ABSTRACT
A 16th century Spanish chivalric romance, Las sergas de Esplandián (1510), introduced to the European populace a place called “California” and described it as a rich island. That place was fictional, but 25 years after the novel was published a particularly dry and isolated spot west of Sonora, Mexico, was named “California.” Hence, during the following centuries two contradictory sets of information about this region battled to succeed. On one hand, the fantastic description of California that had already gained the hearts and minds of European invaders propelled the illusion of fountains of youth and hills of gold. On the other hand, the ecological reality of a region composed of arid and semi-arid zones where sedentary human life had not been experienced yet, a region with a present average annual rainfall of less than 200 millimeters, challenged the actual technoscientific possibilities of all colonization projects. Colonization of 18th century California was a complete failure and an ecological and human catastrophe that ended with the extinction of native human population. During the 19th century, the toponym “moved” far north to the place that is nowadays known as California, USA, retaining some of the original fantastic features—i.e., the gold rush.
In this chapter, I propose that 18th century California's catastrophe can be a parable for the Anthropocene in the arid zones. I will use an interdisciplinary approach ranging from the only eyewitness written account of the colonization fiasco, Baegert's Nachrichten von der Amerikanischen Halbinsel Californien (1772), to literary texts such as Verne's L'île Mystérieuse (1875), and scientific articles about the Little Ice Age in order to show how illusory representations of desertscapes, alongside with uncritical belief in technoscientific progress, led and still lead to the construction of social dreams that are transformed into ecological and human nightmares.
