Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Death of Maria Feliciana Arballo

 
Much has been written concerning Maria Feliciana Arballo or Arbayo. She is my 6th Great Grandmother and was born in 1755, presumably at San Miguel de Culiacan, in Sinaloa, Mexico. Feliciana is well known as "the Bold Widow" or "the Merry Widow" of the 2nd Anza Expedition of 1776. Feliciana died after November 5, 1818 in San Diego, of old Alta California; likely just before the end of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain in 1821.




 

Tubac Presidio circa 1775
Her birthplace, San Miguel de Culiacan was founded in 1531 by the Spanish Conquistador Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán. That same decade, it was the end place of the nearly 10 year long journey of Cabeza de Vaca and few survivors of Narváez Expedition. In 1540, the Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado set out from Culiacán to explore what is now the southwestern United States in his fruitless search for the famed city of gold, Cibola. Settlers from Europe came to Culiacán, and in the following centuries, Culiacán grew in population but existed as a quiet village. In 1775, the Viceroy of New Spain authorized Juan Bautista de Anza, the commander of the Tubac Presidio, to lead a 2nd expedition north to establish a presidio and mission at present-day San Francisco. Anza enlisted volunteers in various villages and areas around Culiacán, Mexico, and the selected recruits gathered at the Presidio of San Miguel de Horcasitas, Sonora’s provincial capital. José Joaquin Moraga was Anza’s lieutenant and Franciscan Friar Pedro Font was the expedition chaplain. Two other Franciscan Missionaries, Fathers Garcés and Exiarch, were to accompany the expedition as far as the crossing of the Colorado River at Yuma. The expedition’s final staging area was at Tubac. Just three weeks prior to the expedition’s arrival there, an Apache Indian attack drove off a herd of about 500 horses, which forced the group to depart without needed fresh mounts. Supplies included six tons of flour, beans, cornmeal, sugar, and chocolate, which were loaded onto, and off of, pack mules every day. Other necessaries, from shelter and sleeping supplies to cooking kettles to iron needed for making horseshoes, added yet more tonnage. 
Juan Bautista de Anza by Fray Orsi 1774
While many accounts indicate that Maria Feliciana Arballo was born in Sinaloa, Mexico some other accounts claim that she was born in Spain. By either account, it has been traditionally indicated that Feliciana came from a well to do Spanish family and that she had defied her parents and the social mores of the time by marrying below her caste level, to Juan Jose Gutierrez in 1768, when Feliciana was but 13 years old. Gutierrez was a mestizo (mixed Indian and Spanish blood) soldier in Captain Anza's service. Their marriage and the difficulties a "mixed" marriage such as this might have produced could have played some part in the Gutierrez family's decision to join the second Anza Expedition to California, when Feliciana was 20 years old with her husband and two young daughters, as it provided a possible chance to escape the existing rigid class society that based much upon skin color and race. Typically, most expedition members were recruited from impoverished mixed race families. They were paid the equivalent of two years sailor's wages, promised five years of rations, provided with camp gear, clothing, livestock and weapons, and possible land grants in the new territory; all authorized and funded by the Spanish Crown.
A recent historical discovery at the Cathedral of Culiacan, the wedding records of Maria Feliciana Arballo and Juan Jose Gutierrez describe Feliciana as a "mulata libre”, or a free black woman of either African or mixed African and Hispanic ancestry. If this is a more accurate description of Feliciana's racial heritage, then the story and shock of a high born woman of Spanish descent marrying a mestizo soldier is understandably lessened. The classification of race throughout this period varies widely among the records of soldiers, settlers and families. In some cases, individuals race evolved over the course of time, some eventually achieving the coveted designation of “Espanol”, which indicated pure Spanish blood. In some cases, siblings from the same families would have differing racial designations which indicates that there was likely no proscribed system for classification or that it was left to the determination of the recorder. Other considerations that came into play were later Alta California presidial requirements that a certain percentage of “Espanol” soldiers be enlisted in the ranks. So simply reclassifying a mestizo soldier to an Espanol designation benefitted both the individual socially, and the presidio's company when records were conveyed to the powers of New Spain.
Just weeks prior to the expedition’s departure, Feliciana's husband, Juan Jose Gutierrez, was killed during an Apache Indian attack. Whether this attack was the same as the one where the expedition lost their horses is unclear. Gutierrez' death, under normal circumstances, would have disqualified Feliciana and her daughters from now accompanying the expedition as they would be without the protection and guidance of a male family leader. It is unknown what arrangements, arguments or pleadings Feliciana Arballo used but de Anza let the widow and her daughters remain as part of the expedition even in the face of the strenuous protest and objections of the Expedition's religious leader Fray Pedro Font. Feliciana's problems with Fray Font would continue during the long trip to California, as indicated by other instances of Font's rebukes and criticisms of the young widow (and of continuing complaints made to Anza during the course of the journey). Regardless, the young widow Arballo made the trip north on horseback with her two daughters, 6 year old María Tomasa Gutierrez, and 4 year old María Estaquia Gutierrez; the one child before her and one behind.
Anza's list from September 1775 shows Feliciana in the following grouping: Agustin de Velenzuela, 30; Petra Ignacia de Ochoa, 20; Maria Seferina Valenzuela, 3; Maria Feliciana Arballo, 25; Maria Tomasa (Gutierrez), 4; and Maria Eustaquia (Gutierrez). This group is stated as being recruited on April 6th, 1775. Other notable members of the 1776 Expedition (as it applies to this history specifically), were the family members of Santiago de la Cruz Pico, whose son José María Pico would marry Feliciana's daughter María Estaquia Gutierrez some thirteen years later, and who she likely came to know as a boy of eleven years old, while he accompanied his family on the Expedition. Jose Maria Pico and Maria Estaquia Gutierrez would become the parents of Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, and Mexican General Andres Pico. Also of interest is the family of the soldier Ignacio María Gutierrez, with his wife, Ana María de Osuna, and their three children. It seems quite possible that Ignacio Gutierrez was potentially a relative of Feliciana's deceased husband Juan Jose Gutierrez. Whether this is true or that it had any additional bearing upon Maria Feliciana Arballo being permitted to remain with the Expedition is unknown.

