The High Chaparral: Excellent Western With a Large Latino Cast

Back when I was a kid in the 1950s and 1960s, westerns were common on television. I could never begin to name all of the western shows, but some of my favorites were: "Mackenzie's Raiders" (Richard Carlson), "The Cisco Kid" (Duncan Renaldo, Leo Carrillo), "Have Gun-Will Travel" (Richard Boone), "Yancy Derringer" (Jock Mahoney), "Rawhide" (Eric Fleming, Clint Eastwood), "Tombstone Territory" (Pat Conway), "Wagon Train" (Ward Bond, then John McIntire), "Gunsmoke" (James Arness), "The Virginian" (James Drury, Lee J. Cobb, then others, including Charles Bickford), "Bonanza" (Lorne Green, Pernell Roberts,* Dan Blocker, Michael Landon). Bonanza was a highly rated NBC western that began in 1959, when black and white shows were the rule, because, while color television sets had been invented, their size and cost made the production of shows in color a major risk and color film was considerably more expensive than black and white film. NBC's decision to film Bonanza in color, and the network's decision to stick with the show to see if it could get Americans interested in color television enough to make them want to buy a color set, eventually worked out for NBC, as Bonanza moved up in the ratings after its first couple of seasons to a position as one of the top rated shows, and in some seasons, it was indeed number one in the ratings.

Then from 1967 to 1971, "The High Chaparral," a great western started by the creator of "Bonanza," David Dortort, had its own run. When "The High Chaparral" began in 1967 color was THE way regular television shows were aired, although many Americans still did NOT own color television sets, but the price spread between color and black and white televisions had shrunk somewhat.** With the show set in Arizona,*** "The High Chaparral" realistically used a number of performers of Latino heritage as regulars on the show: Linda Crystal, Henry Darrow, Frank Silvera, Roberto Contreras, Rudolfo Acosta, and in the final season, Rudy Ramos. Besides these performers, Latino actors like Ricardo Montalban and Ned Romero made guest appearances.**** This was a significant development in the casting of television programs, and a good one, and the reality of America's Latino population was finally acknowledged, although Desi Arnaz (born in Cuba) had been a mainstay as a television actor and producer in the 1950s. For those unaware, Arnaz and his wife, Lucille Ball, starred in the popular "I Love Lucy" on CBS, and the oft quarreling couple founded and owned Desilu Productions, a major producer and developer of television shows.

Main Cast of "The High Chaparral":

Leif Erickson as John Cannon, known as "Big John"
Cameron Mitchell as Buck Cannon, John's brother
Mark Slade as Billy Blue Cannon (also Blue Boy), John's son by his first wife
Henry Darrow (real name: Enrique Delgado) as Manolito Montoya, brother of Victoria
Linda Cristal (born in Argentina) as Victoria Montoya Cannon, John Cannon's second wife

John Cannon, Annalee (John's wife & Billy Blue's mother), Buck and Billy Blue travel to the southern part of the Arizona Territory after John buys a large piece of land there, later called the High Chaparral, after a common bush in the territory. The land is hot and dry, and Apaches are fighting to preserve their land and lifestyle as more settlers arrive. Annalee is killed by the Apaches, but the new ranchers find they have another problem: a wealthy Mexican landowner named Don Sebastian Montoya (played by Frank Silvera) has already claimed the land of the High Chaparral, and he works out a deal for his daughter, Victoria, to marry John in exchange for peace. Don Sebastian also sends his son Manolito along to be sure Victoria is safe. The Cannons hire several ranch hands, with Sam Butler (played by Don Collier) as the ranch foreman, and together with Victoria and Manolito, the stage is set for their struggles to build the High Chaparral into a successful ranch. 

A number of episodes featured one or two cast members at the center of that story, but it was not uncommon for the entire main cast to be heavily involved in some episodes. In a tragic accident, Frank Silvera, who played Don Sebastian, was electrocuted at his home during the show's final season. Mark Slade left the show after the third season and he was replaced; at least in part, by Rudy Ramos in the part of Wind, a man of Indian and white ancestry, and a true element of what the United States was, and is, a mixture of people of various ancestries.        

* Pernell Roberts left the "Bonanza" cast after filming his last episode in the spring of 1965. 

** I did a very quick check and I found black and white televisions (17 inch screen) for about $250, while a color set was about $500 (21 inch screen). The thing to also remember is, the value of the money compared to today, as $250 in 1960 now has the value of about $2100; so, a small color set would have cost you the equivalent of $4200! I found the median American income in 1960 was $5600 a year (Census Bureau figures). You can see, the price of either a black and white or a color television in those times was quite an expense for an average family. By the late 1960s, a black and white (22 inch screen) was about $240 to $260, while a color set (23 inch screen) was about $475. Median American income was $7700 in 1968 (Census Bureau figures).

*** This was actually the Arizona Territory in the time frame of "The High Chaparral," as Arizona did not become a state until 1912.

**** Ned Romero was born in Louisiana of Native American, Spanish and French descent. 

 Photo is from the 2018 Shout Factory Season One (Region 1) DVD release... 

WORD HISTORY:
Don-English has a couple of words of this spelling, but this is the noun meaning, "a term or title of respect for a man of wealth and power," and later, "a leader of the underworld." It is related to "domestic," and distantly related to "danger," both words of Latin derivation, borrowed by English from Latin-based French. It goes back to Indo European "dem," and the derived "domo/domu," which meant, "house, abode, household." The underlying notion may have been, "established tamed or settled place." This gave Latin "domus," meaning, "home, house," and then this produced the broadened "dominium," which meant, "property," and then "dominus," meaning, "lord of the property or estate." This gave Church Latin the shortened form, "dom," a term of honor and respect for monks. This passed into Latin-based Spanish as "don," and the word was used as one of respect for men, usually of great wealth. This was carried to the New World by the Spanish (and also the Portuguese?), and it was often used for men with large estates. English borrowed the word, likely from many Spanish or Portuguese sources during the course of the mid to late 1500s. The "underworld leader" meaning came from the Italian form "don" (from the same Latin source), which came into increasing use in the 1940s among Italian-Americans.