LOGLINE: In 1780s California, a mixed-blood scout, torn between his native heritage and Spanish conquerors, is thrust into a battle of survival and identity as he navigates oppressive mission life and brutal colonizers. ALTA CALIFORNIA

• ALTA CALIFORNIA
• written by
• Lynn H. Elliott
• lelliott@csuchico.edu

"There is meaning here. There were themes having to do with racism and faith and the nature of both. The script also seemed to be saying something about humanity, and this was well integrated into the piece and arose out of it organically."  (Nicholl Fellowship critique)

PACO PALIDO, a mixd-heritage scout, central to "Alta California," tells his story.  It is divided into three acts:

 ACT ONE:  PRE-SANTA BARBARA.

Who am I? 

Call me PACO PALIDO (19), a name the Franciscans gave me in the Mission School.  My unknown father was Spanish, my mother native.  I am mixed blood.  As I stand in the mission church listening to PADRE JUNIPERO SERRA[1] leading the service, my eyes fix on the statue of the Virgin Mary and child.  Suddenly I’m thrown back to the screams as Spanish soldiers destroy my village and slaughter my mother.  Before her death, she gave me a clamshell necklace.  I never, despite the beatings, gave up my “heathen” necklace.  Nor did I accept baptism into a faith that condemns my mother to Hell.

Padre Crespi tries to convince me—again—that I should become baptized and marry ANNA-MARIA, a young neophyte (baptized native).  No!

GOVERNOR FELIPE DE NEVE arrives at the mission.  With him is SERGEANT CAMACHO and CORPORAL CORDERO.  Both soldiers are afraid of Neve.  Crossing him would send them back to Spain in chains. 

I stand quietly in Serra’s hut as he and Neve argue—again!  Finances, protection, treatment of the neophytes (Neve is far more humane), the two have such different opinions.  They are bitter enemies, serving and responding to different masters: a king and a pope. 

Shouts from outside the Serra’s hut.  Neve tells me to find out what is happening.  Camacho and Cordero are groping the female neophytes.  I help the women to the safety of their quarters.  The two soldiers draw PADRE CRESPI and me into a discussion about sexual encounters between soldiers and native females.  All, even the baptized, are “animals,” available only for their enjoyment, to these two soldiers.

Cordero and I hate each other.   He was the man who killed my mother!  Both Spanish soldiers despise me because Neve likes and trusts me.  Any fights are broken up by Camacho, fearful of Neve’s justice.

Camacho suggests I join him and Cordero in a “hunt for deer.”  I know what this means!  It’s their way for preying on female natives far from Neve’s eyes.  I refuse.  I’d rather spend the night cold and alone in jail for disobeying an order.

I wake the next morning to yells and people running.  I strain to hear what is happening.  An OLD MEDICINE MAN and OLD WOMAN are outside the gates of the mission performing some ceremony.  Camacho believes there’s an imminent attack.  Lies!  I know  what’s happening. Camacho and Cordero know too.  A ceremony for an old battered and bruised woman with torn clothing captured during the “hunt.” 

Neve wants answers.  He tells me to talk the local HEADMAN.  Cordero wants to accompany me!  Neve refuses.

I ride out and talk to the Headman.  He tells me what I already knew.  But he doesn’t want Neve to know.  The two men, he says, will receive tribal justice with poisoning from rattlesnake oil: slow, painful, madness and death.   Before I leave, the Headman reminds me that the clamshell necklace I wear has “great power.”  He predicts  that all will travel south soon to a place where “the spirit of [my] mother awaits.”

I return to the mission.  The Headman was right.  Neve brings word that King Carlos authorizes the establishment of a mission in Santa Barbara, home of the Chumash, a fierce, independent tribe.

Each has his own reason for praising the move south: more converts for Padre Serra; completion of El Camino Real, The King’s Highway from north to south for Captain de Neve; and more “deer to hunt” for Camacho and Cordero.  And me?  I continue the search for my people.

ACT TWO:  SANTA BARBARA: 

Are these my people?

We establish a base near the beach in Santa Barbara.  Neve commands Camacho, Cordero and me to scout the area and find where the Chumash encampment is located. 

I should have guessed!  The sergeant and corporal see this as an opportunity to introduce their “young virgin,” me, to the joys of “hunting deer.”   When we come upon two women, one young, one old, they offer me the young one!

It’s a trap!  Braves appear!  Camacho and Cordero escape, but I’m captured by a young Chumash girl, IFAPI and hauled back to the Chumash encampment. 

It is as old Headman predicted it.  I’m saved from death by the “great power” in my clamshell necklace.

The CHUMASH HEADMAN, MEDICINE MAN and OTHER ELDERS gather around me, discussing the engravings on the necklace.  I’m told to return—alone—the next night for the “big gathering” of local tribes. 

I return to the base camp.  Serra is enraged that this “heathen,” me, will return to the Chumash encampment alone while he, Serra, a man of God, is to remain behind.  Neve threatens Serra with jail if he attempts to contact the Chumash.

The next day, I go fishing, alone.  Ifapi appears but quickly disappears when Camacho and Cordero appear.  Camacho is sick, breathing heavily.  Has he been poisoned like the old Headman predicted?  When?  By whom? 

