Guerra family of California

The Guerra family is a prominent Californio family of Southern California.[1][2][3] Members of the family held extensive rancho grants and numerous important positions, including numerous Mayors of Santa Barbara, California Senators, a Lieutenant Governor of California, and a signer of the California Constitution.

José de la Guerra y Noriega

Notable members
Pablo de la Guerra.

José de la Guerra

José de la Guerra y Noriega, born in 1779, is the founder of the family. Popularly known as El Capitán, he came to California in 1793. He enlisted in 1798, serving over 52 years in military service. He served as acting Commandant of the Presidio of Monterey in 1804, Commandant of the Presidio of San Diego from 1806 to 1807, and most notably as Commandant of the Presidio of Santa Barbara, from 1827 to 1842.[4][5] He married María Antonia Carrillo, of the Carrillo family of California, in 1804; they had thirteen children. He came to own numerous ranchos in the region, including Rancho Simi, Rancho Las Posas, Rancho San Julian, Rancho Los Alamos and Rancho El Conejo.

Pablo de la Guerra

Pablo de la Guerra was born in 1819 in Santa Barbara.[6] He was appointed as Tax Collector for Santa Barbara in 1838. In 1849, he represented Santa Barbara at the California Constitutional Convention in Monterey and was one of the signers of the Constitution of California. He served as a California Senator, from 1851 to 1861, and as acting Lieutenant Governor of California from 1861 to 1862.[7] From 1863 until his death in 1874, he served as a district judge for California's 17th Judicial District. He was granted Rancho Nicasio in 1844.

Antonio M. de la Guerra
Antonio M. de la Guerra.

Antonio Maria de la Guerra was born in 1825 in Santa Barbara. He served in the California Senate from 1851 to 1852 and twice as Mayor of Santa Barbara, from 1856 to 1858 and 1859 to 1864.[8] He served on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors for several terms, including one as chairman. He died in Goleta in 1881. He commanded a company of the 1st California Cavalry Battalion during the Civil War.[9]

Angustias de la Guerra
Angustias de la Guerra.

Angustias de la Guerra was born in San Diego in 1815. In 1833, she married Manuel Jimeno Casarín, who served as secretary of state under Governors Juan Bautista Alvarado and Governor Manuel Micheltorena. Following the death of her first husband, she married U.S. Army officer James L. Ord. In 1871, she visited both American president Ulysses S. Grant, at the White House, and Mexican president Benito Juárez at Chapultepec Castle.[10] During the Monterey Constitutional Convention of 1849, she and her husband hosted the large Californio delegation to the convention. She was an instrumental force in defending women's property rights in the California Constitution.[11] She later devoted herself to the study of Californian history.[12] In 1878, she wrote the seminal "Ocurrencias en California" (translated into English as "Occurrences in Hispanic California" and as "California Recollections of Angustias de la Guerra"), considered to be one of the most important early accounts on Californian history.[13]

Other members

Legacy
Plaza de la Guerra in Santa Barbara.

Numerous locations in Santa Barbara are named after members of the family, including Plaza de la Guerra, De la Guerra Street, and Paseo de la Guerra.

Casa de la Guerra, the family's ancestral home in Santa Barbara, is a National Historic Landmark.

References
  1. Online Archive of California - Guerra Family Collection
  2. History Of The Santa Barbara De La Guerra Family Documents
  3. The Huntington Library - Manuscripts for the Study of Iberian,. Latin American, and Latino History
  4. California State Military Museum - José de la Guerra y Noriega
  5. National Park Service - José de la Guerra y Noriega
  6. San Luis Obispo Tribune - History of early California politician Pablo de la Guerra
  7. Guinn, J.M. Historical and biographical record of southern California : containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century; also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1902, OCLC 15646879, 1295 pages, see pages 220-221.
  8. The California State Military Museum, Captain Antonio Maria de la Guerra by Edson T. Strobridge, originally published in the Summer 2000 issue of La Campana, the quarterly journal of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation
  9. The California State Military Museum, 1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers
  10. Telgen, Diane (1993). Notable Hispanic American Women. pp. 125–. ISBN 0810375788.
  11. Zócalo Public Square - How An Early Santa Barbara Scion Protected Women's Rights to Property in the California Constitution
  12. University of Nevada, Reno - The Golden Age and the Age of Gold: Memory and the Alchemy of History in California, 1877-1888
  13. Testimonios: Early California Through the Eyes of Women, 1815–1848. University of Oklahoma Press. 2015. pp. 193–296. ISBN 978-0806153704.
  14. Hal Conklin (2006). City Leadership in Santa Barbara: A History of the Santa Barbara City Council from 1826 to the present (6th edition). pp. 9–16 – via Available through Santa Barbara City Clerk's Office.
  15. Grzywacki, Alex. "Guerra - Public Member Photos & Scanned Documents". Ancestry.com. Ancestry. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
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