Once California belonged to Mexico and its land to Mexicans; and a horde of tattered feverish Americans poured in. And such was their hunger for land that they took the land, stole Sutter’s land, Guerrero’s land, took the grants and broke them up and growled and quarreled over them, those frantic hungry men; and they guarded with guns the land they had stolen. They put up houses and barns, they turned the earth and planted crops. And these things were possession, and possession was ownership.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 19. The opening words of the chapter puts the prejudice of Californians towards the outsider migrants into historical perspective. It is nothing new, and has happened before. The land once belonged to Mexico and the ancesters of the current landowners took the land from the Mexicans by force. To survive and hold onto the stolen land, they armed themselves with guns. The present owners are aware that the migrants, if they organize and join together, pose a threat to their their ownership and survival. Steinbeck paints a picture of a hunger for land that is dangerous and has the potential for violence.