Alejandro first met his son, Diego – thus named at Don Sebastian's request, in honor of his father – a couple of months after his birth, when Elena, her father and one of her brothers, together with five servants, came to visit him in Cadiz.

By August of that year, he was a free man, finally discharged and happy to take over his fatherly duties full-time.

That was not the best news for the Count, who had used his influence to keep Alejandro in the Army after his return from New Spain. He did so because he feared the young De la Vega would return to California, as soon as nothing held him back, thus taking his daughter and his grandson away.

He was right and, despite his obvious attempts to more-or-less bribe the young man so that he might decide to stay in Spain, preferably in Madrid, he also understood Alejandro's point of view. The Count, thus, had to reluctantly part with his daughter and grandson, fearing he might never see them again, despite the promises they all made to visit. It was a long and dangerous journey, though, not easy to make until Diego was older, even less with a second child, should one come, and at least as hard for an old man as he thought of himself.

His fears turned out to be mostly right, for he gave his last embrace to his daughter on a foggy October morning before she, Alejandro and Dieguito embarked for the New World.

ZZZ

It was about three days into their voyage to California when the De la Vegas first met the Escalantes. The young man was the son of a rather prosperous merchant from Andalusia, while his wife was the orphaned daughter of a former soldier turned farmer and the mestiza woman he had met and married while fighting in New Spain.

Alfonso's father had not agreed to the marriage, having had already chosen another wife for his son. Alfonso, however, loved Francisca too much to entertain the mere idea of leaving her.

The young man, thus, left his father and the small fortune he was due to inherit for the chance to marry the woman he loved. He was too young, though, and, without parental consent, he was unable to do so right away. Instead, in order to support her, he joined the Army. He was lucky to have a goodhearted commander who, at Alfonso's pleading request, hired Francisca to cook for his soldiers, offering her a small room and the protection of the garrison. That arrangement continued after Alfonso was sent to the front, during the three years it took for him to return to the woman he loved already a Sergeant. In all that time, she did have other offers of marriage, since Francisca was a beautiful young woman, but she faithfully awaited the return of the man she had promised herself to, just like Elena had waited for Alejandro.

Soon after Alfonso's return, 400 pesos richer then he was when he had left and 25 years of age, the two of them got married in a small church, planning to use the money they had saved in order to buy a small house to raise a family, while Alfonso continued to serve in the military. Their plans changed, nevertheless, when Alfonso was called to his dying father's bedside. The old man was suffering from tuberculosis and his priest had advised him not to leave this world before making peace with the only child he had left.

The young man thus ended up inheriting the small fortune his father had left behind, the money giving the couple the chance to make a better life for themselves. After going over their options, Alfonso decided to quit the military, sell his inheritance, and use the money to buy a patch of land in New Spain in order to start a new life there with his wife. That land he was able to buy happened to be near a small new pueblo referred to as Los Angeles, in a newly-settled northern territory called California.

Alejandro took an instant liking to Alfonso Escalante, whose name, military background, as well as a certain spark in the young man's hopeful eyes reminded him of the brother he had lost almost two years earlier. As for Elena - or Felicidad, as her husband started calling her, taking her second name as a promise of their future together - she much rather preferred Francisca Escalante's company to that of the other women on board, only two of whom were from her same class, both of them too old and set in their ways to even try to befriend.

Thus, during the four months of their voyage, the two young couples grew inseparable.

Alfonso and Alejandro spent much of their time discussing politics and the life awaiting them in California. The young Escalante proved to have an astute mind, and his new friend vowed to himself and to the memory of his brother to help him in all his endeavors.

In turn, Elena and Francisca spent most of their time caring for Dieguito, slaves to his every whim. When the baby was sleeping, though, Elena took on teaching her new friend. Thus, while Francisca was barely able to read at the beginning of their voyage, by its end, she was quite proficient, proved to have a mind for mathematics, had already read several of her friend's books, and was already more self-confident than ever before in her life.

