The Careaga family is a Californio family of Central California. [1]
Colonel Satornino Careaga was the first of the family to immigrate to California. [2] He was son of Sinforiano Careaga, a Spanish nobleman descended from the famous Captain Juan de Careaga (of the Vizcayan Armada) [3] and later sent to Mexico as a military man by the King of Spain. [4] He was a member of Captain Muñoz's command who risked his life and suffered great pains to protect an exposed and seemingly doomed San Jose Mission. He was survived by two sons, Ramon Francis Careaga and Juan B. Careaga. Along with a mutual friend, Daniel Harris, the brothers bought approximately 18,000 acres (73 km2) of land formerly belonging to the De la Guerra family (early Spaniards who figured prominently in the state history). Later, in the division, Harris took some 7,500 acres (30 km2) while the Careaga brothers held 10,500. [5] This land was later split again in a settlement between Juan's only progeny and the five children of Ramon F Careaga I. [6] It was on Ramon Careaga's land that oil from the Orcutt Oil Field was first discovered in the Santa Maria Valley. [7] There are several ancestors of Ramon F Careaga that still receive minor oil royalties, but since 1931, the Ramon F Careaga III lineage [8] was not compensated, due to his selling the rights back to his mother, Cora. [9]
The land was all sold away in a forced settlement initiated by lawsuit from Charles Careaga in 1962, that finally finished with the death of Albert Careaga in 1992. [10] The Careaga Ranch/Los Flores Preserve is currently owned and utilized by Steve Lyons, and the Santa Barbara Land Trust.
The alternate spellings of the esteemed surname is "Kareaga," "Carreaga,", "Carriaga", or "Cariaga." It is derived from the Spanish "kare" (lime) and "aga" (place), thus seems to refer to a "limy place." Several medieval estates of the family's continue to exist in Spain today, including two located in Markina-Xemein and Murelaga. The family coat of arms is distinguishable by its gold and silver tones as well as two wolves of saber. [11]
Floresville is a city in Wilson County, Texas, United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, its population was at 7,203 at the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Wilson County. The city is also part of the San Antonio metropolitan statistical area.
Californios are Hispanic Californians, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there since 1683 and is made up of varying Spanish and Mexican origins, including criollos, Mestizos, Indigenous Californian peoples, and small numbers of Mulatos. Alongside the Tejanos of Texas and Neomexicanos of New Mexico and Colorado, Californios are part of the larger Spanish-American/Mexican-American/Hispano community of the United States, which has inhabited the American Southwest and the West Coast since the 16th century. Some may also identify as Chicanos, a term that came about in the 1960s.
Andrés Pico was a Californio who became a successful rancher, fought in the contested Battle of San Pascual during the Mexican–American War, and negotiated promises of post-war protections for Californios in the 1847 Treaty of Cahuenga. After California became one of the United States, Pico was elected to the state Assembly and Senate. He was appointed as the commanding brigadier general of the state militia during the U.S. Civil War.
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo usually known as Juan Bautista Alvarado, was a Californio politician that served as Governor of Alta California from 1837 to 1842. Prior to his term as governor, Alvarado briefly led a movement for independence of Alta California from 1836 to 1837, in which he successfully deposed interim governor Nicolás Gutiérrez, declared independence, and created a new flag and constitution, before negotiating an agreement with the Mexican government resulting in his recognition as governor and the end of the independence movement.
Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné was a Californio who was mayordoma of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and grantee of Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual in the San Rafael Hills, in present-day Los Angeles County, California. She claimed to have been born in 1766, if so making her 112 years old at the time of her death in 1878, but her case has not been verified or fully proven.
The Pauma massacre occurred in December 1846, at Pauma Valley north of Escondido, California. Luiseño Indians killed eleven Mexicans, Californio lancers who had stolen horses from them. The action was related to a series of regional conflicts during the Mexican–American War and followed the Battle of San Pasqual in California. Fundamentally, it was also related to the appropriation of Mission Luiseno land from the Luiseño after the successful mission with a population of 3,000 was secularized in 1833. Gov. José Figueroa had granted the Luiseño three pueblos including Las Flores and San Pascual. Pío Pico was to hold the mission land in trust for the government as administrator pending a decision on what to do with it. Eventually, Pico took Las Flores as his personal ranch. Pico was the man who led the Mexicans at the battle of San Pascual. The Kumeyaay Indians lived at San Pascual, though the Kumeyaay were from the next mission, San Diego, they also viewed Pio Pico with distrust, and their sympathies for the Americans may have been decisive, given their knowledge of the terrain in which they lived. The Mexicans lost and afterwards took 11 horses from a nearby Luiseño community, which then retaliated by killing 11 Mexican Californio soldiers at the Massacre of Pauma.
