TAH Land Grant Lesson #2
TEACHER: Suzanne York, Kris Majich, and Tina Ogron
SUBJECT: Social Studies (4th and 5th grade)
TITLE OF LESSON: Californios, Ranchos and Land Grants
STANDARDS explored: Discuss the period of Mexican rule in California
and its attributes, including land grants, secularization of the missions, and
the rise of the rancho economy. Describe the economies established by
settlers and their influence on the present-day economy, with emphasis on
the importance of private property and entrepreneurship.
OBJECTIVE:
Students will learn about the disenos- land grants that drastically altered
ownership of the land of present-day California. Students will gain an
understanding as to how and why their community was established, how
individuals and families contributed to its founding and development, and
how the community has changed over time.
Students will understand the cooperation, competition and conflict that
existed between californios and the new “settlers” of California, and how
their settlements left its mark on the land. Students will use primary sources
compare and contrast “disenos” to current maps of their local area, as well as
analyzing similarities and differences between maps of Alta California and
present day California.
MATERIAL NEEDED:
For investigation activity:
“diseno” of San Gabriel Valley
images of various other land grants (to compare)
map of Alta California
current map of California
Chart paper
Investigation texts (at end of lesson)
For “diseno” map-making activity (each group of 4-5 students):
White chart paper or brown paper bags, flattened
tea bag (optional to add “aging” to the white chart paper)
Crayons, colored pencils, and/or markers
Three colors of yarn (to make a “reatta”)
A 3’-5’ bamboo “pole” or stick
A rubber stamp of some sort for the “governor” (teacher) to approve or
deny the application for a land grant.
TIME NEEDED: 2 to 4 class periods, for all activities.
SPONGE ACTIVITY:
Show students the diseno of southern California.
Using the investigation model (Sandra Kaplan, USC), tell students that they
are going to be “history detectives” and use the same problem-solving skills
that researchers use to study history. The teacher records students questions,
numbering them as they are received, about what they are seeing on a piece
of chart paper. Students that have some experience with this model will
likely ask some “higher-level” questions, but it important to record, as
accurately as possible, whatever questions the students generate.
Notes: INVESTIGATION TEXTS are at the end of the lesson, (as well as some valuable
content for the teacher from Calisphere, that might help frame the lesson)
CONTENT DELIVERY:
After 6-10 questions have been recorded and numbered, distribute texts in
groups, which contain information about “disenos”, their purpose, and
historical impact/relevance. Give students some quiet time to read, highlight
any important parts of their texts, and make note of any other questions the
texts might produce. Students may notice that some of these texts may have
conflicting and/or overlapping ideas. It is important to acknowledge them.
The teacher asks, “Has anyone found any answers to our questions?”
Teacher then records answers to the questions on chart paper, organizing
them to correspond to the questions that students self-generated. During this
process, students may gain an understanding of the “multiple perspectives”
of recorded history, or how history has “changed over time”. This would be
an excellent opportunity to use the depth and complexity icons (Kaplan).
Note: see attached texts at the bottom of this lesson, or add/change with any
others from textbook or other sources. I have also included a small “framing
text” which could be helpful to contextualize the lesson.
ACTIVITY:
Tell students that the groups that they have worked in to learn about land
grants will now become their “family” and they will imagine themselves
petitioning the governor (teacher) for a deed to their own land grant.
Creating a Diseno: a hand-drawn map:
Both Spanish and Mexican governments used a diseno, or map, to
identify a rancho’s specific parcel of land and to show its distinctive
landmarks and natural boundaries. A ranchero needed a diseno in order to
apply for a land grant. The hand-drawn map showed the boundaries of the
land grant.
Indicated on a typical diseno were natural landmarks, including many
of the following: a hilltop; a creek bed or arroyo; isolated trees; clumps of
cacti; and, even skulls of cattle set on the top of piles of stones or a tree
stump. Ask students what the advantages and disadvantages might be for
using natural landmarks.
