Gold, Sex, Religion, and Race in the Making of the United States West

This WestportREADS 2025 lecture, led by U.S. historian Kris Klein Hernández, contextualizes Hernán Díaz's by examining how the book's Swedish protagonist finds himself in California.

Through a study of Indigenous California to 1849 and the Gold Rush, this talk will examine how settler colonialism and manifest destiny facilitated the conditions that led to the rise of transient towns in the North American West. Hernández will explore the rise of informal sex work alongside the formation of religious enclaves that Díaz showcases in the novel, concluding with an investigation of how the impacts of race and nation shaped family and familial relations in the 19th century West.

About Kris Klein Hernández

Hernández is a U.S. historian of race, gender, and sexuality whose scholarship is located at the nexus of borderlands history and comparative ethnic studies. He specializes in comparative racialization, militarization, and sexuality in the long 19th century, with a focus on the geography of the U.S.-Mexico boundary. He teaches courses on 19th century U.S. history; borderlands history; Vast Early America; settler colonialisms; comparative ethnic histories; U.S. imperialism and empire; and sexuality from the early republic to the present.

He is currently finishing up his first book project, The Color of the Army: Forts and Race-Making in the Nineteenth-Century U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, a cultural history of American militarization from the U.S. war with Mexico to the first World War.

His research has received funding from the Ford Foundation; Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History; Yale University’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity & Transnational Migration; Institute for Citizens & Scholars; the Social Science Research Council; and the Organization of American Historians.

Hernández received his PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan, an MA in History from the University of Texas, El Paso, and his AB in Latin American Studies cum laude and Spanish from Bowdoin College. Prior to arriving at Connecticut College, he taught at Harvard University, Yale University, and Bowdoin College.

About WestportREADS

Created in 2002, WestportREADS is a way for the Westport community to bond over a book and is designed to deepen our community’s engagement in literature.

Throughout January and February, there will be events and programs centered on In the Distance, book discussions, celebrations, and much more. It is a chance to not only read a great book but to engage with the community, meet new people, and celebrate our shared love of reading.

WestportREADS is funded by the estate of Jerry A. Tishman.

Host or Publisher The Westport Library