When reading any form of historical documentation from the 1700s, it is often recorded that men were the important decision makers in any event, whether it be colonization or expeditions. On the contrary, in the historical reading, Presidiarias y Pobladoras , author Antonia I. Castañeda discusses the role of the mestiza women on the Juan Bautista de Anza Expedition of 1775-76 and colonization of San Francisco, as being the most influential sex-gender. This essay will describe the importance of the reinforcement laws and policies created by the Spanish authorities to recognize the female sex-gender, the importance of the mestiza women in the journey north to Alta California and the colonization of San Francisco, and how these events relate to me.
Before the de Anza Expedition, Spanish authorities recognized that the female gender created conflict between the spanish and the mestizo people. In the sixteenth century, Spanish authorities created the policy of domestic unity to inflict order and gain control of societal expansion. This policy protected the Spanish married woman of whom were separated by soldiers because of the long-term journeys to the New World. The married men of this journey had to either return to their wives or take their…show more content… Amerindian woman were the center of the war because they were being brutally attacked, raped, hunted and sometimes killed. This sexual violence towards the Indian woman infuriated the Indian men. The men would defend the woman, causing the Spanish men cause war. Military authorities enforced Spain’s legal codes in the segregating Amerindians from non-Indians. Soldiers that did not obey the law were prosecuted for rape and murder of Indian women, but these codes had little effect. Thus the recruitment of the Mestiza women gave hope that the Spanish would cease such horrific acts on all