Ask students to identify all physical and human features visible on the
diseno. Advise students that a diseno is often difficult to read. Have each
group of students or “families” draw a diseno of the area around the school.
Select a vantage point at the center of the school playground or at a high spot
near your school. Include natural boundaries such as trees, mountains, the
local hills, rivers, large rocks, etc. Inform students that a “fictional”
Mexican governor is planning to grant each of them his or her rancho.
First, students have to create an appropriate Spanish name for their
rancho. Then, they need to draw a diseno showing the physical landmarks on
their property. If desired, students may also show the location of their adobe
home on their diseno. To make the diseno look more realistic, draw the
diseno on a brown paper bag and then crumple the bag to give it an “old”
look. Students can dip their bags into weak tea to make the bags look more
like parchment paper. If crayons are used, the drawing will not fade when it
is dipped in the tea.
Measurement with a Reata
Explain to students that precise measurements of land grants were
unavailable, because measurement tools were fairly crude. Measurements
were made with a reata, or a 50 to 60-foot rope typically made from leather
or braided horsehair. Two vaqueros would go out to measure the land using
the reata. A pole would be tied toeach end of the reata. One of the vaqueros
would hold one of the poles while the other would walk or ride his horse
until the reata was stretched out. They would repeat the same procedure
taking turns until the area was measured.
Have students play the role of a vaquero and measure the land of the
school playground using a “reata”, Thick yarn can be used to make a reata.
Cut 3 colors of yarn or roving about 40” long. Distribute a set of yarn to
each pair of students. Each pair needs 3 lengths of yarn, one of each color.
Knot the 3 lengths of yarn together at one end. Have one student hold the
knotted end so both their partners’ hands are free to braid the lengths. Tell
the students to separate the colors – yellow to the left, orange in the middle,
and brown to the right (or whatever colors you use.) Use the color names to
help the students know which length to braid as you demonstrate. The reata
should be braided tightly. (Note: A single color may be used, but multiple
colors make the reata easier to braid). Once the reata is finished and tied off
at the bottom, take your students out to the playground to measure its length
and width using their reata. It is helpful to provide students an outline of the
playground that can be used to record the measurements. (Activity
developed by Cathy Spiess and Mark Bourgeois.)
Once the Disenos are complete, the families will also have to construct a
formal letter to submit with their diseno in order to petition the govenor for
their land. Explain to the students, or “families”, that Families should
include Teacher will decide whether or not to grant them their land (based
on
STUDENT ASSESSMENT:
Two products, the diseno and the letter to the governor can be graded
according to a rubric.
Students will then join the teacher in a reflective conversation about the
activity:
What did you learn about people that became land-owners in Southern
California?
What kind of problems could this system generate?
Who had the most to gain from this system?
Who might be forgotten or marginalized as a result of this system?
Students will do a quick-write in their journals about it, or the teacher can
guide students through a persuasive piece of writing that reflects any
feelings that may have surfaced as a result of learning about how these land
grants gave an unfair advantage to certain groups of people.
INVESTIGATION TEXTS
Text # 1
After California's transfer from Mexico to the United States, land
ownership became one of the major flash points of hostility
between native Californians and new settlers. Heavy immigration
combined with differences in mapping systems and uncertainty
about the validity of Mexican land titles contributed to the
resentment felt by both groups. Although Anglo-Americans had
been coming to California while it was still governed by Mexico,
its cession to the U.S. and the discovery of gold a year later
increased the stream of new settlers. And, because the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed the property rights of land owners
in the ceded territories, the U.S. Government had to sift through
competing claims to determine their validity, a process that often
took years to complete.
While under the Mexican system, any Californian desiring a land
grant applied to the Governor, listing his or her name, age, country,
vocation, quantity and description of the land, and a hand-drawn
map, or diseño, of the boundaries and natural features of the
desired land. After consulting local officials, the Governor would
decide and, if he approved, issue a formal grant in writing to the
applicant. This system resulted in extremely large land grants;
most were for thousands -- or even tens of thousands -- of acres.
