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Suppose you were a criollo, born in Mexico of Spanish parents. Your rights would be limited. Imagine you were a mestizo, with both European and California Indian parents. Your rights would be even more limited. California Indians had almost no rights at all.
It’s easy to see why many residents of Mexico longed for freedom. In 1810, Father Hidalgo made the famous “El Grito de Dolores” speech. (El Grito de Dolores means “The Cry of Dolores.”) He delivered it in a place called Dolores. The town’s name is now Guanajuato. The speech is called the start of the independence movement. Criollos, mestizos, and Indians united. That’s when a chain of events was set in motion. These events took a while to reach Alta California. But eventually, they changed Spain, Mexico, and the United States forever.