Mural Fragment of a Franciscan Friar
Perhaps the most notorious and well documented altercation between Feliciana Arballo and Fray Font came on December 17, 1775 when the parties of the expedition, who had separated over a week earlier at the Santa Olalla camp, south of Imperial County, rejoined. Anza had divided them into groups to avoid depleting the limited water sources that were available; the three groups, plus a fourth of the vaqueros and cattle, made the trek separately. An additional reason for separating the vaqueros may have been the difficulties and dangers of controlling the large herd of longhorn cattle. Following a treacherous river crossing, the expedition made camp near the present Salton Sea (which did not exist at this time). The expedition had lost numerous livestock to exhaustion, starvation and thirst during this unusually cold and harsh winter of 1775. Yet many travelers who had been ill had seemed to improve in health during the march, "…may God be thanked," said Font. That night at their camp on San Felipe Creek "with the joy at the arrival of all the people, they held a fandango [a jubilant Andalusian-style dance and feast]," wrote Font. But to the irritation of the strict friar, who himself had been sick and ill tempered for much of the journey, the colonists celebrated with bawdy songs led by Maria Feliciana Arballo herself. The fandango was described by Font as "somewhat discordant, and a very bold widow who came with the expedition sang some verses which were not at all nice, applauded and cheered by all the crowd."  
San Felipe Creek. Site of the celebratory fandango.
Font made no secret of his preference for prayer as appropriate celebration over drink and dance. At his next Mass, Fray Font further scolded the colonists for their behavior. "I said Mass and in it spoke a few words about the fandango of last night, censuring the performance, saying that instead of thanking God for having arrived with their lives and not having died from such hardship, as the animals did, it appeared that they were making such festivities in honor of the Devil. I do not think the commander liked this very much, for he did not speak to me once during the whole morning." In yet another instance, after an earthquake near the Mojave Desert, Font said it was "retribution for the coquetry of Dona Maria." In Font’s opinion, it is clear that Feliciana Arballo, "the Bold Widow", did not play the traditional and required submissive and modest role assigned to women of her time and that she, by dancing and singing in public, rejected the social controls that normally governed Spanish women's actions.
 
