El Campo de los Sonorenses
El Campo de los Sonorenses as described by William Perkins in his journal on the Spring of 18491.
The Mexicans from the northern provinces of Chihuahua, Sonora, and the Gulf, were of course among the first to take advantage of the gold discoveries in California. Particularly from Sonora came a substantial number, who had brought their families, founding a place called “The Camp of the Sonoraenses”, which afterwards changed to Sonora. A water course -Woods Creek- dry in summer but a torrent in the wet winter months, divides the town into two parts.
When I arrived, the camp was in its glory appearance, with a population of some five thousand people Sonora is situated in a valley, surrounded by lofty mountains, about five miles from the snowy range of the Sierra Nevada, whose glittering mantle shines brilliant and cold in the rays of the settling sun.
I had never seen a more beautiful, wilder, or more romantic spot. The place was decorated with ‘gaudy hangings of silks, fancy cottons, flags, the Mexican Zarape, the rich manga with its gold embroidery, Chinese scarfs, and shawls of the costliest quality; gold- and silver-plated saddles, bridles and spurs were strewn about in all directions.
There were people of every nation in all varieties of costume, and speaking fifty different languages, and yet all mixing amicably and socially. Probably not one in a thousand moralizing on the extraordinary scene in which he was just as extraordinary an actor.
At the time I speak of, Sonora was the only place in California where numbers of the gentler sex were to be found. I have mentioned that the camp was formed by families from Sonora, in Mexico; this accounts for the presence of women in the place.
On Sundays, either Mexican or South American women, white or black, all possessed the richest description of dresses. The Mexican beauty wears a rich skirt trimmed with laboriously worked flounces, satin shoes, flesh colored silk stockings and gloriously bespangled shawl, glittering with all the Chinese arts of embroidery and colors. In the street the shawl is drawn over the left shoulder, very gracefully.
On Saturdays and Sundays, the old camp used to wear, night and day, an almost magic appearance. Besides the numberless lights from the gaily decorated houses, all of them with their fronts entirely open to the streets, the streets themselves were strown with lighted tapers. Almost every house had its band of music. Some of the Mexicans display considerable talent in the art, and some bands, composed of a clarionet, a harp and a base guitar, did much credit to their members. The noise of drums, guitars, fiddles, and the ringing metallic thrum of the little Mexican lute, never for a moment ceased from Saturday to Monday. In some less crowded spots, might be witnessed the national dances.
The winter months set in, and the scene changed as if by enchantment.
1The Journal of William Perkins, p 100-106