5 minute read

Noé, Castro, and the post-Spanish government.

After the Mission, hotels, plank roads, Las Vegas of the Peninsula Decrepitude, moral and otherwise. —

Californios were the the civilian settlers and colonists who emigrated into Alta California under the auspices of a faltering imperial Spain. They only gained independence from Spain after the sixteen year long Mexican War of Independence which ended in fall of 1821.

While the fledgeling Mexican government tried to figure out how to build the ship of state while also sailing it, Spain continued to try to win back its ex for eight more years, and didn’t formally recognize the independence of Mexico until December of 1836.

During that time the Mexican people went through a Regency while they tried to find a suitable Bourbon monarch, then forced the Regent to become Emperor or a constitutional monarchy, then forced him to abdicate; the resulting provisional government built a triumvirate, which had six separate heads of state between 1823-1824. The following First Mexican Republic lasted from 1824-1835, and included in order: one normal presidential election, one contested election where the opposition ran the winner out of town and appointed the other, the last slapdown of a handsy Spain, a coup and deposition of said other when he didn’t give up emergency powers after the Spanish defeat, an autocratic government which then executed the deposed guy, and a tag-team period where two guys handed off government between them.

Got all that? Because also during that time Mexico abolished slavery (thus picking a fight with Americans in Texas), created the first Ministry of Justice, set up schools and colleges, created its first natural history museums, dissolved the old Spanish Mission system and began distributing the lands among naturalized Mexican residents (1833). The settlement of Yerba Buena was officially founded in 1834.

The hitch here of course, was that it was extremely easy to become a naturalized citizen, and with the lure of so much land up for grabs, many American settlers did so with only mercantile interest. Instead of contributing and integrating with the Republic, they and began subtly, or not-so-subtly, steering the politics of their adoptive homes, and bringing in friends and family with no intent to naturalize.

Also during this time, the squabbling government(s) of the infant Mexican state largely ignored the residents of California, to the point where Nuevo California had become a semi-autonomous zone. So much so that the Californios forcefully ousted the governor appointed by the Mexican government, and while they officially acknowledged decrees from the central government those that were inconvenient were ignored in practice.

By late 1845, when Mexico didn’t even bother to send anyone to try to enforce their decrees, and with a bunch of unruly Americans running around, the Californios began talking amongst themselves. With Mexico ignoring them, should California ally themselves with France, petition to become one of the United States, annex themselves the British Empire, or… perhaps secede from Mexico and become an independent country…?

The British Empire briefly entertained the idea of purchasing the bay from Mexico in 1841, claiming it would “Secure to Great Britain all the advantages of the finest port in the Pacific for her commercial speculations in time of peace, and in war for more easily securing her maritime ascendency”. ( ISBN 978-0-19-820565-4.)

In November 1845, General José Castro ordered that all American immigrants in California report to Sonoma, to swear allegiance to Mexico in front of his deputy Mariano Vallejo, and register for a license to settle in the territory. That… didn’t go so well, and in the end only about 20 Americans presented themselves. In December, the United States annexed Texas, which Mexico refused to acknowledge, and now seeing a weak rival, started to mass forces around California to incite rebellion and support a bid to annex California.

In June 14 1846, a group of local men incited by John C Fremont, wrote a manifesto (!), and raised the Bear Flag in rebellion against the governor of Sonoma, starting the short-lived California Republic. In Yerba Buena, one of Jose Noé’s last acts as co-alcade was to rename the settlement “San Francisco”. At that time, the Californios had only had about 12 years on “their” land - and about six months to figure out how to kick start their own government. It was the beginning of the end: the very start of the Mexican-American War which lasted until Feb 1847, and resulted in the total expulsion of the (admittedly lackadaisical) Mexican Government from Alta California.

The Treaty of Guadelupe Hildago ended the war, but also resulted in a appalling loss of civil and political rights for many Mexicans, especially mestizos, Afro-Mexicans, and indigenous peoples in the annexed territories.

The Treaty promised U.S. citizenship to all former Mexican citizens living in the territories. However, the United States gave the newly ceded states the authority to establish their own citizenship policies. Unsurprisingly, the new state governments quickly passed laws that banned Mexicans from U.S. citizenship (unless of course they were white and male, like all those naturalized guys running around). Non-white Mexicans lost other citizenship rights, such as the right to practice law, vote or hold certain government positions.

California’s Public Land Commission was a three-member commission formed in March of 1851 to review the nearly 800 land claims of Mexicans in California, as promised in Articles VII and IX of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. While the Commission was only active in San Francisco from January 1852 to March 1856, the cases led to nearly forty years of legal challenges, with some cases lasting into the 1880s. Of the 803 land claims filed, 604 were initially confirmed, but almost all were appealed by opposing parties. In the end most of the Californio owners were ousted due to the costs of legal defense, language barriers, Ranchos taken over by Americans.