Other Noted Guerillas of the Civil War in Missouri Book

Testimonios, a book just out from Heyday Books, contains a narrative of my great, great, great, great grandmother Juana Machado. She was born in Alta California in 1814 and lived until 1901. She witnessed many important events in California history, including the secularization of the missions, transfer of control from Spain to Mexico to the United States and a many beautiful as well as violent events.

Throughout her life, Machado was forced to adjust to political realities on the ground. She began life as part of the Spanish cultural classes. When Mexico was liberated from Spain, she witnessed the shock of seeing her people torn by the new cultural realities that changed life around her (e.g., elimination of the traditional clothing and long braided hair for men). Her father, Jose Manuel Machado, was a soldier who was part of the San Diego Company garrison that defended the City and he helped found Temecula. She remembered the sorrow of her parents after he was forced to cut his beloved braided hair.

Despite this trauma, she shifted to the new reality. Her first husband, Damaso Alipas, was involved in the 1831 insurrection against Governor Manuel Victoria and was killed in the action. Victoria had attempted to undercut the secularization of the missions under the new Mexican government and was viewed as a sort of counter-revolutionary. Alipas obviously supported the new order.

Her son-in-law, Robert Israel, an American, commanded the firing squad that executed Antonio Garra. Interestingly, it appears that the American soldiers allied themselves with the Garra's Cupanos tribe against the Californios. Israel seems to have sided with the Californios.

After the Americans took control, Machado spent the remainder of her active years working with the Fathers before retiring to live with her daughter, Maria Arcadia Alipas Israel on Coronado Island.