Set against the backdrop of the Mexican-American War, the Baja Territory was a region with sparse documentation. Dominican priest Padre Gabriel Gonzalez Pereyra, a spiritual leader turned reluctant insurgent, and Dionisia Villalobos Albanez, a determined matriarch, united ranchers and townspeople from Todos Santos to Mulege. Faced with the invading United States military forces and betrayal from within their own ranks, they endured the heavy costs of resistance: hunger, exile, and the burden of their faith.

El Padre de Todos Santos restores a neglected chapter of borderland history, highlighting the sacrifice, dignity, and endurance of a people whose fight for sovereignty continued even after the cannons fell silent. Although a work of fiction, this narrative is firmly grounded in extensive archival research, contemporary records, and documented events.

Among the characters portrayed are Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, the granddaughter of Baja Territory governor Jose Manuel Ruiz, who later married Colonel Henry Burton, the commander of the occupying U.S. forces in La Paz; Jose Matias Moreno, Padre Gabriel's adopted son, who wedded the daughter of Mariano Vallejo in San Diego; U.S. Captain Henry M. Naglee, charged with war crimes and later pardoned by President Polk, left a dubious legacy of civilian and military infamy in San Jose, California; and lastely, Manuel Marquez de Leon, one of Padre Gabriel's young protégés who became an important military and political figure for the Baja Territory. These individuals played pivotal roles in the diaspora of Chicanos, paving the way for others who will emerge in the third and final novel chronicling the Mexican Revolution, the Repatriation Program during North America's Great Depression, the rise of Cesar Chavez and student activism, and the present-day vilification of immigrants in the United States. 

El Padre de Todos Santos is the first novel in the trilogy known as Echoes of Aztlan, chronicling forgotten events from the past 170 years. Based on actual events, these novels chronicle the diaspora and sacrifices of Chicanos in the Southwest following the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).