Mission San Gabriel
The Anza Expedition reached San Gabriel on February 21st, 1776 for rest and resupply for their continuing journey to Monterey. Whether due to Feliciana's having reached a point where she no longer wished to continue her confrontations with Pedro Font or if there was truly a romantic interest, Maria Feliciana Arballo was courted by, and caused yet another minor sensation by leaving the Expedition, and quickly married another mestizo soldier stationed at San Gabriel, Juan Francisco Lopez, on April 7th, 1776. Lopez was a native of Baja California who had came with the Portola Expedition to establish missions and presidios in California with Francisco Serra in 1769. The marriage ceremony was performed by Fray Francisco Garces, the missionary who de Anza had left at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers and sent up the Colorado River to meet and convert the Mojave Indians. Garces rejoined the group at San Gabriel. Fray Garces was killed 3 years later in the Yuma uprising of 1779. Among the witnesses to the Lopez Arballo marriage were the California Indian Sebastian Tarabal, a member of Portola's 1769 expedition who had previously fled Mission San Gabriel, with his wife, to Sonora and served Anza as a guide on both expeditions; Anza expedition member Ignacio María Gutierrez who was perhaps her brother in law or relative of her first husband; also present was my 8th Great Grandfather, Juan Jose Dominguez, another Portola expeditioneer and the later grantee of the 75,000 acre Rancho San Pedro in 1784. And so again, Arballo defied, not once but twice, (if she was indeed of pure Spanish descent) the caste and strict color constraints of Hispanic culture by marrying soldiers both of whom were of mestizo or mixed blood. Feliciana married beneath her class and caste, defied priest's advice, resisted male authority and direction, and continually and repeatedly acted boldly in the public sphere, effectively subverting the gender requirements of proper behavior for a woman of her time.

A Presidio Soldier 1778
While Maria Feliciana Arballo was certainly unusual for her gender and willful independence and defiance of one of the Expedition's leaders, she did have the seeming and continued support from the chief commander of the Expedition in Captain de Anza who saw her as an important morale booster for the company. During the earlier fandango, another member of the expedition who was escorting the young widow, apparently was also offended by Arballo's celebration and chastised her and even physically abused her in front of the party. De Anza is said to have come out of his tent, stepped in and stopped the man's abuse of Arballo. Fray Font wrote that "The Commandeer, hearing of this, sallied forth from his tent and reprimanded the man for chastizing her." Fray Font interjected that "Leave him alone, sir, he is doing just right!" De Anza replied that "No, Father, I cannot permit such excesses while I am present." Fray's final criticism of de Anza comments that "He [de Anza] guarded against these excesses, indeed, but not against the scandal of the fandango, which lasted until very late." Like de Anza, most missionaries (although clearly not Pedro Font) and military officers alike acknowledged the necessity of women's presence as a predominant factor in the success of any colonization effort.

