The San Diego Hispanic Saturday group met at the San Diego Central Library in the Neil Morgan Auditorium. The meeting had 31 in attendance, which included students from University of San Diego, Southwestern College and local high school. The speaker for the day was Richard Griswold del Castillo. Mr. Griswold del Castillo is a retired professor from San Diego State University and the author of the book The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
He discussed the Mexican-American war and the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Richard presented the causes and reasons for the war. From the U.S. side, Manifest
Destiny was one of the drive forces for the U.S. involvement. He also presented
details on the consequence of the war; reform movement in Mexico, U.S. economic
growth, the U.S. Civil war, Mexico remained underdeveloped and the creation of
the new minority group (Mexican-American).
Richard also
showed detailed maps of land grants in the California. He talked about the
hardships of the Californios had in retaining their land. Dominga Dominguez
(San Fernando Valley) and Maria Amparo Ruiz de Barton (Jamul) were examples of
land owners who had to go court to retain their land grant of which they
ultimately lost.
His insight
on the American-Mexican war of 1848 was both informative and exceptional.