Thus a small number of wealthy landowners ran ranchos that
employed large numbers of people.
Text # 2
The United States used an entirely different system for distributing
land. Under the American system, public lands were supposed to
be surveyed prior to settlement. Beginning in 1785, U.S. surveyors
used the rectangular survey system, based on a grid system in
which the public lands were subdivided into square townships;
each of which was further subdivided into 36 square sections of
640 acres (1 sq. mile) each. After surveying and subdivision, lands
would be opened up to settlement and sold at auction. Most entries
were fractional portions of a section -- 320 acres or less. This
system was designed to encourage the development of family
farms.
To iron out the confusion over land ownership in California,
Congress passed "An Act to Ascertain and Settle Private Land
Claims in the State of California" in 1851. This legislation
established the California Land Commission, which had
responsibility for adjudicating the validity of claims to Spanish and
Mexican land grants. The new law placed the burden of proof on
the claimant. Because it provided for appeals of the Commission's
decisions to the Federal courts, titles to these claims were often
tied up in litigation for years. So, added to the conflict between the
existing population and the increasing stream of new immigrants
looking for places to live was uncertainty about ownership of large
portions of land. Because litigation over land grants lasted years
(and sometimes decades), squatting became widespread and
sometimes resulted in violent clashes. Additionally, many
claimants could not afford the lengthy litigation and, as a result,
lost their lands.
Text # 3
In 1821, Mexico achieved her independence, and word of this
event reached Alta California the following year. The colonial
policies of the republic were to be quite different from those of the
Spanish monarchy. Not only were Californians allowed to trade
with foreigners, but foreigners could also now hold land in the
province once they had been naturalized and converted to
Catholicism. Under Spain, land grants to individuals were few in
number, and title to these lands remained in the hands of the
crown. Under Mexican rule, however, governors were encouraged
to make more grants for individual ranchos, and these grants were
to be outright. Most important, the new Mexican republic was
determined to move to "secularize" the missions, to remove the
natives and the mission property from the control of the Franciscan
missionaries.
This process began in California in 1834. In theory, the
Franciscans had administered the mission lands in trust for the
natives living there when the missionaries arrived, but few Native
Americans benefited from the end of the mission system: although
each family was to receive a small allotment from the former
mission lands, the few who tried to make a living from these plots
gave up after few years. Most of the missions' adobe churches and
outbuildings soon fell into disrepair, although priests at some
missions struggled to continue their ministry to the Mission
Indians. Most of the missions' lands were disposed of in large
grants to white Californians or recently-arrived, well-connected
immigrants from Mexico. In the ten years before the missions were
dismantled, the Mexican government had issued only 50 grants for
large ranchos. In the dozen years after the missions were
secularized, 600 new grants were made.
Text #4
Ranchos of California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of
territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants
called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising
cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves
after the landed gentry of Spain. Their workers included Californian Native
Americans who had learned to speak Spanish, many of them former Mission
residents. Of the 800-plus grants, Spain made about 30 between 1784 and
1821. The remainder were granted by Mexico between 1833 and 1846. The
ranchos established land-use patterns that are recognizable in the California
of today. Rancho boundaries became the basis for California's land survey
system, and can still be found on modern maps and land titles.
During Spanish rule (1769–1821), the ranchos were concessions from the
Spanish crown, permitting settlement and granting grazing rights on specific
tracts of land, while the crown retained the title. The ranchos, that is, the
settlement by individuals of tracts of land outside presidio, mission, and
pueblo boundaries, began in 1784, when Juan Jose Dominguez got
permission from Spanish Governor Pedro Fages to put his cattle on the
48,000-acre (190 km2) Rancho San Pedro.[1] The land concessions were
usually measured in leagues. A league of land would encompass a square
that is one Spanish league on each side – approximately 4,428 acres
(18 km2).
It was not until the Mexican era (1821–1846) that the titles to the plots of
land were granted to individuals. In 1821, Mexico achieved its independence
from Spain, and California came under control of the Mexican government.
