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For the prestigious Mexican historian, Miguel León-Portilla, the Yumans of Baja California were not Indians of warfare, but rather Indians of peace. In the opinion of this researcher, it was because lived in the fossilized-paleolithic stage that these Indigenous groups did not present any kind of resistance against the European colonization, making possible their easy domination and posterior diminishment or assimilation. This paper questions these advancements not only because of their lack of technical precision, but also because they obscure the role of agency that these Indians played during the missionary period. On the contrary, this paper endorses Edward Spicer's (1962) assertion that resistance was present even among those groups that were not seriously engaged in significant fights against the Spanish conquerors. In the particular case of the Yuman people, this is a resistance challenging the Pueblo Indio project and its related implications in terms of sedentary lifestyle, agricultural economy and the adoption of a scheme of central authority. As we know, these patterns were opposed to those observed among the Yumans as nomads, hunters and gatherers, organized into a segmentary lineage system. Moreover, the kind of resistance described in this paper constitutes what James C. Scott (1990) refers to as the hidden and daily life transcripts, such as ingenuity, intelligence simulating ignorance, and irony, as well as, those economic and social practices studied by Jan Rus (1995), which include mobility and appropriation of the missionary site, all with the intention of perpetuating the presence of these Indigenous people and make possible their social reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the prestigious Mexican historian, Miguel León-Portilla, the Yumans of Baja California were not Indians of warfare, but rather Indians of peace. In the opinion of this researcher, it was because of their living in a fossilized paleolithic state that these Indigenous groups did not present any kind of resistance against the European colonization, making possible their easy domination and afterwards diminishment or assimilation. This paper questions these assertions not only because of their lack of technical precision, but also because they obscure the role of agency that these Indians played during the missionary period. On the contrary, this paper endorses Edward Spicer (1962) in the sense that resistance took place even among those groups who were not seriously engaged in significant fights against the Spanish conquerors. In the particular case of the Yuman people, this resistance challenged the Pueblo Indio project and its related implications in terms of sedentary lifestyle, agricultural economy and the adoption of a scheme of central authority. As we know, these patterns were opposed to those observed among the Yumans as nomads, hunters and gatherers, organized into a segmentary lineage system. Moreover, the kind of resistance described in this paper constitutes what James C. Scott (1990) refers to as the hidden and daily life transcripts, such as ingenuity, intelligence simulating ignorance, and irony, as well as those economic and social practices studied by Jan Rus (1995), which include mobility and appropriation of the missionary site. All of these acts had the intention of perpetuating the presence of these indigenous people and make possible their social reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the persistent histories and lasting effects of the Baja California peninsula's status as an "almost island". The peninsula is almost an island in so many ways. Its reputation as an island-like entity has also been strengthened by a longstanding myth that it was, in fact, an actual island. In many senses it was an island-- isolated, remote, difficult to envision, understand, and control. Geography and climate played a vital role in all of this, but so, too, did human imagination. The author uses the concept of shima, along with discussions about the dual meanings of the Spanish word aislamiento as a way to explore these issues. Aislamiento can refer more concretely to the effects of being on a landform surrounded by water, on the one hand, or the deep social and psychological effects of isolation. Ultimately, the author argues that it is this sense of isolation that works to produce, regardless of geographic and cartographic reality, a powerful sense of islandness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between July of 1891 and May 1892, the Mexican Land and Colonization Company, a British enterprise with a concession over the major part of Baja California's wastelands, laid 27 kilometers of rail of what was to be known as the Peninsular Railway with the expectation of opening up lands to cultivation and settlement, and attracting investment. But the train's starting point was San Quintin, a shallow bay ill-suited to becoming an important shipping port and, as far as the tracks had been built, led to nowhere. However, the objective of this paper is not to analyze the reasons for which the railway project did not come to a happy termination. Rather, it focuses on the controversies and conspiracies which surrounded its construction, arising from the struggle between the United States and Great Britain for predominance in Mexico's far northwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiarid northwestern Mexico presents a growing water demand produced by agricultural and domestic requirements during the last two decades. The community of Guadalupe Valley and the city of Ensenada rely on groundwater pumping from the local aquifer as its sole source of water supply. This dependency has resulted in an imbalance between groundwater pumpage and natural recharge. A two-dimensional groundwater flow model was applied to the Guadalupe Valley Aquifer, which was calibrated and validated for the period 1984-2005. The model analysis verified that groundwater levels in the region are subject to steep declines due to decades of intensive groundwater exploitation for agricultural and domestic purposes. The calibrated model was used to assess the effects of different water management scenarios for the period 2007-2025. If the base case (status quo) scenario continues, groundwater levels are in a continuous drawdown trend. Some wells would run dry by August 2017, and water demand may not be met without incurring in an overdraft. The optimistic scenario implies the achievement of the mean groundwater recharge and discharge. Groundwater level depletion could be stopped and restored. The sustainable scenario implies the reduction of current extraction (up to about 50 %), when groundwater level depletion could be stopped. A reduction in current extraction mitigates water stress in the aquifer but cannot solely reverse declining water tables across the region. The