"Californios! Whom Do You Support?" El Clamor Publico's Contradictory Role in the Racial Formation Process in Early California‪.‬

Most of the academic literature on El Clamor Publico has pointed out the role of the newspaper as a defender of the rights of Mexicans in a particularly violent era during California history. This essay explores some of the complexities of the newspaper's coverage of other nonwhite groups and how it either contested notions of white supremacy or simply reproduced them. A sophisticated reading and analysis reveals that the ambiguous social standing of California's Spanish-speaking communities at the time played a part in El Clamor's coverage of violence and discrimination against three other nonwhite groups: African Americans, Chinese, and Indians. During the 1850s, California went through a "racial formation process," which codified the racial status of different groups in the state. (1) On the one hand, white males were granted full political rights, favorable judicial treatment, access to free labor markets, and high social standing. On the other hand, people of color were denied the right to vote and the right to testify in court against whites. They were also blocked from unrestricted access to free labor markets, and they were denied equal social status with whites.