Pío Pico (Redirected from Pio Pico)

Pío Pico
Pío Pico, c. 1890
10th Governor of California
In office
22 February 1845 – 10 August 1846
Preceded byManuel Micheltorena
Succeeded byJosé María Flores (Self-appointed Governor of California)
John Drake Sloat (As the U.S. Military Governor of California)
Governor of Alta California
In office
27 January 1832 – February 18 1832
Preceded byManuel Victoria
Succeeded byAgustín V. Zamorano (North)
José María de Echeandía (South)
Los Angeles Common Council
In office
1853–1853
Personal details
Born
Pío de Jesús Pico IV

(1801-05-05)May 5, 1801
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
San Gabriel, Alta California, New Spain
DiedSeptember 11, 1894(1894-09-11) (aged 93)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Political partyCalifornia Republican Party
SpouseMaría Ignacia Alvarado
RelationsAndrés Pico
ProfessionEntrepreneur, politician

Don Pío de Jesús Pico IV (May 5, 1801 – September 11, 1894) was a Californio politician, ranchero, and entrepreneur, famous for serving as the last governor of Alta California under Mexican rule. A member of the prominent Pico family of California, he was one of the wealthiest men in California at the time and a hugely influential figure in Californian society, continuing as a citizen of the nascent U.S. state of California. His legacy can be seen in the numerous places named after him, such as the city of Pico Rivera, Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, Pio Pico State Historic Park, and numerous schools that bear his name.

Early years

Ancestry and ethnic background

Pío Pico and his siblings are described as being of African, Native American, Spanish, and Italian ancestry. His paternal grandmother, María Jacinta Vastida, was listed in the 1790 census as mulata, meaning mixed-race with African ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Santiago de la Cruz Pico, was described as a mestizo (Native American-Spanish) in the same census. Santiago de la Cruz Pico was one of the soldiers who accompanied Juan Bautista de Anza on the expedition that left Tubac, Arizona for California in 1775 to explore the region and colonize it. Pío Pico's great grandfather, the Spanish-born Pío de Jesús Pico III, likely came to Mexico during the first or second decade of the 18th century.

Birth and childhood

2005 photo of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, where Pío Pico was born

Pío de Jesús Pico IV was born at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel on May 5 1801, to José María Pico and his wife María Eustaquia Gutiérrez, with the aid of midwife Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné. He was the fourth of his parents' ten children, and their second son. Among his siblings was his younger brother General Andrés Pico.

In 1805, the family moved to San Diego. José María Pico worked as a guard for mission communities, and would move to different missions as his work required. Pío Pico spent much of his childhood outside the tiny settlement of Mission San Diego. There, he received a modest education. He often read from the Bible at Mass, and felt the immense presence of the church, as it dominated the economy, although he was not profoundly religious. At the Presidio of San Diego, José Antonio Carrillo, who later married Pico's sister Estéfana, taught classes, and taught Pico how to read. This would be important to his career, as California law required literacy among elected officials. Carrillo would have a great influence on Pico's youth and political rise.

He took an interest in his father's work, and in 1815, he was temporarily placed in charge of the mission guards by local officials while his father was away. His father and other guards defended the missions from rebellions by Native Californians, who resented being forced to convert to Christianity as part of attempts to "civilize" them.

The Spanish government gave plots of land for housing and agriculture to some of the settlers in the area, and used them as incentives to recruit soldiers. José María Pico was never given any plots. José María eventually began to support the Mexican War of Independence from Spain. In 1811, he and sixty other soldiers were arrested by Spanish authorities on charges of conspiracy and imprisoned. He was eventually released, and the family moved back to San Gabriel. However, José María died in September 1819 in the same mission in which his son had been born. After this, Pío Pico was left in charge of his large family, and would have to continue without owning any land, which would remain a necessary component for entering California politics.

Mexican independence and early career

Portrait of Pico held by the California State Library, c. 1847

Following his father's death, Pico moved back to San Diego around the year 1820. He became a merchant, selling liquor, groceries, and dry goods. Pico's sisters married into prominent California families, which would be important to Pico's political rise. He kept close connections with these families. These marriages also gave the Pico family their first sense of financial security. Concepción Pico married Domingo Carrillo in 1810, María Casimira Pico married José Joaquín Ortega in 1821, and Estéfana married José Antonio Carrillo in 1823.

