Las fotografías de California de Rafael Castro y Ordóñez, miembro de la Expedición Científica del Pacífico (1862-1866): discurso y circulación

Abstract

In October 1863, Rafael Castro y Ordonez, artist and photographer of the Comision Cientifica del Pacifico, traveled across the State of California in the company of naturalist Francisco de Paula Martinez y Saez. The Comision was associated with a pan- Hispanic military and political expedition. As a result of the expedition the artist produced around twenty photographs, drawings, and several letters that were ultimately published by the Spanish pictorial magazine El Museo Universal. Both his photographs and travel accounts make up an exceptionally valuable body of knowledge allowing to reconstruct not only the Comision project but also its attempt at portraying a new image of America following the independence of Spain’s former colonies and the ascent of the United States as a world power. This paper analyzes both this discourse and its expression in relation to California, a then recently incorporated US territory. Several interesting phenomena, including occasional breaches in the discourse, the circulation of photographs beyond the expedition’s context, and the connections of this exploration journey with tourism, will be unveiled in the course of the present study.