The Lugo family of California were prominent during the periods of Spanish and Mexican rule. They were among the early colonists who became known as Californios.
José Antonio Yorba, also known as Don José Antonio Yorba I, was a Spanish Californio soldier and an early settler of Spanish California.
Captain José Antonio Ezequiel Carrillo (1796–1862) was a Californio politician, ranchero, and signer of the California Constitution in 1849. He served three terms as Alcalde of Los Angeles (mayor).
Juan Flores was a 19th-century Californio bandit who, with Pancho Daniel, led an outlaw gang known as "las Manillas" and later as the Flores Daniel Gang, throughout Southern California during 1856-1857. Although regarded by historians as a thief and outlaw, Flores was considered among Mexican-Americans as a folk hero akin to Jesse James and who was thought of as a defender against vigilante movements in the years following the American settlement of California and its incorporation into the United States. However, the activities of Flores and other insurrectos such as Salomon Pico and Joaquín Murrieta against American and foreign-born settlers not only created long-lasting suspicion and hostility towards Mexican-Americans but also divided the traditional Spanish class structures of the Californios and the poorer peasants as well.
Camarillo Ranch House, also known as Rancho Calleguas and Adolfo Camarillo House, is a Queen Anne-style Victorian house in Camarillo, California. Built in 1892, the 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) house was designed by architects Herman Anlauf and Franklin Ward. Adolfo Camarillo operated the ranch for 78 years, changing the operations from mostly cattle to crops. He was a leading innovator, growing lima beans, barley, corn, alfalfa, walnuts, and citrus and eucalyptus trees. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Rancho Santa Ana del Chino was a 22,193-acre (89.81 km2) Mexican land grant in the Chino Hills and southwestern Pomona Valley, in present-day San Bernardino County, California.
Don Juan Forster was an English-born Californio ranchero and merchant. Born in England, he emigrated to Mexico at age 16 and became a Mexican citizen. Soon after, he moved to California, where he married into the prominent Pico family of California and eventually held vast rancho grants across Southern California.
The Berreyesa family is a prominent Californio family of Northern California. Members of the family held extensive rancho grants across the Bay Area during 18th and 19th centuries. Numerous places are named after the family, including the Berryessa district of San Jose and Lake Berryessa in Napa County.
The Orcutt Oil Field is a large oil field in the Solomon Hills south of Orcutt, in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Discovered in 1901 by William Warren Orcutt, it was the first giant field to be found in Santa Barbara County, and its development led to the boom town of Orcutt, now the major unincorporated southern suburb of Santa Maria. With a cumulative production in 2008 of 870,000 barrels (138,000 m3) of oil, it is the largest onshore producing field in Santa Barbara County.
Rancho Roblar de la Miseria was a 16,887-acre (68.34 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Sonoma County, California given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to Juan Nepomuceno Padilla. "El Roblar de la Miseria" means "The Oak of the Misery". The grant extended along the Petaluma River from Hessel, Roblar, Liberty and Two Rock south to Petaluma.
Juan Nepomuceno Padilla was a Californio politician and soldier, who served as the 10th Alcalde of San Francisco.
Flores Daniel Gang, was an outlaw gang also known as "las Manillas", throughout Southern California during 1856-1857. Californio's Juan Flores and Pancho Daniel. Contemporary newspaper accounts of las Manillas all reported that the leader of las Manillas was originally Pancho Daniel, but that Juan Flores assumed the leadership role after Daniel was injured in the Barton ambush. According to the account of Harris Newmark, Flores had been sent to prison for horse-stealing and was just another member of the gang.
José María Amador was a Californio ranchero, gold miner, and soldier. Amador County and Amador City, both in California's Gold Country, are named after Amador, having found gold there in 1848. He is also the namesake of Amador Valley, a component of the Tri-Valley in Alameda County.