After Mexico's successful independence in 1821, the First Mexican Empire was created. However, Mexico's emperor Agustín de Iturbide clashed with liberal revolutionary generals such as Guadalupe Victoria, Vicente Guerrero, and Antonio López de Santa Anna, who resisted Iturbide's conservative policies. In 1823, Iturbide was forced to abdicate amid revolts, and soon after, the First Mexican Republic was created. Two rival factions developed: Liberals and Centralists. Centralists believed that Mexico's states should be controlled by an elitist government, as well as the continued heavy influence of the Catholic Church. Liberals wanted Mexico to become a federal republic, where the federal government shared power with the states, and supported secular education. California leaned more towards liberalism, as their political culture had developed largely separately from the federal government seated in Mexico City.

Pico was eventually appointed as the secretary to a captain named Pablo de la Portillà. In 1827, Portillà charged merchant Luis Brigas with misappropriation of funds, and brought the matter to a military tribunal. Brigas defended himself by stating that, "the civilians were the sacred core of the nation and that the military were nothing more than servants". The response affected Pico so much that he broke the line of command and sided with Brigas, which resulted in Pico temporarily being placed in jail. The incident was the beginning of Pico's support for liberalism and the first major political event of his life. Pico also became a supporter of California's liberal governor, José María de Echeandía, who became California's governor in 1825. Echeandía was a supporter of secularization, which would involve releasing natives from Church control and redistributing excess land to them.

Politics

Pico, c. 1858

With the help of his family connections, Pico was able to enter politics. By 1826, he had been elected to San Diego's town council and in 1828 he was elected to California's legislative body, known as a diputación. In 1829, Echeandía gave Pico Rancho Jamul, which was the first major piece of land he owned. After receiving the ranch, Pico began stocking it with cattle and hiring workers to cultivate a cattle empire and become part of the landowning elite. By 1831, California's diputación consisted of Pico, Ortega, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, Antonio María Osio, Santiago Argüello, Juan Bandini, and Tomás Yorba, all of whom were interrelated, which allowed them to take complete control of territorial politics.

After the presidency of Guadalupe Victoria, the liberal Vicente Guerrero became president, but after he was given emergency powers to repel a Spanish invasion, conservatives accused him of despotism. Led by Vice President Anastasio Bustamante, the conservatives launched a rebellion in late 1829. Upon becoming president, Bustamante designated the conservative centralist Lucas Alamán to head his cabinet, who sought to remove liberal opposition from federal and state governments. Alamán removed Echeandía as governor, and sent Manuel Victoria to replace him in 1830. Prior to Victoria's arrival, Echeandía issued decrees authorizing secularization, which he knew Victoria would oppose. Pico and other liberals in California supported Victoria's decrees.

Pico twice served 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 the mission properties. As governor pro tem and "Vocal" of the Departmental Assembly, Pico began secularization. After 20 days in office, he abdicated in favor of Zamorano and Echeandía, who governed the north and south, respectively, until José Figueroa reunified the governorship in 1833.

Pico ran for office in 1834 as the first alcalde (magistrate) of San Diego after secularization of the mission but was defeated. He challenged Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado (1836-1842) on political issues and was imprisoned on several occasions.

In 1844, he was chosen as a leader of the California Assembly. In 1845, he was again appointed governor, succeeding the unpopular Manuel Micheltorena.

This occurred because, in late 1844, the Mexican province of California staged a revolt against the mother country. Micheltorena had been sent to California from Mexico, along with an army that had been recruited out of Mexico's worst jails. He had no money to feed his army, which then spread out to people's homes and farms "like a plague of locusts, stripping the countryside bare." This enraged the Californians and led to widespread hatred of Micheltorena. Women were not considered safe from the depredations of Micheltorena's army.

Juan Bautista Alvarado, the governor who had been forcibly replaced by Micheltorena, organized a rebellion against Micheltorena. Upon learning of the impending revolt, Micheltorena appointed John Sutter to lead troops in opposition. Sutter came to John Marsh, who had one of the largest ranchos in California, hoping he would join. Marsh wanted no part of it, but Sutter forced him to join his army against his will.

The two forces met in Cahuenga Pass, near Los Angeles, and fought the Battle of Providencia (also known as the Second Battle of Cahuenga Pass), which consisted primarily of an artillery duel. On the long march to the battle Marsh had taken every opportunity to dissuade the other soldiers from Micheltorena’s cause. Ignoring Sutter, Marsh seized an opportunity in the battle to signal the other side for a parley. Many of the soldiers on each side were immigrants from the United States. Marsh convinced them that they had no reason to be fighting each other. At Marsh's urging, these soldiers on both sides united, abandoned Micheltorena's cause, and even captured Sutter. Micheltorena was defeated, and California-born Pio Pico was returned to the governorship.

