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| 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.
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| 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.
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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.
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| 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."
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| San Felipe Creek. Site of the celebratory fandango. |
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| 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.
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.
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| A Presidio Soldier 1778 |
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.
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| 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.
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| Rosa Cruz, seated, with Albertina Verdugo |
- 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.
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