I wasn't quite following that part. I know that when he returned it was 20 years later, but I never realized why he left to begin with.
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Do people LISTEN to what the dialogue in the movie?
First part of the movie they are stating that Spain's reign over Mexico and California has ended.
Montero was the Governor of California. Antonio Santa Anna was marching on the town.
The the peasants were uprising. He was leaving California to go back to Spain.
20 years later, the Dons who controlled California invited him back in the plot to use the gold from the mine to buy California from Mexico to provide funds for the war against the US.