Their ship's arrival in San Pedro coincided with Diego's first birthday. The elderly De la Vegas were beyond glad to finally have their son and his family home, even if his presence, without that of his brother, only made the news of Alfonso's passing all the more real. At Alejandro's request, his parents also agreed to host the Escalantes at the hacienda while they built their own house.

Later that afternoon, as his wife, daughter-in-law and their two guests were resting, Don Sebastian silently took his son and grandson to the courtyard, gathered a fist full of dirt and repeated the words his father had uttered when Alejandro and Alfonso were born, ending with putting a few crumbs of earth in the child's mouth. Diego, who was asleep as that strange ceremony was taking place, swallowed the earth, then opened his blue eyes and smiled.

"Now, Diego is born again as a true Californiano and son of this land he is due to inherit." Don Sebastian uttered as he smiled at Alejandro, his soul oscillating between the bitter understanding of why he had spent his entire life certain that his younger son would be his heir, and the sweet certainty that, no matter what fate had in store, his grandson would grow up to then take over the hacienda from him.

As for the Escalantes, they were not only fortunate to gain the friendship and protection of the De la Vegas. They were also lucky to realize, at their arrival in Los Angeles, that their land, which they believed to be just outside the pueblo, was, in fact, right in the middle of it. The heavy rains which had fallen during the Spring of 1788 had led to the overflow of the Porciuncula River, ending up destroying much of the first settlement. Because of this, it was rebuilt southeast of its original location.

Ten months later, after following Don Alejandro's advice to sell most of their land and invest the money in building their new home, the Escalantes finished the construction on their tavern/inn. Just eight weeks after that, as their business took off, their first child was born, a boy to be named Francisco.

ZZZ

In all this time, halfway across the world, Ynez Risendo was bringing up the De la Vega firstborn son, whom she had named Gilberto, after her dead husband, passing him as his. She had left Madrid the very same day he was born, after murdering and disposing of the body of the young servant girl who was the only witness and unwilling accomplice to the kidnapping, and making sure that Alejandro and Elena would have no other children. Her destination was Valencia, one of the country's main ports, where she had an unwed distant cousin whom she hoped to convince to help her and the baby. The man was already in his late fifties and offered to marry Ynez as soon as she came to him, demonstrating his love by allowing himself to be convinced into leaving her all he owned.

About a month after signing the new will, just a week before the wedding was due to take place, the man's body was found floating, face down, near the docks.

ZZZ

Not long after Francisco Escalante's birth, while Dieguito was already starting to walk, Don Sebastian was shot by cattle thieves one evening. The recently-arrived pueblo's physician was brought in and he did his best to help the caballero. He had not been wounded very badly and there were good chances for him to survive. The infection, however, proved fatal as the don died a few days later, succumbing to the fever.

Alejandro was, thus, left alone to take over the running of the ranch. True, his vaqueros and stable hands were well-trained and aware of what was expected of them, and his mother knew enough of Don Sebastian's affairs to help him. Yet, none of that could compensate for his father's experience.

His first year was the hardest. Alejandro spent most of his days in the saddle, working side-by-side with his men and accompanying them on cattle drives. When he was not riding a horse, he was negotiating sale prices, helping the mares and the cows give birth, tending to the orchards and vineyards. Yet, in all that time he barely spent an hour a day with his son.

That lasted until a fight with Elena made him realize that he needed to dedicate more of his time to his family.

As his son was already 3, he, thus, started to take Dieguito riding each morning with him, waking the boy up at dawn and only returning him to his mother several hours later, already exhausted. In the evenings, he would read to him before putting him to bed, and Elena was pleased to see her husband reluctant to leave Diego's room, sometimes falling asleep right next to the boy.

Her husband's dedication to their only child appeased the young doña.

