California Dream for Some, California Nightmare for Others

Learning about the past allows an understanding of the present and how it can help shape the future.

Thus, the knowledge of history is valuable in avoiding repeating past mistakes. However, history is biased by those who write it, and sometimes the truth can become unclear as time goes by. Therefore, history can be open to many different types of interpretations and modification, leaving it inadequate and incomplete. California has its own history of tragedy and triumph, sometimes with the tragedies outweighing the triumphs. However, many do not know of California’s dark heritage. This may be because many wish to conceal this history to make it seem as if there has always been a California dream and never a California nightmare. Nevertheless, there was a California nightmare and this nightmare began with the enslavement and carnage of the Indigenous people who once populated the land. In the poems Indian Cartography by Deborah Miranda and Itch Like Crazy: Resistance by Wendy Rose, both authors describe similar accounts of the victimization of the Native Americans in which develops a connection that both literature and history have to help unveil the equivocal past.

Indian Cartography by Deborah Miranda is a poem that illustrates her father’s reminiscing of his past. Based on the metaphor she set at the beginning of the poem, “My father opens a map of California— /
traces mountain ranges, rivers, county borders / like family bloodlines,” Miranda structures the recounting of her father’s past in a way that seems to draw a map using memories instead of physical places. From the happiness he felt before colonization to the tragic times of the Native Americans’ oppression, the poem depicts her father’s stories of his people, his land, and of the places where significant events took place. The significant places were, as she describes, “Places he was happy, / or where tragedy / greeted him / like an old unpleasant relative.” This poem speaks of the arrival of foreign entities in California, and how this changed the Native Americans’ way of life as they knew it. This arrival not only sparked the beginning of a destructive cycle that exploited the environment that the Native Americans depended on, but also provoked the eradication of these people. Like as said in the poem, her father’s memories of the past made him feel as if he was greeting “an old unpleasant relative.” Like greeting these relatives, remembering the past of destruction for his people is sometimes a burden and something that leaves a sour taste in his mouth, but remembering is what keeps his heritage alive so he continues to do it. As the author’s father remembers these occurrences, he believes that the happy days appear as a dream to him. For Miranda writes, “In my father's dreams / after the solace of a six-pack, / he follows a longing, a deepness.” Miranda shows us that her father finds comfort in drinking for it helps him get away from the painful memories of the past. From this, Miranda portrays her father as a salmon in a blocked river. She portrays this through the lines, ”swollen bellies of salmon coming back / to a river that wasn't there." This is symbolic, for he may feel like that salmon. Her father was wanting to go back to a home that he loved before the settlers intruded on the Native American lands, but like the fish experiencing the dam, he finds he is unable to go back for he cannot turn back time to those pleasant days. Therefore he just swims in the “dark waters” for, like the salmon, he cannot fulfill that life. In essence, time may be his dam, one that will never be taken down. 

Itch Like Crazy: Resistance by Wendy Rose describes the ache experienced by a descendant of a native Californian for their ancestors’ oppression. Rose describes her anger through the recollection of the past, stating that this oppression should be blamed on Christopher Columbus. In her poem, she gives an introduction into her thoughts with the lines, “This is one of those days / when I see Columbus / in the eyes of nearly everyone.” In this, Rose speaks of the injustices the Native Americans faced as a result of Columbus sailing to the New World. Columbus is used as a symbol of fear and debacle. Thus, Rose gives the understanding that she can see defeat in the eyes of those around her. Rose reveals that she sees Christopher Columbus in every aspect of contemporary society. This is because the shaping of today's society is on account of Christopher Columbus coming to the New World, in which caused the anguish of her people and the start of a bloody part of California history. For this, she detests Columbus. Along with this, she wants the reader to know the extent that many suffered because of this infiltration of nationals

into Native American lands. For example, "every red thing in the world / is the reflection of blood, / our death and our rising." In Rose's frustration, she believes that this contemporary world is the way it is due to this devastating encounter with newcomers and that every sight of the color red should remind people of the death that consumed her people. To portray her meaning, Rose utilizes such brilliant imagery through selective word choice that brings her meaning to life. For example, "Now I dance the mission revolts again, / let the ambush blossom in my heart, / claim my victory with their own language." Rose wants to use this culture that conquered her people against themselves, as if becoming your enemy will allow an edge that will aid in their own destruction. Rose’s outlook of anger and vengeance for the past has led to the title’s connotation of “resistance.” Like her ancestors who completed many acts of revolts, she wants to “resist” succumbing to a culture that she cannot identify with. For this, she “itches like crazy” to find her real identity as the ancestor of a native Californian.

