They passed through the new missions on the Colorado
River, Mission Puerto de Purisima
Concepcion and Mission San Pedro y
San Pablo de Bicuner. The group arrived at the Colorado River in June of 1781.
Rivera y Moncada sent most of his party ahead, but he stayed behind to rest the
livestock before continuing their drive across the desert. His party would
never reach San Gabriel. In July, Rivera was killed along with the local
missionaries, settlers, and travelers with the revolt of the Quechan Indians (The Yuma Revolt) in 1781.
The Quechan and Mojave Indians rose up against the
party for encroaching on their farmlands and for the many other abuses inflicted upon them by the
soldiers. From the 17th to the 19th of July in 1781 the Yuma (Quechan) Indians destroyed
both the missions and pueblos, they killed 103 soldiers, colonists and the Mission
Friars. They captured about 80 more, mostly women and children. Amid the
casualties were Fernando Rivera y Moncada and Fray Francisco Garces. The
Spanish were able to gather their dead and ransom nearly all the prisoners; but
failed to re-open the Anza Trail. The
Yuma Crossing and the Anza Trail were closed to Spanish traffic
and would stay closed until about 1846. California was largely isolated from
land based travel, with the only way into California from Mexico was now a 40
to 60 day sea voyage. According to historian David Weber, the Yuma Revolt
turned California into an "island" and Arizona into a "cul de sac", severing Arizona-California
and Mexican land connections before they could be firmly established.
Of the original 44 pobladores of El Pueblo de La Reina de Los Angeles; one
included my 6th great grandfather, Luis Manuel Quintero
(1726-1810); he was an Afro-Mexican tailor from Guadalajara, Jalisco
(perhaps the son of an African slave). Quintero was the very last recruit to sign up
with Rivera y Moncada. His wife, my 6th great grandmother, Maria
Petranila Timotea Rubio (1743-1802), was born in about 1741 from Los Alamos,
Sonora; she is described as a mulata,
or a person of mixed Spanish and African descent. They were married in about 1760
at Los Alamos, Sonora, Mexico and their eight (or nine) children included, my 5th great grandmother, Maria Faviana Sebastiana Quintero
(1766-1822). Luis Manuel Quintero’s decision to join the expedition was likely
colored by the January 1781 marriages of 3 of his daughters to 3 of the expeditionary
soldiers under Rivera y Moncada; Maria Faviana Sebastiana Quintero to my 5th great grandfather Ysidro German Eugenio
Valdez (1755-1838), Maria Catarina Quintero (1766-1798) to Joaquin Rodriquez, and Maria Juana Josefa Quintero
(1763-1793) to Jose
Rosalino Fernandez.
At age 55, in about 1781, Luis Manuel Quintero, either requested to leave Los Angeles, or was evicted from
the pueblo for not performing his appointed duties. One likely scenario was
that Quintero, a tailor by trade, wished to continue in his profession
rather than becoming a farmer at the Pueblo. Another factor may have been the
110-mile distance between the Pueblo and Santa Barbara Presidio where his three
daughters lived with their soldiers husbands. In any event, Quintero did leave
Los Angeles for Santa Barbara where he lived for many years. In 1784, he was
reunited with an old compadre from Los Alamos when Felipe de Goycoechea was appointed as commander at Santa
Barbara. Goycoechea was godfather to Quintero’s son, Jose Clemente Quintero (abt 1778-1803). Jose Clemente
married Maria Josefa Andrea Rodriguez
(1786-1851), the daughter of Jose
Ygnacio Rodriguez (1759-1814) and Juana
Paula de la Cruz Parra (1765-1827); her parents also members of
the Riviera Expedition.
Jose Ygnacio Rodriguez was a co-recipient of Rancho El Conejo; a
48,572-acre Spanish land grant given in 1803 to Jose Polanco and Jose Ygnacio
Rodriguez, it encompassed the area now known as the Conejo Valley in
southeastern Ventura and northwestern Los Angeles Counties. El Conejo means "The Rabbit"
in Spanish, and refers to the many rabbits common to the region. The rancho is
the site of the communities of Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake
Village.
Polanco, lost his portion of the rancho due to
neglect. In 1822, Santa Barbara army officer Jose de la Guerra y Noriega was
granted Polanco's claim by Spanish Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola. The grant
was fully patented to Jose de la Guerra y Noriega and Jose Ygnacio Rodriguez’
daughter Maria del Carmen de Rodriguez
(1798-1881) in 1873.
The rancho stayed in the de la Guerra and
Rodriguez families until the 1860s, when after drought and disease decimated local
cattle, the families began selling off their land. In 1872, H. W. Mills
purchased one-half of the Conejo grant from the heirs of Captain Jose de la
Guerra, which he called the Triunfo Ranch.
Mills went bankrupt and Andrew D. Russell purchased his Triunfo Ranch in 1881. In 1882, 2,200 acres of the Newbury tract
were sold. In 1910, Harold and Edwin Janss of the Janss Investment Company
purchased about 10,000 acres of land of what is now Thousand Oaks from the heir
of John Edwards, who had purchased the land from the de la Guerra heirs.
Luis Manuel Quintero died in 1810 in Santa Barbara,
after serving as tailor for the soldiers at the presidio. Some of the Quintero
family eventually returned to Los Angeles.
My 5th great grandparents, Maria Faviana Sebastiana Quintero
and Ysidro German Eugenio Valdez married on
January 21, 1781 at Los Alamos. He was son of my 6th great grand parents Ygnacio Roque Valdez and Maria Manuela Fernandez of El Fuerte, Sinaloa. Ysidro German Eugenio Valdez served as an escort
soldier in the 1781 expedition to Los Angeles. Maria Faviana Sebastiana
Quintero and her, then retired, soldier husband would later move to Los
Angeles. Their daughter, Maria Rita
Quiteria Valdez received the 4,500 acre Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas (Meeting of the Gathering Waters) in the
area now known as Beverly Hills. This was the rancho where two of my 3rd great grandfathers, Ygnacio Maria
Palomares (1811-1864) and Juan Nepomuceno Ricardo Vejar (1805-1870) kept their herds of horses and cattle prior to receiving their own Rancho San Jose grant. Ygnacio Maria
Palomares married Maria Rita Quiteria Valdez’ neice, my 3rd great grandmother, Maria "China" de
la Concepcion Lopez; the daughter of my 4th great grandparents, Maria Jacinta del Sacramenta Valdez
and Esteban Ignacio Maria De Los Angeles Lopez.