Once upon a time in Los Angeles, water
was everywhere—in
rivers that rendered the vast plain marsh and woodland; in
underground streams that provided an abundance of water for
people, cattle, orchards and vineyards.
The American Henry
Scott encounters this fertile landscape in When Water Was
Everywhere. Arriving in the Mexican pueblo of Los Angeles in
1842, he meets Don Rodrigo Tilman (based on the historical
John Temple). Scott becomes the foreman of Tilman’s
newly-purchased cattle ranch along the Los Angeles River,
the present day Rancho Los Cerritos.
As Scott learns about
ranchos and cattle, vaqueros and Indians, Mexican California
and Tongva Indian village life come alive under Barbara
Crane’s deft grasp of narrative and history. Tilman, Scott,
Big Headed Girl (a young Tongva Indian woman) and Padre
José’s (a Franciscan friar) unfolding stories assure the
novel’s themes of loss, hope and redemption resonate from
every page.