The Guerra family is a prominent Californio family of Southern California. [1] [2] [3] Members of the family held extensive rancho grants and numerous important positions, including numerous Mayors of Santa Barbara, California Senators, a Lieutenant Governor of California, and a signer of the California Constitution.
José de la Guerra y Noriega, born in 1779, is the founder of the family. Popularly known as El Capitán, he came to California in 1793. He enlisted in 1798, serving over 52 years in military service. He served as acting Commandant of the Presidio of Monterey in 1804, Commandant of the Presidio of San Diego from 1806 to 1807, and most notably as Commandant of the Presidio of Santa Barbara, from 1827 to 1842. [4] [5] He married María Antonia Carrillo, of the Carrillo family of California, in 1804; they had thirteen children. He came to own numerous ranchos in the region, including Rancho Simi, Rancho Las Posas, Rancho San Julian, Rancho Los Alamos and Rancho El Conejo.
Pablo de la Guerra was born in 1819 in Santa Barbara. [6] He was appointed as Tax Collector for Santa Barbara in 1838. In 1849, he represented Santa Barbara at the California Constitutional Convention in Monterey and was one of the signers of the Constitution of California. He served as a California Senator, from 1851 to 1861, and as acting Lieutenant Governor of California from 1861 to 1862. [7] From 1863 until his death in 1874, he served as a district judge for California's 17th Judicial District. He was granted Rancho Nicasio in 1844.
Antonio Maria de la Guerra was born in 1825 in Santa Barbara. He served in the California Senate from 1851 to 1852 and twice as Mayor of Santa Barbara, from 1856 to 1858 and 1859 to 1864. [8] He served on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors for several terms, including one as chairman. He died in Goleta in 1881. He commanded a company of the 1st California Cavalry Battalion during the Civil War. [9]
Angustias de la Guerra was born in San Diego in 1815. In 1833, she married Manuel Jimeno Casarín, who served as secretary of state under Governors Juan Bautista Alvarado and Governor Manuel Micheltorena. Following the death of her first husband, she married U.S. Army officer James L. Ord. In 1871, she visited both American president Ulysses S. Grant, at the White House, and Mexican president Benito Juárez at Chapultepec Castle. [10] During the Monterey Constitutional Convention of 1849, she and her husband hosted the large Californio delegation to the convention. She was an instrumental force in defending women's property rights in the California Constitution. [11] She later devoted herself to the study of Californian history. [12] In 1878, she wrote the seminal "Ocurrencias en California" (translated into English as "Occurrences in Hispanic California" and as "California Recollections of Angustias de la Guerra"), considered to be one of the most important early accounts on Californian history. [13]
Numerous locations in Santa Barbara are named after members of the family, including Plaza de la Guerra, De la Guerra Street, and Paseo de la Guerra.
Casa de la Guerra, the family's ancestral home in Santa Barbara, is a National Historic Landmark.
Luis Antonio Argüello was the first Californio (native-born) governor of Alta California, and the first to take office under Mexican rule. He was the only governor to serve under the First Mexican Empire and also served as acting governor under the subsequent provisional government, which preceded the First Mexican Republic.
Californio is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. 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.
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo usually known as Juan Bautista Alvarado, was a Californio politician that served as Governor of Alta California from 1837-42. Prior to his term as governor, Alvarado briefly led a movement for independence of Alta California from 1836-37, 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.
José Francisco Ortega was a Spanish soldier and early settler of Alta California. He joined the military at the age of twenty-one and rose to the rank of sergeant by the time he joined the Portola expedition in 1769. At the end of his military duty he would be granted land which he named Rancho Nuestra Senora del Refugio near Santa Barbara.
José Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega was a Californio military officer, ranchero, and founder of the prominent Guerra family of California. He served as the Commandant of the Presidio of Santa Barbara and the Presidio of San Diego.
José Darío Argüello (1753–1828) was a Querétaro-born Californio politician, soldier, and ranchero. He served as interim Governor of Alta California and then a term as Governor of Baja California.
The Casa de la Guerra was the residence of the fifth commandant of the Presidio de Santa Barbara, José de la Guerra y Noriega, founder of the Guerra family of California from 1828 until his death in 1858. Descendants of José lived in the home until 1943. The site is currently owned and operated by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation as a historic house museum. The address is 15 East De la Guerra Street, Santa Barbara, California.
Ygnacio Ramón de Jesus del Valle was a Californio ranchero and politician. He owned much of the Santa Clarita Valley and served briefly as Mayor of Los Angeles and as a California State Assemblyman.
Pablo de la Guerra was a Californio politician, judge, and signer of the Californian Constitution in 1849. He served as acting Lieutenant Governor of California and as a member of the California Senate.
The Ávila family was a prominent Californio family of Spanish origins from Southern California, founded by Cornelio Ávila in the 1780s. Numerous members of the family held important rancho grants and political positions, including two Alcaldes of Los Angeles.
Rancho El Conejo was a 48,572-acre (196.56 km2) Spanish land grant in California given in 1803 to Jose Polanco and Ygnacio Rodriguez that encompassed the area now known as the Conejo Valley in southeastern Ventura and northwestern Los Angeles Counties. El Conejo is Spanish for "The Rabbit", and refers to the many rabbits common to the region. The east-west grant boundaries approximately went from the border of Westlake Village near Lindero Canyon Road in the east to the Conejo Grade in the west. The north-south borders extended from the top of the Simi Hills at the end of Moorpark Road in the north to Hidden Valley in the Santa Monica Mountains in the south. The rancho is the site of the communities of Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake Village.
Rancho San Julian was a 48,222-acre (195.15 km2) Mexican land grant and present-day ranch in present-day Santa Barbara County, California given in 1837 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to José de la Guerra y Noriega. The grant name probably refers to José Antonio Julian de la Guerra. The grant was located west of present-day Santa Barbara.
Rancho Las Posas was a 26,623-acre (107.74 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Ventura County, California. It was given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to José Antonio Carrillo.
Rancho Todos Santos y San Antonio was a 20,772-acre (84.06 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Barbara County, California given in 1841 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to William Edward Petty Hartnell. The grant extended along San Antonio Creek and encompassed present-day Orcutt., northwest of Lompoc
Santiago Argüello (1791–1862) was a Californio, a soldier in the Spanish army of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in Las Californias, a major Mexican land grant ranchos owner, and part of an influential family in Mexican Alta California and post-statehood California.
María de las Angustias de la Guerra, known simply as Angustias de la Guerra, was Californio historian and socialite. A member of the prominent Guerra family of California, she played an important role in defending women's property rights in the California Constitution while it was being drafted during the Monterey Constitutional Convention of 1849. Her memoirs, "Ocurrencias en California" is an important historical account of Californian history in the 19th century.
The Carrillo family is a prominent Californio family of Southern California. Members of the family held extensive rancho grants and numerous important political positions, including Governor of Alta California, Mayor of Los Angeles, Mayor of Santa Barbara, Mayor of Santa Monica, and a signer of the Californian Constitution.
The Pico family is a prominent Californio family of Southern California. Members of the family held extensive rancho grants and numerous important positions, including Governor of Alta California, signer of the Constitution of California, and California State Senator, among numerous others. Numerous locations are named after the family across California.
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