Gregorio del Amo among the spanish «californios» in the United States

Gregorio del Amo who led an extraordinary life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The story of Gregorio Del Amo and his wife and children played out against a panorama of two centuries of history as California passed from Spain to Mexico to independence to the United States. The Del Amo family story touches on a long list of critical places, major events and social changes of the era: the countryside of northern Spain, the Spanish minor nobility, the old medical school of San Carlos in Madrid (today the Reina Sofía Museum), the Atlantic Ocean, the transatlantic migration and the continued migration within the American continents, life on the ranches, fabulous oil wealth, pioneering aviation, the “Roaring 20’s”, trips between the United States and Europe, patronage of the arts and charitable institutions, the story of a republican who cooperated with the Spanish King Alfonso XIII, the origins of the University Complex in Madrid, various campuses of the University of California, a seminary for Claretian missionaries in Los Angeles, schools for children in Spain, grants for elite researchers and physicians in Los Angeles, Hollywood during the ’30’s, the origins of radio, world wars, business and the crisis of 1929, the “jet set” of Los Angeles…, and the list goes on. There was even a mistress in Seville with whom Del Amo had two sons, whom he later adopted. Each theme suggested fascinating sidelights. Translation: Michael C. Hirshman (University of California, San Diego, B.A.).