Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 1769-1920

FAIN: HB-257685-18

Julia Ornelas-Higdon
California State University, Channel Islands (Camarillo, CA 93012-8599)

A book-length study of the history of winemaking in California from 1769 to 1920 with emphasis on labor relations during the Spanish colonial, Mexican national, and U.S. eras.

The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine 1769-1920 examines the evolution of winegrowing across Spanish, Mexican, and American California and argues that the wine industry operated as a nexus of conquest, racialization, and citizenship formation throughout the 19th century. This study examines the interactions between the diverse groups who built the industry to demonstrate how wine served as an exemplar of racial exclusion, land ownership, and power. Franciscan missionaries, Californios, Indians, Mexicans, Germans, and Chinese came together in vineyards and wineries to reshape racial and class hierarchies. I contend that wine served as the economic engine for trade and agribusiness. Previous scholarship identifies the citrus industry as the birth of modern agribusiness in California; I argue that the labor and environmental needs of the wine industry laid the foundation for specialized industrial agriculture in twentieth-century California.

Media Coverage

New Books Network Podcast (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Miranda Melcher
Date: 2/3/2024
Abstract: Podcast interview with Dr. Miranda Melcher to discuss "The Grapes of Conquest"
URL: https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-grapes-of-conquest

IWP Ep31 Julia Ornelas-Higdon - The Grapes of Conquest (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Matt Wood
Publication: Indie Wine Podcast with Matt Wood
Date: 2/2/2024
URL: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/iwp-ep31-julia-ornelas-higdon-the-grapes-of-conquest/id1673557547?i=1000643948493

Associated Products

The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 1769–1920 (Book)
Title: The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 1769–1920
Abstract: About the Book California’s wine country conjures images of pastoral vineyards and cellars lined with oak barrels. As a mainstay of the state’s economy, California wines occupy the popular imagination like never before and drive tourism in famous viticultural regions across the state. Scholars know remarkably little, however, about the history of the wine industry and the diverse groups who built it. In fact, contemporary stereotypes belie how the state’s commercial wine industry was born amid social turmoil and racialized violence in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century California. In The Grapes of Conquest Julia Ornelas-Higdon addresses these gaps in the historical narrative and popular imagination. Beginning with the industry’s inception at the California missions, Ornelas-Higdon examines the evolution of wine growing across three distinct political regimes—Spanish, Mexican, and American—through the industry’s demise after Prohibition. This interethnic study of race and labor in California examines how California Natives, Mexican Californios, Chinese immigrants, and Euro-Americans came together to build the industry. Ornelas-Higdon identifies the birth of the wine industry as a significant missing piece of California history—one that reshapes scholars’ understandings of how conquest played out, how race and citizenship were constructed, and how agribusiness emerged across the region. The Grapes of Conquest unearths the working-class, multiracial roots of the California wine industry, challenging its contemporary identity as the purview of elite populations.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496224279/
Secondary URL: https://www.amazon.com/Grapes-Conquest-Industrialization-California-1769-1920/dp/1496239512/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-1496239518
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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