Histories of Latino/a and Latinx Medicine in California

In 1542 the maritime expedition leader Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo and his crew were the first Europeans to see California. At that time California was already the home of Chumash, Ohlone, Pomo, and other Native people. Cabrillo claimed the land in the name of Carlos I, King of Spain.

Free Africans like Juan Garrido were among the conquistadors who colonized the Americas for the Spanish crown. The figure on the far left might be one such conquistador. Detail from Diego Durán’s 16th century Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e islas de la tierra firme. Courtesy the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Spain’s colonization of California began in earnest in 1769 with the establishment of presidios (military bases), pueblos (civilian towns), and missions - i.e., large ranches administered by Franciscan friars. The friars relied on forced Native labor to construct mission buildings and to raise the crops and livestock that fed presidio officers and soldiers.  

Casta was a genre of painting that emerged in the Spanish colonies in the Americas in the 18th century. These paintings classified people into categories according to their varying percentages of Spanish, Native, and African ancestry. The categories had names such as mestizo, lobo, morisco, and zambaigo. This example, painted by Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz around 1760, features a woman (classified as torna atrás), a man (classified as español), and their child (classified as tente en el aire). Courtesy the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

In the early 19th century many Spanish colonies in the Americas rebelled against the Spanish crown and declared their independence. When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, California became part of Mexico. California mission lands were secularized and Mexican officials gave away the land as grants to military personnel and civil administrators. 

Military surgeon Don Pedro Prat was part of the 1769 Spanish expedition to colonize California, making him the first Spanish physician in the territory. He appears on the far right of this mural painted by Bernard Zakheim at the University of California San Francisco in the 1930s. Courtesy the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Archives and Special Collections, with the kind acknowledgement of the Zakheim family and estate.

During California’s Mexican period, Doña Juana Briones (1802-1889) was perhaps the best-known curandera (healer) in the vicinity of Lane Library’s current location. Like many living in Mexican California, her family tree combined Spanish, Native, and African ancestry. Courtesy the United States National Park Service.

The medical treatise Botica general de remedios experimentados was one of the first books published in California. It was printed during California’s Mexican period by the Zamorano press in Sonoma in 1838. Lane Library has an English translation.