The 1824 Mexican Colony Law established rules for petitioning for land
grants in California; and by 1828, the rules for establishing land grants were
codified in the Mexican Reglamento (Regulation). The Acts sought to break
the monopoly of the missions and also paved the way for additional settlers
to California by making land grants easier to obtain. The procedure included
a 'diseño' – a hand-drawn topological map - to define the area. The Mexican
Governors of Alta California gained the power to grant state lands, and
many of the Spanish concessions were subsequently patented under Mexican
law.
Text #5
Californios, elite families that received large land grants from Spain and
Mexico, flourished during the 1830s to 1880s. The hand-drawn diseño maps
underscore their vital connection to land ownership. The more formal
surveyed maps that followed US acquisition of California show changing
values regarding land ownership. As Californios lost land and power in the
late 19th century, they tried to adapt to these changes by using social
networks to maintain their identities as elites. The formal portraits were one
way to bolster this image. Photographs of the Ramona Pageant from the
1950s testify to the mythologizing of California's Mexican and Spanish
pastoral heritage less than 100 years later.
The wealthy Spanish Californian families called Californios were the first
group to receive large-scale benefit from California’s rich agricultural
resources. Many were given land grants from Spain. After 1821, other
families received land title from the newly independent Mexico to encourage
settlement in what was known as Alta California.
Californio wealth was closely tied to their land holdings and provided credit
at local markets. Californios cultivated orchards and crops, but large-scale
cattle ranching on large ranchos was key to their wealth. As the paintings
show, even small-scale Native American and Mexican rancherias
contributed to the management of cattle.
Nearly all aspects of Californio society were connected to its relationship to
the land. This is reflected in diseños, hand-drawn maps, which mark the
natural geography of the land.
FRAMING TEXTS FOR TEACHERS: These texts were copied from
Calisphere website to help teacher frame the lesson (especially important to
know if you are teaching to 3rd grade, for instance):
Los Californios were the early land-holding families of California descendents of Spanish, Indian,
and African peoples who colonized the present-day state of California after 1769. Alta California,
as it was known then, marked the northern frontier of the Spanish empire in the New World. This
unit focuses on Rancho De Buenos Ayres, located in what is now the Westside area of Los
Angeles. Students will use primary resources to develop an understanding of how the Californios
had to adapt to an order to retain ownership of their land in California.
Chronology
This unit requires students to have a basic understanding of the Spanish (17691821) and
Mexican (18211848) periods of California history, including these important events:

1769: Portolá Expedition into Alta California, beginning Spanish settlement and the
establishment of the mission system

1781: The founding of the Pueblo de Los Angeles

1810: Mexico begins war for independence from Spain

1821: Mexico becomes an independent nation

1846: The United States provokes war with Mexico

1848: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by Mexico and the United States, with
more than a third of Mexico’s territory annexed by the United States.
Historical Background
Los Californios were the descendents of Spanish, Native American, and African peoples who
colonized the present-day state California after 1769. Alta California, as it was known then,
marked the northern frontier of the Spanish empire in the New World.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed that the Mexican citizens living in California — now
part of the United States — would retain certain rights, including the right to remain on their own
land. However, as Anglo Americans moved into the state, especially during the frenzy of the Gold
Rush in mid-century, Californios soon found themselves in the minority and marginalized.
During the Spanish and Mexican periods, the governments of New Spain and Mexico had issued
more than 500 land grants to Californios. These landowners mostly used their land for cattle
grazing and agriculture. After 1848, however, the US government established a new set of laws
that often worked against the Mexican landowners. Their legal claims to the land were challenged
by the new Anglo-American settlers, who enjoyed a distinct advantage because they could speak
the new language of the land. They were familiar with the legal procedures and they had the
power of the new government behind them. The legal battles often dragged on for 15 or more
years, forcing many Californios to mortgage or sell their lands to pay for the cost of litigation.
