-theory of settlement of United Provinces of Buenaventura

-made by professor of the University of San Francisco

-made in 1908 by scholar Federico O'Donnell Gutierrez

-who's a Texan son of oldline immigrants to Texas from the Spanish era

-theory is that Buenaventura is the product of a set of overlapping frontiers

-giving to the country a series of frontier immigrants

-who, together, imbued Buenaventura with a notion of independence and liberty

-in contrast to the urbanity of the US and many other countries

-shaped by O'Donnell living in the nigh apocalyptic atmosphere of San Francisco recovering from the earthquake

-founded from very early wave of settlement from Mexico

-from missions

-shaping pattern of small towns defined by patron-peon relationships which spin over to political bossism

-shaped by converts of indigenous and heavily mestizo

-extreme remoteness allows for relative freedom

-and weakened caste system relative to further south

-and also on ranches allows for open-range vaquero culture

-in O'Donnell's view, provides for independence and self-sufficiency against whatever government may exist

-shaped by Spanish defeat in US's Wars > Luisiana War (1825-8)

-US becomes feared by Spanish which wants to prevent further expansion

-results in many European immigrants being settled in Texas

-particularly Irish and German, as well as Spanish

-creating a sort of free labor population with its own interests

-in O'Donnell's view, gives a value of free labor to Buenaventura as a whole

-and also high diversity between the two great cultures

-extension of Cuban plantations into East Texas

-and brings their slaves

-brings it into conflict with free Spanish Frontier population

-despite prosperity it brings

-despite brutality of system, in O'Donnell's view it's freer than the Cuban system it was birthed

-and gives to Coloreds "proper" freedom rather than the "brutality" of the US

-result of Country folders/Buenaventura/Mineral rushes > California Gold Rush (1854)

-brings in settlers from across the Pacific and the US

-including many from Australia coming from their big Gold Rush (1839) having run out

-also Chileans

-and New Englanders

-and US Southerners

-turns San Francisco almost overnight into huge boom city

-quickly it becomes linked in trade with Mexican and Spanish-Cuban frontiers

-trading cattle and the like

-linking together nation as the Buenaventura River was once thought to do

-creating cohesive Buenaventuran national identity for the first time

-in O'Donnell's view, gives to Buenaventura financial capital and the foundations of independence

-as well as frontier urbanity

-Buenaventura's Wars > Buenaventuran War of Independence (1864-7) is the union of these frontiers towards a national initiative

-Cuban frontier liberated and dominated by free labor of Spanish frontier

-southerners fleeing defeat in Liberty and Union War (1868-76)

-as well as economic failure

-and, in words of O'Donnell, to preserve their honor

-brings huge numbers to Buenaventura

-dramatically changing its culture through their traditionalistic evangelism

-in O'Donnell's view, giving to Buenaventura a sense of honor and stability

-as well as independence and a "just suspicion" of the US

-O'Donnell does not give a shit about Coloreds

-and often reflects southern views on them

-ignoring them altogether in his analysis save their impacts on whites

-despite that many of them moved back to US in family reunions

-also because higher Colored stature in US

-as is well known on US side

-also ignores Indigenous

-exaggerates uniqueness of Buenaventuran experience

-when, in reality, a lot of places are result of overlapping frontiers