Both poems may tell similar stories of the past, however, the poems exhibit contrasting features that emphasize their separate points. One such feature is the tone that both authors express in each poem and how it affects the reader. At the beginning of each poem, they both start with a sad, melancholy tone, but soon diverge into tones that employ different understandings. In Indian Cartography, Miranda’s imagery contributes to a continued mournful and defeated tone. For example, Miranda writes, “Maybe he sees shadows / of a people who are fluid, / fluent in dark water; bodies / long and glinting with sharp-edged jewelry, / mouths still opening, closing / on the stories of our home.” Miranda makes it seem as if the past has given up on the future, letting customs die out in hope of a future that is not as harsh as the past. And yet, through the lines “mouths still opening, closing / on the stories of our home,” she believes that this heritage will not be forgotten because of the few mouths who can continue to tell the history as a means to let it live on. Miranda writes to give honor to those who were downtrodden, to grieve the loss of a culture and of their integrity. For this past, her father knows he cannot change it so he feels defeated and thus mourns the loss of what once was. On the other hand, in Itch Like Crazy: Resistance, Rose’s vivid metaphors assist in creating a new tone of angered vengeance. For example, “Now I dance the mission revolts again, / let the ambush blossom in my heart, / claim my victory with their own language.” Rose gives off a very different vibe than Miranda. Instead of continuing to mourn the past, Rose speaks of these atrocities that happened to the Native Americans as a call to action. She wants the reader to understand her frustration and need of redemption. With her poem, she strives to make a difference in the present, to make a connection to the past and figure out how it plays a role in the future. Although each author evokes different emotions, the somber, defeated tone of Miranda is just as powerful as Rose’s angry and vindictive tone. The authors lament not only for the loss of identity that they feel because of the demise of their people, customs, and their culture in the past, but also for the pure reluctance of many to recognize that the extinction of a civilization has occurred due to the dreams of another. For Miranda, the recognition comes from acceptance of defeat but also from the continuation of remembrance. However, for Rose, the recognition comes from the resistance of those who threaten the heritage that she considers her identity.

Both poems may exhibit different understandings and meanings, but their similarities stem from one source — their overall message. In Itch Like Crazy: Resistance and Indian Cartography, both poems illustrate the devastating tragedies that befell the Native Americans. Although in different ways, the description of the calamity of the Native Americans gives a new perspective of the history of the colonization of California through the words of people related to actual participants in such actions, not just the glossed over versions that many read from history books. As Corine Fairbanks quotes from Alvin M. Josephy in his book 500 Nations, “the history of the California tribes ‘was as close to genocide as any tribal people had faced, or would face, on the North American continent.’” These ancestors of both authors experienced calamity and suffered along with their families, friends, and community for the greed of people that the Native Americans did not even understand. For this, not only were a group of people exploited but the land they considered so sacred suffered along with them. Accordingly, both authors also share the commonality of describing the environment as a “family member.” For example, Rose writes,  “my mother, the stones, channels of water, / blood of / her veins, every place / a place where history walked” and with Miranda writing, “traces mountain ranges, rivers, county borders  / like family bloodlines.” The Native Americans regarded the land as divine. They obtained food from it, created homes on it, and worshipped it for supplying all of the essentials in life for them. For this, the bleeding of the land was considered something as destructive as killing the people on it, as expressed in the poems. Similarly, Miranda and Rose both entertain this idea of the California dream. It is not exactly the California dream that caused such devastation to these people, but something so similar in the eyes of the colonials that it can be considered the same. However, for the Native Americans, their dream may have been nothing more than to live peacefully in the lands that was theirs. Be that as it may, since the Native Americans’ ideology was different than the newcomers’, they were persecuted for their dreams. Because of this, Miranda and Rose both believe that rather than dream, the natives had an aversion to the fantasy that brought such ruin to their way of life. For both authors, the California dream brought no riches or happiness, but brought a California massacre instead. Thus, Miranda’s and Rose’s overall message is to not follow the dream of destruction, but to build a better future for those who thought that peace would never come again.

For a people who’s history is predominantly repressed, their history and demise is probably one of the most important aspects to understanding California’s true past, not what the California dream wishes to obscure from the public knowledge. Literature and history tend to coincide in a way that helps reveal a deeper understanding of a past that is so obscure. In Deborah Miranda’s Indian Cartography and Wendy Rose’s Itch Like Crazy: Resistance, both authors tell the similar story of the Native American victimization and oppression that began during the Spanish colonization because of this dream through the similarity and dissimilarity of their messages. Nevertheless, the absolute sense of greed can lead to the destruction of anything in one’s way, which was, tragically, the Native Americans during the colonization of California. Overall, no matter what people strive for in this land of fantasy, the California dream for some can become the California nightmare for others.