"David E. Hayes-Bautista and Cynthia L. Chamberlin convincingly contest the fable of a California emptied of Latinos in the wake of the 1849 Gold Rush. The book's recovery of Mexican prospector Justo Veytia's diary gives voice to a population of historical actors rarely acknowledged in previous studies of the US West." - Anna M. Nogar, coeditor of El feliz ingenio neomexicano: Felipe M. Chacón and Poesía y prosa"This gem of a book offers a poignant glimpse into the life and times of Justo Veytia, a twenty-eight-year-old Guadalajara native whose quest for California gold took him on a two-year odyssey that left him penniless, yet undaunted. Veytia's journal, translated and richly annotated, chronicles the "Latino Big Bang" - that formative moment when Latino migration and labor changed the course of California history." - John M. Nieto-Phillips, author of The Language of Blood: The Making of Spanish-American Identity in New Mexico, 1880s-1930s