combination of reduced current extraction and an implemented alternative solution (such as groundwater artificial recharge), provides the most effective measure to stabilize and reverse declining groundwater levels while meeting water demands in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peromyscus eva and Peromyscus fraterculus are 2 morphologically similar species of the Peromyscus eremicus group occurring on the Baja California Peninsula. Due to the similarity between these 2 species, their ranges have been greatly confused; consequently, the specific habitat characteristics for each group are not well known. The goal of this study was to assess distribution ranges and characteristics of preferred habitats for P. eva and P. fraterculus in more detail. We identified taxonomy of individuals by evaluating genetic patterns produced by restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). We evaluated the banding pattern generated by Alu I and Bam HI restriction enzymes in an 850-bp cytochrome b fragment. Consistent differences in number and size of fragments allowed for discrimination of individuals to species. The heterogeneity and evenness indexes showed that the microhabitat of P. fraterculus contained less-diverse soil types and is more homogeneous than the microhabitat of P. eva. In the state of Baja California Sur, P. eva occurs exclusively in the flat areas along the Pacific coast from the Vizcaino Desert to the south, including Margarita Island, with one small population in the Loreto area adjacent to Carmen Island. The habitats occupied by P. eva were heterogeneous (areas with friable, soft sandy soil and a low percentage of small stones). Peromyscus fraterculus occurs mostly in Baja California Norte, with some populations distributed in Baja California Sur, particularly in the western areas of the Vizcaino Desert along the mountain range, in the gulf side of the peninsula south of the city of La Paz, and in a small area on the eastern side of Sierra de Las Cruces. This species was mostly found on hard soil with high medium-size stone content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The systematics and phylogeography of the San Diego pocket mouse (Chaetodipus fallax), a species restricted to the Baja California Peninsula and adjacent southwestern California, were assessed using sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene (Cytb). Genetic relationships were evaluated among the 6 recognized subspecies of C. fallax (including the island population, C. f. anthonyi) in 3 geographic regions from individuals representing 22 populations. Analysis of molecular variance and multiple phylogenetic analyses indicated 3 main clades: northern populations in the southwestern Mojave Desert and Los Angeles Basin north of the Salton Trough; central populations from south of the Salton Trough and throughout the state of Baja California; and southern populations from west of the Vizcaíno Desert in Baja California Sur and adjacent Isla Cedros. These clades do not correspond to the currently recognized subspecies, and each could be considered a distinct subspecies pending analysis of nuclear DNA or characters (e.g., morphology) encoded by nuclear DNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geological forces and long-term climate changes can have profound effects on species. Such effects may be manifested in the pattern and magnitude of genealogical diversity, as revealed by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages. The relative importance of the different forces on a regional biota must be evaluated along with a good understanding of geological and climatological history. The peninsula of Baja California of north-western Mexico is one area where both geology and climate have affected the historical biogeography of the regional biota. Molecular studies based on the genealogical relationships among mtDNA lineages have contributed greatly towards elucidating the historical biogeography of Baja California. Perhaps most noticeably, numerous concordant breaks in mtDNA genealogies half-way along the peninsula suggest a vicariant history in which the mid-peninsula was temporarily submerged. This vicariant explanation has recently been criticized, as no conclusive geological evidence exists for a continuous submergence of the mid-peninsula. As an alternative, a scenario based on climatological factors has been suggested. Here we discuss the validity of the hypothesized mid-peninsular vicariance event and the climate-based alternative in explaining the concordant genealogical breaks. We argue that, despite the significant changes in climate brought about by the glacial cycles throughout the Quaternary, a vicariant history involving a mid-peninsular seaway remains the most parsimonious explanation of the observed patterns in mtDNA genealogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aims Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the Baja California peninsula are poorly known, with information based largely on scattered museum and literature records. We provide the first comprehensive account of ant species occurring on the peninsula, we examine distribution patterns, and we assess the ‘peninsular effect’ which predicts that species richness declines from the base to the tip of a peninsula. Location Peninsula of Baja California, Mexico. Methods Data collection involved examining, identifying and recording label data from c. 2350 series of ants. These records provide a provisional, if incomplete, species list. We applied the incidence-based estimator, Chao-2, to our data base of specimen records to estimate the total number of ant species on the peninsula. We assessed endemism by comparing our peninsular species list to those from adjacent states. The peninsular effect was tested by comparing genus and species level richness between the two states of Baja California, and across five latitudinal blocks. Results We document 170 native ant species in thirty-three genera, plus six non-native species, in Baja California. It seems likely that additional species remain to be discovered: the Chao-2 estimator of species richness, at 206.0 species, is about 20% higher than our observed species richness. About 30% of the species and 20% of the genera are restricted within Baja California to the relatively mesic California Floristic Province of north-western Baja California. Nearly all of these species also occur in California. Forty-seven species (27.6%) are peninsula endemics. Using our entire data set, the peninsular effect appears to be strong, with about twice as many species in the northern state of Baja California than are recorded from the southern state of Baja California Sur; the ratio of genera is 33 to 24. However, this effect becomes weak at the species level and absent at the genus level when minimizing habitat effects by... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]