Pío Pico
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Pío de Jesus Pico
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| In office 1832 – 1832 |
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| Preceded by | Manuel Victoria |
| Succeeded by | Agustín V. Zamorano and José María de Echeandía |
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| In office 1845 – 1846 |
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| Preceded by | Manuel Micheltorena |
| Succeeded by | José Mariá Flores |
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| Born | May 5, 1801 Mission San Gabriel Arcángel |
| Died | September 11, 1894 (aged 93) Los Angeles, California |
| Spouse | María Ignacia Alvarado |
| Profession | Entrepreneur, Politician |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Pío de Jesus Pico (May 5, 1801 – September 11, 1894) was the last Mexican Governor of Alta California.
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[edit] Origins
Pío Pico was born at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to José María Pico and María Eustaquia Gutiérrez with the aid of midwife Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné. He was the fourth of ten children of mixed ancestry (Pico had African, Native American, Spanish blood). His paternal grandmother, María Jacinta de la Bastida, was listed in the 1790 census as mulata. His grandfather, Santiago de la Cruz Pico, described as a Mestizo in the same census, was among the soldiers accompanying Juan Bautista de Anza on the expedition that launched from Tubac, Arizona for California around 1775 with the intent to explore and colonize.[1] After the death of his father in 1819 he settled in San Diego, California. He married María Ignacia Alvarado on February 24, 1834.
[edit] Business life
Pico set up a tanning hut and dram shop in 1821 at Los Angeles, selling a drink for two bits (25 cents). Some of those drinks were served to unwitting customers from hollowed out ox-horns sporting false wooden bottoms.[clarify] His retailing businesses became a significant source of income.
By the 1850s Pico was one of the richest men of Mexican Alta California. In 1850 he purchased the 8,894-acre (3,600 hectare) Rancho Paso de Bartolo Viejo, which included half of present day Whittier. He built a home on this ranch in 1852 and lived there until 1892. Today, his home is preserved as Pio Pico State Historic Park. Pico also owned the former Mission San Fernando Rey de España, Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores (now part of Camp Pendleton), and several other ranchos totaling over one half-million acres, or 800 mi² (2,000 km²).
In Los Angeles, he constructed the three story, 33-room hotel, Pico House (Casa de Pico) on the old plaza, opposite today's Olvera Street. At the time of its opening in 1869, it was the most extravagant and lavish hotel in Southern California. However, even before 1900, it began a slow decline along with the surrounding neighborhood, as the business center moved further south. After decades of serving as a shabby flop house, it was deeded to the State of California in 1953, and is now a part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument. It is currently used on occasion for exhibits and special events.
[edit] Political life
Pico served twice as Governor of Alta California, taking office the first time from Manuel Victoria in 1832, when Victoria was deposed for refusing to follow through with orders to secularize mission properties. As governor pro tempore and Vocal of the Departmental Assembly, he set forth with secularization, handing the reins of governor to Zamorano and Echeandia to respectively govern the north and south after only twenty days in office.
Pico ran in 1834 for office as the first alcalde (magistrate) of San Diego, but was unsuccessful. He actively challenged the government of Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado (1836 to 1842) and was imprisoned on several occasions. In 1844 he was chosen as a leader of the California Assembly, and began his second term as governor, succeeding the unpopular Manuel Micheltorena in 1845. Pico made Los Angeles the state capital. In the year leading up to the Mexican-American War, Governor Pico was outspoken in favor of California becoming a British Protectorate rather than American territory.
During the Mexican-American War, when U.S. troops occupied Los Angeles and San Diego in 1846, Pico fled to Baja California, Mexico, to argue a case for sending troops to defend California before the Mexican Congress as well as prevent himself being taken prisoner. After the war, Pico returned to Los Angeles in 1848, successfully surviving the Mexican-American transition after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1853 he was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council, but did not assume office.
[edit] Epilogue
After the Mexican-American War Pico dedicated himself to his businesses. However gambling, losses to loan sharks, bad business practices, being defrauded, and the 1883 flood ruined him financially. He was forced to liquidate his real estate holdings. Impoverished, he died in 1894 at the home of his daughter Joaquina Pico Moreno in Los Angeles. He was buried in a modest tomb in El Campo Santo Cemetery at the Homestead Museum in the present City of Industry.
Pico had three nationalities during his life: he was born a Creole in New Spain, was later a Mexican citizen, then a United States citizen. He was known for his extravagant lifestyle, with fine clothes, expensive furnishings, and heavy gambling.
In 1927, Pío Pico State Historic Park was created from the ruins of his Rancho de Bartolo (El Ranchito) in Whittier, and Casa Pico mansion. Pico Boulevard, a major east-west thoroughfare in Los Angeles, is named after the former governor. An elementary and junior high school in Los Angeles' Koreatown district is also named in his honor. Also, Pico Rivera, a city located in southeastern Los Angeles County, is named for him.
[edit] Quote(s)
| “ | What are we to do then? Shall we remain supine, while these daring strangers are overrunning our fertile plains, and gradually outnumbering and displacing us? Shall these incursions go on unchecked, until we shall become strangers in our own land? | ” |
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— Pío de Jesus Pico[2]
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Soldiers of the 1775 Anza Expedition California Spanish Genealogy. Retrieved on 2008-08-05
- ^ "Pio Pico - Last Governor of Mexican California". Los Angeles Almanac. Retrieved on 2006-12-28.
- Biography from the San Diego Historical Society excerpted from Smythe's History of San Diego (1907)
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