Another interesting episode of a disagreement between Font and Anza is recorded in Fray Font's diary where he protests Anza distribution of brandy to the soldiers on Christmas Eve:
I learned at night that because it was Christmas Eve refreshments were being given to the soldiers; and in order if possible to prevent a drunken carousal, after dinner I said to the commander: "Sir, although my opinion is of no value and I do not cut any figure here, I can do no less than to tell you that I have learned that there is drinking today."
"Yes, there is," he replied.
"Well, Sir," I continued, "I wish to say that it does not seem to me right that we should celebrate the birth of the Infant Jesus with drunkenness."
"Father," he said, "I do not give it to them in order that they may get drunk."
"Clearly this would be the case," I said to him, "because then the sin would be even greater, but if you know that they are sure to get drunk you should not give it to them."
He said to me then. "The king sends it for me and they deliver it to me in order that I may give it to the soldiers."
"This would be all right at the proper time," I replied. "But I understand that to be in ease of necessity."
"Well, Father," he said, "it is better that they should get drunk than to do some other things."
"But, Sir," I replied, "drunkenness is a sin, and one who cooperates also sins, and so if you know that a person will get drunk on so much you should give him less, or none at all."
He did not say any more and I went to my tent without being able to prevent this disorder, because the commander had already made up his mind to distribute the liquor. And so he immediately gave it to the people, a pint to each one, saying in a loud voice:"Be careful that you don't get drunk, because if any one is found drunk outside of his tent I'll punish him."
With this he satisfied his conscience, and the people that night were very noisy, singing and dancing from the effects of the liquor, not caring that we were in so bad a mountain in the rain, and so delayed with the saddle animals and the tired and dead cattle. Such is the rule of those absolute lords, in evidence of which I have related this incident.
Alta California was a vast unpopulated land in 1775. The 2nd Anza Expedition effectively doubled the population of the territory and brought much needed new blood and potential for familial interaction that was sorely limited. Alongside agriculture, hunting, horsemanship and other ostensibly male dominated practices and diversions; practices of brutal, sexual violent attacks were perpetrated against females regularly (especially native women), whether in the form of rape, beatings or outright murder, often with little risk of punishment or interest in pursuing the perpetrators. Arballo, in some ways, did more than simply defy Fray Font's attempts to control her actions and attitude. In a sense she transposed their positions of power in a way that allowed her, arguably among the weakest and least valued in the company, to assume a voice that allowed her a level of power and strength in a society where women, and certainly a widowed woman, typically lacked any voice or say concerning any decisions that were to be made. While Feliciana's actions, disobedience and resistance to the existing power structure may only have stemmed from a spirit too strong to be subdued and were only examples of her being the person that she was. Her actions in today's view reaches somewhat into an almost political realm. By acting publically and succeeding in many cases, despite punishments, rebukes and even disdain from women within her own social class, Feliciana Arballo showed by example that the new world had indeed been reached and that while the road ahead was still a rocky one by any standards there were new opportunities for women to achieve and have a say, in at least some small part, their own destiny and future. It is all the more impressive considering what women of all castes and races risked during this early era of California history.
As mentioned previously, Feliciana’s daughter María Estaquia Gutierrez married José María Pico, the parents of Pio Pico. Her second daughter with Juan Jose Gutierrez, Maria Tomasa, married Juan Jose Sepulveda, another early progenitor of one of the most prominent Spanish-Mexican families in the early days of California.
Jose Joaquin Juan Pedro Verdugo and Maria Basilia Perez
Maria Feliciana Arballo's life after her marriage to Juan Francisco Lopez, while surely as rich and varied as her earlier life, has proven to be is much less documented with such detail.
  • My 6th Great Grandparents Maria Feliciana Arballo and Spanish soldier Juan Francisco Lopez were the parents of:
  • My 5th Great Grandmother Maria Josefa Benita Lopez. Maria Josefa Benita Lopez and Francisco Salvador Vejar (or Bejar) were the parents of:
  • My 4th Great Grandmother Maria Josefa Magdalena Vejar . Maria Josefa Magadalena Vejar and Jose Joaquin Verdugo (or Berdugo) were the parents of:
  • My 3rd Great Grandfather Jose Joaquin Juan Pedro Verdugo. Jose Joaquin Juan Pedro Verdugo and Maria Basilia Perez were the parents of:
  • My Great Great Grandmother Mauricia Verdugo. Mauricia Verdugo and Jose Martin Morales Cruz were the parents of:
  • My Great Grandmother Rosa Cruz. Rosa Cruz and Reginaldo Vejar (also a descendant of Maria Feliciana Arballo) were the parents of:
  • My Grandmother Henrietta Josefina Vejar. However, there are conflicting family opinions about Henrietta's birth Father. Her birth certificate is said to indicate Vejar as the father and there is indeed a record of marriage for Rosa Cruz to Reginaldo Vejar; but my mother told me that Henrietta's father was actually Henry (Enrique) Cesena of Ensenada, Mexico. I have been unable to find much in the way of documentation on this relationship, nor on the Cesena family, in general. Henrietta Josefina Vejar (or Cesena) and Robert George Metcalf were the parents of:
  • My Mother, Barbara Jean Metcalfe. Barbara Jean Metcalfe and Donald Martin Dockins are my parents.
Rosa Cruz, seated, with Albertina Verdugo
Besides my grandmother, Maria Josefa Benita Lopez born on April 3, 1784 in Mission San Juan Capistrano, Alta California the other children of Juan Francisco Lopez and his wife Maria Feliciana Arballo were:
  • Son Ignacio Maria (Becino) De Jesus Lopez born: May 31, 1778 in Mission San Diego, Alta California. He married Maria Timotea Villalobo on May 20, 1804 at Mission San Diego, Alta California.
  • Daughter Margarita Antonia Ventura Lopez born: July 21, 1781
  • Daughter Maria Josefa Inocencia Lopez born: December 28, 1782
  • Son Juan Jose Lopez born: December 27, 1786 in Mission San Juan Capistrano, Alta California. He married Maria Eduvigis de Arce.
  • Daughter Maria Antonia Lopez born: May 10, 1789
  • Daughter Maria Juliana Josefa Lopez born: March 16, 1781 in Mission San Diego, Alta California. She married Juan Maria Osuna on February 15, 1806 in San Diego. Osuna was a soldier and corporal of the San Diego Company and settled in San Diego and took part in the Mexican Revolution of 1831. After retiring as a corporal, Osuna and his family were the first to build on the plain outside the Presidio of San Diego. Later, Juan María Osuna was granted Rancho San Dieguito, 25 miles north of San Diego along the coast, during 1836–1845. He raised cattle and horses on the ranch. Their daughter’s Felipa married Juan María Marrón, and Luguarda married José María Alvarado.
  • Daughter Maria Ignacia De La Candelaria Lopez born: January 31, 1793 in Royal Presidio of San Diego, Alta California. She married Joaquin Carrillo of San Diego, and was the mother of Francisca Benicia Carrillo who married General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo on March 6, 1832 in the Chapel of the Presidio of San Diego. After her husband's death María Ignacia Lopez de Carrillo, was granted, in 1841, the Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, where she lived with her son Ramon. She is buried in the ruined mission of San Francisco Solano, at Sonoma. Her remains were laid under the font where it would receive the holy water that fell from the hands of devout worshippers.