Elena had sacrificed her lifestyle and the comfort of her home, father and brothers, to accompany her husband to an unknown land where she had to start all over again. She adapted. Slowly at first, yet, within those two years after their arrival, she had made friends, gotten used to the customs of the place and found new parents. The De la Vegas embraced her fully aware of what she had given up and the understanding she needed since they, themselves, had gone through a similar experience when they had moved there.

The Santa Barbara De la Vegas she only met a few months before Don Sebastian's death. Doña Carmen, the young wife of Alejandro's cousin, Rodrigo, was also born in Spain and had been a wonderful host as she had a newborn baby boy of her own, named Rafael, and was looking forward to Elena sharing her experience in raising her son. They had, thus, become close friends, as well, and wrote weekly to each other.

None of the new acquaintances, though, could replace those she had left behind.

After the death of her father-in-law, Elena had started thinking more and more about her own father, wondering if she might ever see him again or just find out about his passing from a letter received half a year after he had already been buried. They were not pleasant thoughts, and she'd shake them off whenever someone saw her prey to them, but she didn't count on her son being as perceptive as he turned out to be.

When Deiguito asked her why she was sad one day, she denied it. The second time, she did, as well. The third time, however, Elena realized she couldn't lie to him, even if he was just a little boy. So, patiently, she explained to him that she was missing her own parents: her mother, whom had already gone to God, and her father, who was in Spain, a land far, far away from Los Angeles. Her son listened and asked the one questions she didn't expect. He asked his mother why she was hiding the fact that she was missing them.

Doña Elena smiled at him and told her son that, sometimes, it is better to hide one's true feelings from others, especially when they are unpleasant, lest one might also sadden them. The boy nodded pensively, then, seemingly forgetting the previous conversation, he asked his mother when he'd be allowed to ride alone.

ZZZ

Diego de la Vega first saw Victoria Escalante a few days after she was born, when his parents took him to visit her mother and the newborn. Don Alejandro picked up a red rose from their garden, removed its thorns, then gave it to his son to take to Señora Francisca. Diego misunderstood, though, and gave the rose to the baby instead. When her mother allowed him to hold her for a minute, all the parents careful he wouldn't drop her, the little girl smiled at him and he smiled back, prompting their fathers to joke that they would one day marry. Dieguito did not understand what they meant, but he did know that he liked the black-haired child in his arms, so he asked if he could keep it.

ZZZ

The years soon passed. The pueblo grew, most of the new colonists arriving from the southern territories of New Spain. With each arrival, the fortune of the oldest settlers grew, as well. They began renting the lands they had not enough people to cultivate to those who had not been lucky enough to receive land grants when relocating to California and sell their animals to their new tenants.

The Escalante Tavern also thrived, even if, with a growing family, its owners were soon overwhelmed. Ramon Escalante – the third and last child of the innkeepers – was born just a year after their daughter, and the family struggled to make ends meet for a while, especially since they had to employ a new tavern hand to keep the establishment running. Despite that, however, they always had a snack set aside for a young orphan boy called Jaime, who, since he had first been sent by the padre with a small bag full of grapes to Señora Escalante, when he was just seven, managed to find his way to the tavern's kitchen almost every afternoon.

ZZZ

As a child, Diego was kindhearted, joyful, curious, honest and empathetic, possessed the same artistic talents as his mother, and, most importantly, had a brilliant mind.

That first became obvious when, aged 5, to his father's extreme pride, he was already able to read, write and do computations. It had not even been intentional at the beginning. On the contrary. Nobody even considered teaching him how to read or write when he was still so small, his mother and grandmother contenting themselves with cultivating his artistic talents, teaching him to play the piano and the violin, to sculpt and to paint.

Don Alejandro, though, having gotten in the habit of reading him stories every night, barely missed out on doing that, no matter how tired he was. Diego, who preferred staying on his father's lap while he was reading, at some point started following the text, looking fascinated at the books he held in his hands. That was how he slowly realized that every word corresponded to certain symbols, then deduced what the simpler ones were, and was soon able to identify most letters of the Alphabet.

One evening, after falling asleep while reading, Don Alejandro woke up to see his four-year-old son continuing the story by himself.

