What Did the Californios Really Wear, and How Can We Find Out?

How do we get past the myths and fantasies about the clothing worn by the Californios - the Spanish-speaking people of early California? Not a question of critical importance in the grand scheme of things, I know, but one that has occupied me for many years now.

Scene from Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925), with Mary Astor and Douglas Fairbanks

By myths and fantasies, I mean what we think we know after watching different versions of Zorro and other movies set in "Old California"; looking at the paintings of Alexander Harmer, James Walker, or the drawings of Jo Morra; or attending a reenactment or living history event at an historic site in California. 

Californio Horseman, by William Myers. Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley

I've always believed that the best way to get to the truth about the past is to go straight to the original sources. For example, in 1840 a young French diplomat arrived in California at the start of a journey of several years to bring back information about the western coast of North America. His name was Eugène Duflot de Mofras (1810 - 1884), and his memoir* of that journey contained the following description the clothing Californio men wore during his visit : 

"The usual costume of the Californian [man] consists of loose cloth pantaloons, open from the knee, and showing cotton° drawers, an embroidered white cotton shirt, with a black cravat tied loosely about the neck; a silk sash, a printed cottonˆ roundabout jacket, padded on the shoulders and breast, or a cloth roundabout, embroidered and ornamented with passementeries†; finally, buckskin shoes, and a broad-brimmed black hat wrapped around with an enormous braid, and sometimes decorated with silver eagles. Below this hat, they usually wear a black silk scarf. The sarape, is a blanket quite similar to the South American poncho; a hole in the middle allows the head to pass through. They also sometimes cover themselves with the manga, a sort of long square mantle with rounded corners, made of broadcloth, with an opening like a serape, but around which is a circular velvet collar, adorned with a large fringe in silk, gold or silver."

Californians Lassoing a Steer, by Augusto Ferran, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley

"These Costumes are very expensive; the calzoneras, or loose pantaloons with buttons and gold braid, sell for fifty or sixty piasters; a fine sarape or a manga with gold fringes, from sixty to one hundred piastres. When the rancheros ride on horseback, they tie below the knee, using embroidered garters, a kind of legging they call botas (boots). These leggings, in the fold of which they place the long knife which never leaves them, are formed of pieces of shaped leather, rather thick but very supple, about fifteen inches high and a foot and a half wide. They are worked with a [pounce] wheel and stamping tools, and have very pretty designs cut into them and embossed. They wear a pair of huge spurs, whose rowels are no less than four inches in diameter, and consist of five points the size of a goose feather with blunt tips . . . It is needless to add that in Monterey and among some inhabitants of the [other] pueblos, one finds an almost European costume, and, on special occasions, the inevitable habit noir [business suit]. Rich Californians alone make use of fine cloth and silk; the others use buckskin breeches, cotton and coarse woolen fabrics."

Duflot de Mofras' account of men's dress is not only detailed, but includes two points that I think are often overlooked. The first is that already by 1840, when the author visited California, Euro-American type men's clothing was beginning to be fashionable. Not surprisingly, this was especially true in Monterey - the capitol - and in the other towns. I would venture to say that this is because such clothing was mostly worn by government officials and others more or less recently arrived from Mexico and elsewhere.

The other point that Duflot de Mofras makes, after describing the finest sorts of garments worn by Californio men, is that only a minority of Californios wore them - the wealthiest men at the top of society. He states quite clearly that the majority used clothing of buckskin, cotton, and coarse wool. Duflot de Mofras does not say that their clothing was essentially different in appearance, but only in their materials. "Buckskin," peau de daim in the original, could have meant braintain leather, but more more often it was likely to be gamuza, a kind of suede leather that was both imported from Mexico and produced locally. 

Which is why Augusto Ferran's circa 1849 painting of Californio vaqueros is an appropriate illustration here (above). These men are dressed mostly in gamuza, with cotton shirts and drawers. The man on the ground wears blue calzoneras, probably of wool. All of their clothing, even their botas, is quite plain and without ornament of any kind. 

A California Rancho Scene Near Monterey (c.1849), by Alfred Sully. Oakland Museum of California

Duflot de Mofras also had something to say about Californio women's dress. Contrary to popular belief today, the women of Mexican California dressed more plainly than their men. He also made two remarks that are often overlooked. 

“The costume of the women is simpler; it usually consists of a printed cotton or a silk dress, the cut far from French fashions; a rebozo, a kind of cotton or silk scarf, with which they cover their heads as needed, and which they replace on feast days with large embroidered crepe de Chine shawls; a very few have preserved the black [lace] Spanish mantilla. In summer, instead of an entire dress, they only have a skirt (enaguas), of which the upper part is a different color from the rest. Silk stockings and satin shoes are reserved for best dress. When they uncover their heads, they let their braids hang down, or even hanging loose without braiding it; but when doing up their hair, they wear a black silk kerchief on their heads. The hat, which is huge, is only used by them when riding horseback.”

Duflot de Mofras, along with almost all visitors to California agreed that the men, like songbirds, had the brighter plumage. Only a few, like Richard Henry Dana, Jr., seems to have thought that Californio women were slaves to fashion. The rest tell us that Californio women dressed plainly and, by 1834, it was only older women and the poor who still used the chemise and petticoat for daily wear. All others wore dresses which, Duflot de Mofras tells us, were not of the most fashionable cut. It is true that in hot weather many women went back to wearing the chemise and petticoat, which was essentially underwear, but other authors noted that this was mostly meant for use in the privacy of their homes.

The two points in this description that are overlooked have to do with head coverings. Duflot de Mofras and several others, including Californios, testify to the fact that women never wore hats, except when riding on horseback. Presumably, this was because they needed their hands to manage their mounts. He also describes another head covering, a black silk scarf, which was the camorra, a kind of turban that covered most of the wearer's hair. 

Here are two eyewitness images that, though painted after Duflot de Mofras' time, help to illustrate what he saw. Alfred Sully's picture of a Monterey rancho (above) shows three women who appear to be young. At least two of them, and possibly all three, are wearing dresses. The one in blue has draped her rebozo around her head and upper body - something that they almost always did when going out of doors. Also, the woman on horseback wears her own hat, and not one borrowed from the gentleman behind her on the saddle. 

Feliciana Pacheco, by Leonardo Barbieri (c. 1855). De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University

The other painting, by Barbieri (above), shows an older woman who wears the camorra. There were other ways of tying theblack silk turban, but this was a common one. 

We can see that the testimony of Duflot de Mofras, combined with eyewitness images, presents a different, less romanticized view of Californio dress during the Mexican era in California. Many other authors and quite a few images support this conclusion. These might be the subject of a future post. 

*Exploration du Territoire de L’Oregon, des Californies et de la Mer Vermeille, Exécutée Pendant les Années 1840, 1841 et 1842 . . . Paris: Libraire de la Société de Géographie, 1844.

°The French word is toile, which literally means canvas but should be understood as plain coarse cotton fabric. 

ˆIndienne. In Spanish, this was indianilla, which was originally printed fabric from India but by this time was applied to any printed cotton, including those made in Mexico.

  †Passementeries. Passementerie are decorations made from silk, metallic braid, and other items. On surviving Californio clothing, sequins are sometimes added to metalic braid decorations.