So, in the end, Maria Feliciana Arballo played an integral part in the early days of Alta California and is the ancestress of many, many California families. The Lopez, Vejar, and Verdugo families are my direct ties but the many other families include Sepulveda, Osuna, Carrillo, Vallejo, Marron and Alvarado to name but a few.

Any corrections or additional information you may have to offer this account is most welcome.

10 comments:

  1. I do not believe Felicia a could have died in 1808, as while I do not have her death date, she and her 3rd husband, Tenorio, served as God parents to a Francisco Marron in Oct. of 1817. I am still looking for date she passed and the source as well that confirms such. Arballo is also, my 6th GGM.

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    1. Hi Lisa
      I am looking at EECP #04052 - the baptismal record for Francisco Marron and do not see Feliciana or Tenorio as godparents? On the other hand, Feliciana is listed as alive in Sept. 1809 at Joaquin Carrillo and (Feliciana's daughter) Maria Ignacia Lopez' wedding in San Diego (EECP #00948). Thank you all for great contributions!

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  2. Thank you for this most enjoyable article! Feliciana Arballo is my 5th great-grandmother, and one of my heroines. And thanks to Lisa Cross for the information above. Please comment here again if you find documentation of her passing.
    I have something to add. I have the same mitochondrial DNA as Feliciana, and I test out as A2, which means Native American Mexican, so she was also part Indian.