Pico made Los Angeles the province's capital. In the year leading up to the Mexican–American War, Pico advocated that California achieve independence from Mexico and become a British protectorate.

When U.S. troops occupied Los Angeles and San Diego in 1846 during the Mexican–American War, Pico fled to Baja California, Mexico, to argue before the Mexican Congress for sending troops to defend Alta California. Pico did not return to Los Angeles until after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and he reluctantly accepted the transfer of sovereignty.

Automatically granted United States citizenship, he was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council in 1853, but he did not assume office.

Pico helped establish the California Republican Party, allying with the larger Republican Party due to his anti-slavery stances.

Business life

Pío Pico at the age of 67 in 1868.

John Bidwell, an early California settler, mentioned Pico among the people he knew:

Los Angeles I first saw in March 1845. It then had probably 250 people, of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple, Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill, Lemuel Carpenter, David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pio Pico (governor), Don Juan Bandini, and others.

By the 1850s Pico was one of the richest men in Alta California. In 1850 he purchased the 8,894-acre (3,599 ha) Rancho Paso de Bartolo, which included half of present-day Whittier. Two years later, he built a home on the ranch and lived there until 1892. It is preserved today 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 for a total of over 500,000 acres (200,000 ha).

In 1868, he constructed the three-story, 33-room hotel, Pico House (Casa de Pico) on the old plaza of Los Angeles, opposite today's Olvera Street. At the time of its opening in 1869, it was the most lavish hotel in Southern California. Even before 1900, however, both the hotel and the surrounding neighborhood had begun to decline, as the business center moved farther south. After decades as a shabby flophouse, the hotel was deeded to the State of California in 1953. It is now a part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument. It is used on occasion for exhibits and special events.

Later life

Pío de Jesús Pico in later life

Following the American annexation of California, Pico dedicated himself to his businesses.

He survived the American conquest of California, becoming one of the wealthiest California cattlemen, controlling more than a quarter million acres. He defended his position and fortune in over 100 legal cases, including 20 that were argued before the California Supreme Court.

Pico House, located on the Plaza de Los Ángeles.

However, gambling, losses to loan sharks, bad business practices, being a victim of fraud, and the flood of 1883 ruined him financially. For example, in 1893, Pico made an arrangement with Bernard Cohn in which Cohn paid Pico more than $60,000 in exchange for a deed to Pico's property in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the county. Pico sued Cohn, but lost on appeal. The decision, Pico v. Cohn (1891) 91 Cal. 129, 133-134, is classically cited by California appellate courts in cases having to do with the setting aside of a judgment in case of fraud.

Pico was forced to liquidate his real estate holdings and his final years were spent in near poverty. In 1893, a committee of local boosters and history enthusiasts asked him to appear at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition as "the last of the California "dons". Pico refused, considering it an affront to his dignity. He died in 1894 at the home of his daughter, Joaquina Pico Moreno, in Los Angeles. He was buried in the old Calvary Cemetery on North Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles, but his remains, as well as those of his wife, were relocated in 1921 to a modest tomb in El Campo Santo Cemetery, now in the Homestead Museum in the City of Industry.

Personal life

A Catholic, he married María Ignacia Alvarado on February 24, 1834 at La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles. His best man was then-governor José Figueroa. The reception was held across the street at the home of his brother-in-law José Antonio Carrillo. Pico never acknowledged any children with her or anyone else, but multiple people claimed to have been his direct descendants.

Pico held three different nationalities during his lifetime. He was born a Spaniard in New Spain, became a Mexican citizen as a young man, and finally a United States citizen. He was known for his extravagant lifestyle, with fine clothes, expensive furnishings, and heavy gambling.

In 2010, scientists published an article about Pio Pico asserting that he showed signs of acromegaly, a disease not characterized until later in the nineteenth century.

Legacy

Pío Pico State Historic Park

Numerous landmarks, areas, and streets bear Pico's name, especially in Southern California and particularly Los Angeles County.[citation needed] Pico Boulevard, a major east–west thoroughfare in Los Angeles, is named for him. The L.A. neighborhoods of Pico Union, Pico-Roberston, Pico Park, Pico/Rimpau, and Pico/Aliso Gardens bare his name. The city of Pico Rivera is also named after him. Pico station and Pico/Aliso station are stops on the Los Angeles Metro Rail.

Pío Pico State Historic Park is the historic site of Governor Pico's Rancho Paso de Bartolo, made up of his adobe mansion and ranching estate. The site, located in Whittier, California, was opened to the public in 1927 and is operated by California State Parks.

Pico House, located on the Los Angeles Plaza, is a historic site in Downtown Los Angeles, now part of the El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument.


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