The following day, Doña Elena and her mother-in-law started Diego's formal education while his father started his search for a tutor.

Diego began attending the Mission's school about a year later, after his grandmother passed away of pneumonia. He did not insist on attending it because of what he would learn there, though, but because he was hoping to make friends his own age.

That did not prove the best idea since, being younger than everyone else proved a hindrance, most of the older boys refusing to take him seriously. Having grown up in relative isolation, he also did more studying on his own than he did in classes, and advanced far more rapidly than the other children, who soon started to resent him. As the heir of a rich family, however, he was left mostly in peace, since the other kids focused on bullying the twelve-years-old Jaime Mendoza, who, by then, had the disadvantage of being a little fatter and slower than everyone else.

One day, as Jaime was eating a biscuit all by himself in an isolated corner of the courtyard, Diego went to him and offered him half of the tamales the De la Vega cook had prepared for him to take to school that day, mentioning that he'd like for them to be friends.

From then on and for several weeks, the two spent every school break together, talking and sharing the De la Vega food Diego brought with him as they were both happy to have made their very first friend.

"When I grow up, I want to be just like Sergeant Garcia!" Jaime told his young friend one day, as they were watching the lancers led by the mentioned sergeant bring in a criminal who had terrorized the countryside for months. "He is very brave, don't you think so, Don Diego?"

The younger boy nodded as they continued to watch the party lead the captured bandit to jail.

Only a month later, as a Spanish tutor arrived, hired by Don Alejandro to take over his only son's education, Diego stopped attending school and, since he was not yet allowed to leave the hacienda by himself, he and Jaime stopped meeting. He did not forget his friend, though, and, that December, he used his every free moment to carve and paint a wooden lancer for him, doing it in secret certain that he'd be scolded by his tutor for making the toy soldier instead of studying and, perhaps, even forbidden to finish it. At Christmas, after pretending to go to bed early so that Santa would have the time to leave him his presents, he snuck out through his room's window, and, after saddling a horse all by himself, he rode all the way to the orphanage to give his present to Jaime. It was cold and he was afraid, but ignored those feelings with the same determination and sense of purpose which, decades later, helped him become a legend.

On his way to Los Angeles, however, young Diego realized that, should his parents or tutor find out what he had done, he would be punished. So, instead of knocking on the main door, he snuck into the dormitory where he knew his friend was sleeping, and left him his present on the pillow, after which he returned home, stabled the horse, washed and went to bed.

Jaime thus woke up the following morning to find the wooden toy next to him, never even suspecting Diego had made and brought it. Instead, he wrote a letter and gave it to the old padre carrying for them to send to Santa Claus as a thank you for the best – and only – Christmas present he had received.

A few weeks later, after the padre perished due to a heart attack, Jaime and most of the other children were moved to the orphanage in Monterey. There he started recounting to everyone how Santa Claus had left the toy for him, a story embellished every time it was told anew, yet confirmed by the other children who were sent at the new location with him. Consequently, the boy saw his popularity surging as, hoping to also receive good presents the following year, the other orphans started befriending him.

ZZZ

Señor Mateo, Diego's tutor was in his late twenties when he arrived in Los Angeles, only a few years younger than his employers. The man was as tall as Don Alejandro, although not very good-looking and already balding. He was also unmarried and hopeful that he might set aside enough money while in California to buy a house when he'd return to Madrid, where he would live the rest of his life as a school teacher, as he had always wanted.

His pupil didn't like him very much at first and, for several difficult months, both the De la Vegas and Señor Mateo were frequently considering parting ways. It was not that the boy heir was a bad student. On the contrary. He was intelligent and liked learning, qualities his tutor observed soon after arriving at the hacienda. What he didn't know at the time, though, was that Diego was blaming him for having taken him away from his new friends, disliked his teaching style and hated having a person in charge with disciplining him as he felt that as hindering his freedom.