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  3. Hello Cousin Anne! Thank you! I ran my DNA as well and while I can't recall my group, but thnk it was also A2, I believe my 13% Native Indian is from Ramona, daughter of Leandro Osuna and and an Indian woman. I think my European percentage was 78 or 79.6%. I was everything but zero IT, Finn,Swede, Irish and no British. Did you go through 23and me for test or? Just curious. I need a refresher on how you linked in again. We emailed some years back. And no, I did not locate her death record. When I hit records for 1752 they were then suddenly not in order, switched to deaths or marriages just as I should have struck upon her birth record. I continued on, but did not complete all pages, some pages were repeated. I was bothered by this being the case for the year I needed, that it became a mess at her birth year. Just my luck. I hung it up, may go back to it later, but a couple years have since passed. Slow process. Did not find her girls' records either at Horcasitas. Frustrating to say the least. I switched it up to hunt Nice, FR paper trail. Found a boatload of my line there. When I knew where not to look further, I asked. The reply came from one that suspects we are cousins. She gave me a great deal of generations back, then I looked up most everyone to find their birth, marriage records, page by page til found. Having village, dates made it a lot easier to do. Learned the villa, on du Ray St., my 2nd GGF was born in, is still standing. And she grew up just down the street from that villa. He was a double Virgo, as myself, but born in 1861. I could do this hunting all night long .. I never get bored at it. Hope you are doing well. Keep in touch ... Xo LMC

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  4. My group is B2a, not A2.
    Here's copy paste of my formula breakdown
    100%

    European 79.8% 

    Eastern European 39.5%

    Southern European 25.3%

    Iberian 14.8%

    Balkan 0.9%

    Broadly Southern
    European 9.5%

    Northwestern European 7.5%

    French & German 2.5%

    Broadly Northwestern European 5.0%

    Ashkenazi Jewish 0.2%

    Broadly European 7.3%

    East Asian &
    Native American 17.9% 

    Sub-Saharan Africa 0.3% 

    Middle Eastern & North African. 0.1% 

    Unassigned. 1.9% 

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  5. One more item on article.
    Dates of Juliana and Margarita reflect born same year. It's not possible, Mar and July, not twins. Juliana was born, 2nd to last child. Her birth year in Northrop's is a typo. She was born 16 Mar 1791, bapt'd. 19 Mar 1791. I hate to list death date bc I do not have record in front of me. I think it was 21 Dec 1871. She's buried in El Campo Santos, in old town San Diego, unmarked grave, far left side, 2nd row from wall, small shrub, thin wooden cross once marked it. She lies to right side of her husband The Alcalde. They are my 5th GGP's. I never did receive autho to provide her headstone. I may just do it without permission anyway. 146 years without a headstone seems wrong to me.

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  6. Thanks Lisa
    I corrected Feliciana's 1808 death date & Juliana's birth date.
    Good luck with your search!
    Troy Dockins

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  7. Hi, my name is Penny A Rochelle.I am a decendant of the Juana Poyorena Rochelle Verdugo, who was married to Heraldo Rochelle my great Grandfather. Do u have any info on them? I would love to find out our history. Sincerely Penny Rochelle Romero

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  8. Hello, My daughter is related to Maria Feliciana Arballo. National Park Service records show that both Maria Feliciana Arballo AND her husband who died prior to the expedition in Sinaloa, were both "Mulatos Libres." At one time, I managed to get into the Mexican mission records and I did find the marriage certificate that matches up with what the National Park Service has documented. Here is a link with all that exciting info for you to explore: https://www.nps.gov/applications/tuma/detail2.cfm?Event_ID=9156

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  9. Book=Rose, or rose thorn?: Three women of Spanish California (Bancroft Library. Friends. Keepsakes) Hardcover – January 1, 1963
    by Susanna Bryant Dakin (Author)

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