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Description:  The explorations of Francisco Garcés, an intrepid Franciscan friar of the eighteenth century, led to the opening of the first overland route from Mexico to California, produced new knowledge of unmapped terrain and unknown peoples, and revived dreams of Spanish imperial expansion. In this talk, Garcés biographer Jeremy Beer will introduce attendees to the story of this incomparable explorer, groundbreaking missionary, and central actor in New Spain’s final sustained effort to expand its dominion into the lands that would become the American Southwest. He will also delve into Garcés’s connection to the Grand Canyon and the Indigenous peoples of northern Arizona.

Presenter’s bio: Jeremy Beer is a founding partner at American Philanthropic in Phoenix. He is the author of The Philanthropic Revolution: An Alternative History of American Charity; Beyond the Devil’s Road: Francisco Garces and the Spanish Encounter with the American Southwest; and his writing on sports, society, and culture has appeared in the Washington Post, National Review, First Things, and the Baseball Research Journal, among many other venues.