This is the homepage of the research project on the first literary play performed in colonial California: Astucias por heredar un sobrino a un tío (1789). Authored by Spanish scientist and man of letters Fermín de Reygadas in Mexico City, the play was banned from the stage in the capital and was subsequently smuggled into the new colonial settlements of Alta California where it was performed by soldiers. This site incorporates some of the ongoing research on the play.

Decription of the MS: The only extant copy of Astucias is preserved in the Bancroft Library. It was donated to Hubert H. Bancroft in 1875 by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Vallejo had obtained the MS from an old colonist in Santa Cruz, Francisco de Sales Rodríguez (see Vallejo Letter).