“Diario de un viaje a California” by Vicente Pérez Rosales
Share your thoughts on this testimonial from the late 1840s. What do witnesses of history have to teach us about a past moment in time or about the present? Is the author a credible witness in your mind? What sort of intrinsic value does this document possess?
The witness of history discussed in this testimonial seems to be exhibiting raw emotion. The world today as we know is still filled with racism and this testimonial talks about foreign labor as being a “disgraceful picture of greed and cruelty” starting with Chinese people that worked on the railroads, highlighting these claims of discrimination from the past that we might not otherwise find from an American perspective. I feel like the author here is a bit biased, but at the same time wants to show the cruelties of what non-white Americans faced coming to and living in America, therefore he is a bit more of a credible source than most sources used to teach kids about racist events in history. It greatly shows the violence of the time period and explains why things like Latinos are “trying to take our jobs” was relevant for this time in history. The author seems to be using the document to explain the truth, rather than just depict it.
Witnesses of history can really show us the specific details of what happens in the past life. Rosales memoir, “Diario de un via a California”, really shows the dynamic and changing American culture during the Gold Rush. Reading one man’s personal experience, people can compare and contrast the differences between San Fransisco today and in the past. It’s very interesting how San Fransisco was becoming a booming city during the 1840s. I never knew that the Gold Rush had so many people coming from all over Latin America. I consider the author to be a great credible witness of the history surrounding him, he really shows the discrimination Latinos have experienced. He also hints that some of it was spreading through propaganda. The excerpt helps to connect the past to the present. Today, we still have the same problem the author experiences almost 200 years ago; Latinos are still viewed in the same lens as the past. It’s common to hear people say that they will take American jobs. Propaganda is different today, but it’s easy to see how the media portrays Latinos. So the past and present can still, unfortunately, link. One point to keep in mind, since it’s from one man’s point of view, is that his opinion might be biased or over-dramatized. This document has a very high intrinsic value in my opinion. I believe that history can be a personal experience, each person may experience it differently; so seeing it through one person’s eyes is very valuable. One may learn new things about history if they examine documents from fresh perspectives. Much of history is discovered through written accounts, so Rosales voice is very important, and just as essential as writings from any great leader in history.
The witness of history can reveal similarities and differences between the past and present day America. First off, a similarity of the present and past would be how the important monetary value had on different countries especially the ones trading with America. Anything was done/is done to gain power by money. A difference seen was how the money transforms a large community. As stated in Diario de un viaje a California, the bay of San Francisco was transformed in as little as a month prior to the Gold Rush. In present times, money isn’t spread vastly among a community. A possible reason for the rapid transformation could be how there wasn’t a plethora of establishments, so everyone had to start out at the same time. This could both credible and non-credible. The writing comes of biased as to take on a tone to present the cruelties of the americans onto the Latin Americans. This also could be credible because it does give insight to some of the real, unhidden actions from that time frame.
Vicente Perez Rosales’ memoir, “Diario de un viaje a California” shares the personal story of Chilean immigrant Rosales’ experience in California during the Gold Rush. His account of history allows us to view the history we were taught through a different light. Witnesses of history, like Rosales, enable us to sense the emotion of a time period and expose us to a different and broader perspective of a subject or time. His memoir was written not only to tell the his own story, but also to document the story of the time period he lived through. While I knew that the Gold Rush attracted many people from all over the world to California, I was unaware that Chileans were targeted by American miners and the anti-chilean sentiment that was formed by Americans. I found it interesting that those that were getting rich in California were the people who served the gold miners and bought land, not the miners who were in search for gold. His memoir really emphasizes the fact that conditions improved in California after the Gold Rush for some and the state really seemed to transform throughout that era. Furthermore, I feel like that with all writing there will always be some bias but with this story in particular, I considered the author to be very credible as I didn’t feel much exaggeration in the piece. This document possess the ability to invite us to step into a life and experience that is not our own and allow us to connect what happened before to current events.
Rosales memoir gives tangible and valid lessons about what was going on in history. It teaches us what was actually happening on his journey to California, instead of a biased side. The conversation we had on Monday about perspective really comes into play with this text because instead of getting writers from Chile, or writers from California talking about an event that happened in the past, you are given first hand information on what was going on at the time. It is arguable that there is still bias through memoirs because they are told only through one perspective but the margin of error decreases drastically because Rosales physically documented his journey for us to read about. For this reason I believe the author is a very credible witness especially because there is obviously a change in emotion towards California from the beginning of the selection to the end. At the beginning of the memoir Rosales describes California as beautiful and continued on to talk about the impressive coast. By the end of the memoir Rosales has described how awful California has turned to him, and to other Chileans. This contrast in opinion shows that the author can be objective and it isn’t a one sided story, making the author more credible. Memoirs have a sense of truth that no other form of document can convey because you are connecting with another person that has physically been there and lived through whatever event they are teaching you about.