Best not to return to "the good 'ol days".
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| Spanish colonization (1769-1810)* |
"When the Spanish began colonizing the San Francisco Peninsula in the 1770s, the Franciscan fathers were in control of the operation. Their goal was to Christianize the natives and prepare them for living a “civilized” life. Within 10 years, the natives were to be given land on which they could live a Christian life and self-sustain themselves with the skills that the padres taught them.
.... In the 1770s, the policy of the church (through the Spanish government)
was to keep the land in the hands of the church as the natives were not
yet trained to handle the responsibility of sustaining themselves
(although they had been doing this for thousands of years). Virtually no
land grants were doled out to Indians or Spanish citizens. The rapid
change of leadership in the early 1820s changed when Mexico began
administrating the Spanish Empire on the North American continent. The
Mexican government began rewarding those who had served in the military
with land grants and it became easier for any reputable Mexican to
acquire land if he had an espediente and diseno (petition and crude map)
and $12 to complete the transaction. Almost anyone could become a
landholder and a don."
.... Rancho San Pedro of Pacifica was granted to Jose Antonio Sanchez’s son,
Francisco Sanchez, in 1839. Francisco became the richest man in San
Mateo County in the 1850s." Read article.
Related - Pacifica Historical Society/Shirley Reusch Drye, "Impact of Spanish arrivals on Native Californians." "For the Ohlone (Costanoan) peoples, the result of introduced diseases, a declining birth rate, mistreatment, and cultural disorientation, their population fell from 10,000 or more in 1770 to less than 2,000 in 1832. Their numbers diminished further under even more destructive American rule." Read more.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
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