ABSTRACT
The Baja California Peninsula was discovered in 1532, as a result of Hernán Cortés’s interest in exploring what we know today as the Pacific Ocean. The news of the existence of a “great island to the west” (which turned out to be a peninsula) motivated Cortés to venture there in 1535. Although his visit to the peninsula was brief, it marked the time when Europeans arrived at the Californias. For thousands of years before then, people had lived in the peninsula and the land to its north, which today is California. These indigenous peoples were dispersed throughout the territory, forming different groups that are commonly identified and classified by their linguistic roots. Although most of the groups were hunter–gatherers, several practiced agriculture, including the Cucapa Indians, the original settlers of the lower Colorado River.
