Tempe History Society Lunch Talks

“Con Artists in the Archives” By Dr. Anita Huizar-Hernandez

Wednesday, September 11, at 11:30 a.m.

The bizarre 19th century “Peralta Land Grant” scheme in Arizona tests the limits of how ideas about race, citizenship, and national expansion are forged. Drawing from a wide variety of sources including court records, newspapers, fiction, and film, Dr. Huizar-Hernandez argues that the creation, collapse, and eventual forgetting of Reavis’s scam, forgeries, and fraud reveals the mechanisms by which narratives, real and imaginary, forge borders. Stop by Tempe History Museum for this free talk presented by Tempe History Society with generous support from Friendship Village.