In the past, his mother and grandmother had given him all the freedom he wanted, considering that a child needed to play and explore. At the Mission school, there were other children and the padre focused mainly on them since he was far ahead in terms of knowledge and never caused any trouble. Now, however, as his tutor's only pupil, he was the center of attention and he hated it.

That was how, after a few rather peaceful weeks during which his dislike towards Senor Mateo only grew, Diego's tutor started to find out that his pupil was rather stubborn and only apparently obedient, as his true passion soon turned out to be tricking him.

At first the deception was mainly due to his wrong assumption as he would leave the boy unsupervised during the siestas, believing he spent the afternoons in his room, working on his assignment. Consequently, he did not suspect that he barely took 10 or 15 minutes to finish his homework as Diego took full advantage of his tutor's propensity to underestimate his knowledge and memory. Sometimes, when the assignments were too easy or involved a lot of writing down, the boy even resolved to skip them, instead doing them on the spot while pretending he was reading them from a paper. It took the older man almost two months to notice that the paper was white, and, as he did, he started following Diego, thus discovering he was sneaking out of the hacienda through the window and spending the afternoon exploring the hills.

The boy mentally declared him war on him when Señor Mateo told Don Alejandro and Doña Elena what their son was up. Things only escalated from there, as Diego proved an infinite reservoir of mischief, and started coming up with new and ingenious tricks to elude his teacher or to make him do whatever he wanted.

Noticing him speaking to a señorita after mass one day, Diego came up with the idea of writing a note to him, signing it in her name, and asking for the young man to meet her in the tavern that afternoon. He also arranged that just as his parents were away to the Mission and Señor Mateo could do nothing but take him to town, despite the fact that he was being punished at the time, forbidden from going out of the house. There, as his tutor spent almost two hours waiting in vain to see the young woman, the boy played with the Escalante children and some of his former school colleagues, having a marvelous time running around the plaza. However, he did confess to his trick when Señor Mateo next met the young señorita, so that his tutor would not say something to her he might regret later.

A week after that, when his mother was in town, bored with staying in the house and annoyed with Don Mateo's refusal to let him go on a ride or, at least, accompany him on one, Diego pretended that he needed to go to the bathroom and snuck out through the window, to only return that evening, after search parties were organized to look for him.

He was punished, confined to his room and his readings, but keeping him there proved to be an entirely different challenge, even when Don Alejandro positioned several of his men to guard both his door and the windows. Diego climbed up the chimney, crossed the roof, and jumped down on a side of the house which wasn't guarded, then he was gone.

Realizing there was no way to force him to do what the adults wanted, since the boy always found a way to outsmart everyone, Señor Mateo eventually came up one evening with the idea of giving him the chance to make his own schedule for the week, only conditioning it by the number of hours dedicated to his studies. Diego agreed eagerly and, from that moment on, he decided to give his tutor a chance, thus offering him an armistice of sorts.

Putting his schedule into practice, however, proved rather difficult as Diego wanted to make the most of each day. He, thus, started his schedule at 5:30 am, when not even his father was usually awake, only a few of the vaqueros and the housekeeper. The first thing he wanted to do in the morning was explore the nearby hills with his tutor. He would then have breakfast with his parents, ride till noon, have lunch, study during the siestas, play music or paint with his mother at sunset and, eventually, study another hour or two, then play chess and do some reading after dinner. He also requested to be allowed to play with his friends in the pueblo at least twice a week.

Señor Mateo didn't love the schedule, since he was not thrilled to wake up so early, and enjoyed sleeping during the siesta, but agreed to make those little sacrifices in exchange for an obedient student and a rather free morning, as it was Don Alejandro or one of his vaqueros who rode with the boy. Doña Elena was rather fragile and preferred to take the carriage rather than risk falling off a horse, and Señor Mateo, although he was an accomplished rider, didn't yet know the surroundings very well and had a very poor sense of direction.

