History buffs will love Richard Carrico’s new book, El Presidio de San Diego: Excavating Southern California’s Lost City. The author’s preview to European colonization is short but extensive. Carrico’s greatest focus is upon the presidio in San Diego, which was a Spanish military post as well as the first Catholic mission and settlement in California.

Begun by Franciscans, the El Presidio de San Diego was used as a stepping stone to spread Spain’s northern empire in California, which grew into twenty-one missions and four presidios. These settlements housed soldiers, wives, native workers, and passing travelers. Sometimes, acting as the only form of law, the post declared and carried out justice. As a result, it held a few prisoners.

Carrico states, “Erase any thoughts you might have about metal-helmeted conquistadors, soldiers in matching colorful uniforms, or purebred Spaniards living within the adobe walls. Except for the small contingent of Catalonian soldiers from Spain, few presidial occupants had ever set foot in Europe. Their homeland was in the New World, in the ever-expanding Spanish empire.”

The book shares fascinating findings of excavations done in and around the El Presidio de San Diego that began with limited digs in the late 1920s. Attention was renewed in 1965, and then more extensive archeological studies were performed between 1968 and 1976. The author shares intimate details about the digs in which he was involved.

From artifacts discovered, archaeologists pieced together how people lived in the late 1700s to the mid-1800s. Grave excavations also revealed diseases and deformities of the residents and how long people likely lived.

Below is an excerpt shows how Carrico can make historical events seem exciting:

“One of the major items sought from the Spaniards by the Kumeyaay was cloth. When Serra and his companions told the village leaders that no more cloth would be provided to them, a group of Kumeyaay sailors launched reed canoes and attacked the San Carlos anchored in the harbor. The disgruntled Native men attempted to slash the canvas sails and take them as overdue tribute. They were repelled by on-board guards. In response, additional guards were sent to the ship for protection, leaving the little Spanish camp nearly defenseless.

“In August 1769, realizing that most of the soldiers had gone north with Portolá or were on board the San Carlos, insurgents led by a powerful Kwaapaay named Naguasajo, attacked Serra’s little encampment. In what was described as a pitched battle, several persons on both sides were wounded and one young Spanish boy, a valet or servant from Guadalajara, was shot through the throat and killed. Ironically, seven years later, Serra met with Naguasajo in his prison cell at the presidio. Naguasajo had been arrested for his part in the sacking of the mission in November 1775. He remained steadfastly anti-Spaniard and recalcitrant.

“Over the next several months and then years, expeditions to the north continued, and new missions were established at Carmel, Padua and San Gabriel. Short on supplies, threatened by local Kumeyaay and with many of the sailors and soldiers still suffering from scurvy, the new outpost hung by a tenuous thread. From his command post to the north in Monterey, Lieutenant Pedro Fages bristled at the thought that he was expected to protect the missionaries. This set the stage for decades of competition between the military and the church, leading at times to outright animosity.

“For five years, the new settlers toiled on the hill to build a small church, housing for the troops, bastions to mount their two cannons and other elements of the fort. The term presidio, derived from presidium, meaning “to preside,” was applied to the settlement although it was not officially recognized as a royal presidio for several more years. Under Spanish law, the presidio and especially the mission were expected to fend for themselves, with only limited support from the Spanish government in Mexico City, more than eighteen hundred miles to the south and San Blas, thirteen hundred miles distant. The priests and colonists were instructed to grow their own crops; raise successful herds of cattle, pigs and horses; and defend the little hillside settlement from Native and foreign forces. For the first year, the military element consisted of fewer than ten ill-equipped men.”

About the Writer

Carrico is an award-winning author of nonfiction and historical fiction with a focus on Spanish borderlands archaeology, indigenous people, and true crime. Carrico grew up in San Diego before serving in the U.S. Army in the late 1960s. He holds a BA in history from San Diego State College and a BA in anthropology from San Diego State University. As a postgraduate, he earned an MA in history from the University of San Diego. He taught history, anthropology, and Native American studies at San Diego State University for thirty years before retiring in 2024. 

For more than forty years, Carrico participated in archaeological studies in California, Baja California, Arizona, and Hawaii. He directed the San Diego Presidio excavations for two seasons and conducted research on the site for more than forty-five years. He has authored more than twenty academic articles that appeared in professional journals and at least twenty articles in popular magazines, including SkyWest Spirit, San Diego Home & Garden, San Diego Reader and Ranch & Coast Magazine. He has published five books on a variety of topics.

This book is Carrico’s second publication with Arcadia Publishing/The History Press. His book Ramona, in the Images of America series, was a well-received portrayal of a rural community. His Strangers in a Stolen Land, the story of San Diego County’s Native Americans, is used as a textbook at several universities. His most recent book, Monsters on the Loose, won second place at the 2024 Book Fest and was a Silver Falchion Award Finalist at the 2024 Killer Nashville event. His short story “Animals Who Talk, Sing, and Dance” received an Honorable Mention Award from Writer’s Digest Magazine. His most recent piece, Habla Espanol? If You Rodeo You Do was published in Cowboy Up rodeo magazine.