baja California and Alta California and it wasn’t until 1848, that an international border was drawn separating the two. In my mind, the history of California began with Montalvo’s novel in 1510 and his frequent use of phrases with Arabic origins.

It is a marriage of both. We know that Hernán Cortés and an entourage of mounted soldiers made several forays into the north central Cape region immediately southwest of La Paz. In one of his letters he laments the loss of four of his favorite horses he brought with him by ship. We also know that the failure of his colony at La Paz was the beginning of a psychological depression and bankruptcy that came about from a series of lawsuits from his Aztec conquest and decisions he made as the Governor of México. Cortés died a broken man. We also know that Peyote was a popular trade commodity from the northern Sonoran territory and was used by Indigenous populations throughout the Pacific southwest for 5,000 years as a means to connect with the Great Spirit. The peyote vision of Cortés is fiction, but was engineered to connect the dots in the journey of Cortés, from successful conquistador to his fate as a broken man, guilt ridden and bankrupt.

Backpacking north from Cabo San Lucas we documented several dozen rock art sites in the Sierra del Cabo, Sierra Giganta and the Sierra Guadalupe. It wasn’t until finding the larger than life mural at Cueva de la Cuesta Palmarito in the southeastern corner of the Sierra de San Francisco that I had my epiphany. My brother and I decided to spend an entire day at this cave site attempting to stand in the shoes (datil sandals) of the Cochimi shaman that completed this amazing mural. Early the next morning, the rays of dawn spread over the Tres Virgenes volcanos, took root at the top of the volcanic and sedimentary layered cliffs above us and then spread downwards to inflame the painted surfaces of the mural that spread out above us. The events of that day fed upon each other. Early that morning we witnessed the successful predation of a canyon wren from a diving red-tailed hawk not more than 10 feet away. We discovered the concave center of the cave amplified sound from the canyon. We could hear the scurrying of small animals and reptiles 100’s of yards away. From the mural itself, at the highest apex, were three figures that caught and held my attention. They were a man, a woman and a mountain lion. They knew each other. They were a significant story, deserving enough to occupy the equivalent of the New York Times front page headlines. With time, I found linkages to other figures in the mural, both human and animal. Storylines unfolded, I was excited, feeling I was on the precipice of understanding a new form of hiroglyphics.

Travelers should always have a local guide with them. This helps to protect the paintings and petroglyphs from physical damage, sustain the local economy and sustain the appreciation and “ownership” the local community has for these important archaeological sites.

I think it was Winston Churchill who said that “the propaganda of the victors becomes the history of the defeated”. That may be true but the Jesuits were booted out of California after 70 years and the Indigenous peoples of California were largely conquered by the pandemic diseases introduced by their European invaders. At times this leaves an empty void in my thinking as if to ask, “what was accomplished”. And then I realize that life will find a way. And it did in Baja California through Indigenous women who bore children with Spanish soldiers and created a whole new population of adaptive and happy residents still living within the Sierras of Baja California.

I believe there is nothing more important to our children’s future than maintaining the health, diversity and continuity of our natural ecologies. This is true of riverfront habitats in Northern California as well as the arid deserts of Central Baja California. The Indigenous California natives had direct linkage to plants, insects and animal life that sustained them. In contrast, wepurchase our food from supermarkets, clueless of its origins. We order our clothes from amazon, drive air-conditioned cars and worry about AI taking over our jobs. We are generally unaware about the natural environment that provides clean air, clean water, shelter and space to roam and discover. I find that reading and writing about Indigenous history helps me personally stay grounded and keep the technology world in proper focus

The drive to extract earth resources to fuel economic development and its consequential population growth beyond sustainability is a major concern, one that could bring serious impacts to both coastal and interior Baja California. I applaud the creation and protection o bioreserves and cultural sites and prey they remain intact and repel despotic forces whose soul goal is simply to reinforce supply lines for profitable gain.

If Cali could see Baja California in 2025 — the resorts, the golf courses, the whale-watching boats — what do you think she would make of it?

You spent thirty years protecting 27,000 acres of riverfront habitat and won the National Wilderness Conservation Award in 2017. Now you’ve written a book. Do you see conservation and storytelling as two expressions of the same calling?

What do you want a reader to feel in the last moment they close this book?