During the afternoons and evenings, Diego was a model student. He'd answer all his tutor's questions, ask his own and even engage the older man in rather mature conversations about the subjects they were studying. It was not hard for Señor Mateo to, thus, start appreciating him, as a real friendship slowly started to developed between the two. After taking the time to understand why Diego insisted on waking up so early every morning and go on his exploratory trips, the older man also begun noticing that most of what his pupil did during the day was, in fact, learning. His curious mind couldn't stop from trying to answer every single question he had, and there were millions in his head, from how to know when a snake might attack and why, to how to find out what time it was by observing the position of the sun or the direction of the trees' shadows.

Don Alejandro's head vaquero also noticed how avid for knowledge the young heir was and, whenever his father didn't have much time to take care of him while doing his morning chores, Viejo Jose, as everyone called the man, would offer to teach him some of the things he knew, from caring for the animals, to tracking and using the lasso and the whip.

It was also from Viejo Jose that Diego learned about the Indian tribe his grandfather visited from time to time. He became intrigued about Indians on 1895, after several tribes, led by a young Indian woman, attacked the San Gabriel Mission. People had seem to fear them at that point, and he easily understood why his parents had considered more prudent to stay away from the tribes, but Diego wondered about them and the reason for their actions.

He was already 8 when he first went there, taking one of his father's horses on a wild ride one Sunday afternoon, the only day of the week when he had the freedom to do what he pleased as the adults preferred to allow themselves some much-needed rest. That day, Diego had promised to stay near the hacienda, but did so only because he knew his parents might worry, even oppose his plan, should they know his true intentions. Instead, he urged the stallion in the direction in which Viejo Jose had told him the tribe was that time of year, and found it more easily than he expected.

Diego had seen Indians before, since there were many which were working at the haciendas or at the Mission. Yet he had never before seen them live in a tribe, as they had since long before the colonists came to the territory.

They looked at him rather intrigued, just as he looked at them. Then, someone recognized his horse and he heard the name of his grandfather on some of the people's lips. The boy, thus, dismounted and politely introduced himself, unsure if they would understand him, also making sure to mention Don Sebastian.

An old woman accompanied by her grandson found her way through the crowd of curious onlookers gathered around him. She stopped just inches away and raised her hand to his cheek, resting a finger right below his eye, then said something in their language.

"My grandmother says you have your grandfather's blue eyes." The young man translated. "You are Sebastian's grandson, are you not?"

"Yes. I am Diego de la Vega."

"Your grandfather is with the ancestors. Is your grandmother there as well?" The young man proceeded to ask.

Diego just nodded. "I was very little when my grandfather died, so I don't remember him. Grandmother Juliana died a couple of years back, when I was six. Did your grandmother also know her?"

The young man interpreted for the elderly woman who nodded pensively, then replied.

"Yes. She did. She helped her give birth to your father and uncle." The man translated. "My grandmother says that you should return here whenever you want. That we should teach you all we know, if you want to learn from us. And in return, when you grow up, you will help our people when we'll need you."

Diego smiled and nodded, then, as the old woman returned to her tent, he asked if he could stay for a while and play with the children there. The tribe's chief agreed after also listening to what the old woman said, but was not as welcoming with the intruder whom he spent the day supervising.

That, however, changed a few weeks later, when Diego was able to return to the tribe. The medicine man was requested on that occasion to teach him about his remedies and the man who had acted as translator started teaching him their language. As the avid student he was, the young caballero took out his notebook to write down everything he was told. A few months and some eight visits later, the services of a translator were, in his case, already obsolete.

As for his parents, while Diego had every intention of telling them about his visit to the tribe that first day, their reaction to the fact that he had not respected his promise to stay close to the hacienda made him fear that they would react even worse if they knew where he had been. So, instead of the truth, he told them he had been reading by a lake and lost sense of time. Similar excuses he also used on the following occasions he visited the village, becoming increasingly clever at inventing new stories to tell his parents, and even learning to erase his tracks when one of the vaqueros would try to follow him at his father's orders.