Despite Serra’s raging, that night I travel alone to the Chumash encampment. 

Ifapi and her friends question me about the newcomers and their religion.  God is everywhere!  How can HE be trapped in a black book?  Why is there a special building to worship?   Is this God in all church buildings at the same time?  How can some “elders” be young?  If a priest leaves his “place,” doesn’t he leave his God?  Where exactly is heaven?  Hell?  Why do you need forgiveness?  What have you done?  As I struggle to answer these questions, we’re interrupted by PLUMED DANCERS who circle me, eyes wide and staring.

Ifapi stops the conversation.  I must prepare.  For what?  An upcoming ceremony in the Big House?  For me?  She leads me to the sweat house: to prepare!

When I leave the sweat house, GHOST DANCERS surround me, forcing me into the Big House.  It is dark, except for a large fire in the center.

I stand there, alone, not knowing what is happening.  Then I see her!  The “spirit of my dead mother”  exits the fire and walks to me!  I try to hold her but can’t.  She “talks in silence” with me.  Then she turns and reenters the fire.  I rush forward, wanting to follow her, but Ghost Dancers hold me back!

Ifapi grasps my hand, leading me out of the Big House.  She takes me to her hut and cleanses my body.  Then we make love!  We each cut a small line on the other’s cheek.  I am hers, and she is mine!

Next morning, the Headman tells me I still have work to do.  I must help my people.  When that is done, I can return to Ifapi and the Chumash.

I leave the Chumash encampment and return to the Spanish base camp. 

ACT THREE.

How do I help my people prepare for the white invaders from the east seeking land and gold?

Anna-Maria knows!  She sees the cut on my cheek.  I am lost to her!

Neve knows about the rape of the old woman and the curse put upon Camacho and Cordero.  The sergeant is sick, close to death.  Corporal Cordero grows madder and madder.  He rushes off, sword waving, vowing to slaughter all heathen gods—alone!

Serra and Neve both know that the Spanish will soon leave California.  White men come from the east seeking land and gold.  What will happen to the neophytes, living in the missions?  Serra and Neve both have answers.  They’re far apart. 

Serra says the neophytes should remain in the missions.  God will protect them!  He’s wrong!  They will be slaughtered!  

Neve completes an order: a Regalamento.  Neophytes will choose a leader who will then leads them to the hills where they’ll return to their tribal ways.  Serra hates the idea, but Neve and the Spanish king say it must be so.

Neve tells me to ride to the missions informing them of his plan.  He demands action.

Something’s wrong!  The missions seem deserted!  No priests greet me!  I nail Neve’s proclamation to the mission door and move on.

Then comes Mission Dolores.  In the yard,  BALTHAZAR, a wretched neophyte, is trying to rape a woman.  I wrestle him away and  threaten to thrash him. “I can’t be touched!” he says.  “I was voted leader of the neophytes!”  Him?  Balthazar?!  I throw him the stocks! 

I want answers!

PADRE MIGUEL is drunk—again!  Too drunk to control his secret.  He giggles as he tells me “about the clever little trick Padre Serra taught [the padres]: how to obey the law while not obeying the law.”  Serra’s deceitful plan is revealed to me!

I drag Balthazar back to face Serra and Neve.  Is what I heard the truth?

Neve is not at the camp, so I lock Balthazar in the prison.  I’ll have to wait!

I revisit the Chumash encampment.  It is destroyed!    The Chumash, preparing for the coming whites, have moved further inland. 

Ifapi is not there, but someone is.  I am confronted by the crazed Corporal Cordero.  He circles me, preparing for the attack, calling out to various non-existent figures: Camacho and demons.  As we fight, Cordero reminds me how he killed my mother.

Suddenly an arrow flies, killing Cordero.  Am I next?  No!  , Having saved me, my protector disappears into the forest.  

Time to confront Serra with the “freely chosen” native leader, Balthazar.  Unable to read or write, Balthazar “read” Governor Neve’s Regalamento and “signed his name”! 

Is it a miracle?  No!  It was Padre Miguel who read and signed the document for Balthazar.  Neve says the padres used the same ploy in the other missions.  The padres “chose” the leaders.  They chose the most untrustworthy and disreputable neophytes to act as “leaders.”  Neve’s plan loses, Serra’s wins!   

Neve’s Regalamento, supported by King Carlos, is a failure, undermined by Serra.  Thes neophytes will stay in the missions, defenseless.

EPILOG. 

Padre Junipero Serra and Governor Felipe de Neve both die in the same year, 1784.

I hear that Serra is buried, with full ceremony, in the Mission San Carlos de Borromeo de Carmelo. 

I journey south to Chihuahua and Neve’s grave in Hacienda Nuestra Senora de Carmen de Pena Blanca.  It is unmarked.  His final wish.

I return north to the deserted Chumash encampment.  I sit waiting, snow falling around me.  I hear the sound of horses.  Ifapi has returned.  I am aided onto the back of a horse.  We prepare to ride away to the Chumash encampment in the hills. 

Before we leave, we give thanks to the ghost of my mother.