Even when they won claim to their land, many were forced to sell it to pay their attorney fees.
Hispanic Americans: Spanish Colonization and
Californios (1769-1800s)
Questions to Consider
How does the map of Alta California (in the map of the United States of
Mexico) differ from what California looks like today?
How did paintings of "pastoral fantasy scenes" differ from the realities of
life in early California?
Overview
California was on the fringes of the Spanish empire until 1769, when a
"sacred expedition" led by Captain Gaspar de Portolá and Franciscan
Father Junípero Serra established outposts at San Diego and Monterey
(Mission San Diego de Alcala and San Antonio de Pauda Mission are
shown here). By 1823, Spaniards had founded 21 missions and numerous
villages from San Diego to Sonoma.
Spanish Colonization and Missions (1769-1800s)
The mission system was Spain's centuries-old method of advancing and
securing its colonial frontiers by Christianizing and Hispanicizing native
peoples. Lacking sufficient settlers, Spain used natives to colonize new
lands and provide a labor force to sustain its colonies. One photograph
(from ca. 1910) shows an old adobe building in Santa Clara, one of several
built in 1792-1800 as dwellings for the Indian families of Mission Santa
Clara.
In their 60 years of operation, the 21 California missions had employed
142 priests and baptized 87,787 natives. Missions were at once churches,
towns, schools, farms, factories, and prisons, often operated in conjunction
with a nearby military presidio and agricultural pueblo.
But the vast lands controlled by the missions made them a target of
Mexican republicans who, after gaining independence from Spain in 1821,
began calling for the privatization of church property. Secularization began
in 1834. Half of all mission lands were to be turned over to local native
groups, but distribution was haphazard. Native Californians were often
swindled out of the land or simply never told that they owned land;
subsequently, many drifted away, strangers in their own ancestral
homelands.
For Spaniards, however, the California frontier was a place where castas
(people of mixed ancestry) could move up the racial hierarchy. Over time,
many Spanish families in California erased their African and indigenous
ancestry by declaring themselves gente de razón, people of reason — in
explicit opposition to California's native peoples. Affluent Spanish families
could even purchase certificates of their blood purity from Spain. Wealthy
Spanish Californians also held themselves separate from the gente
corriente, working-class Spaniards who did not own their own land. The
map of The United States of Mexico, shown here, illustrates how far
Mexico's claims reached into what would later become of US state of
California.
The Rise and Fall of the Californios (1800s)
The decline of the missions allowed for the rise of extensive ranching
along the California coast and in the Sacramento Valley. To encourage
agricultural development, the new Mexican government distributed more
than 500 land grants to prominent families, using maps called diseños (like
the colorful hand-drawn Diseño del Rancho San Miguelito in Monterey, the
Diseño del Rancho de los Palos Verde, and the map of Rancho Petaluma)
that roughly marked each grant's boundaries. This informal system of
documentation would open the door to legal challenges by Americans after
the US-Mexican War.
Well-connected families (such as the Vallejos, Alvarados, and Peraltas in
the north and the Carillos, de la Guerras, and Picos in the south) could
secure grants for each family member, creating an elite class of rancheros
who controlled hundreds of thousands of prime acres. Photographs of
some of these powerful men include José Andres Sepúlveda, mayor of Los
Angeles in 1837; Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo; a group picture of Pablo de
la Guerra, Salvador Vallejo, and Andres Pico; and Pio Pico, the last
Mexican Governor of California.
These families mainly raised cattle for an emerging hide-and-tallow trade
with American ships that sold the hides to Boston tanneries and the tallow
to South American candle and soap factories. The Californios held
themselves apart from non-land-owning Mexicans and natives,
intermarrying with each other and with the American and European
entrepreneurs who began settling in California during the 1830s.
The US-Mexican War, however, reversed the fortunes of elite Californios,
who slowly lost their power, authority, and land. The Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, which ended the war, had granted Californios full US citizenship
and promised that their property would be "inviolably respected." But the
informality of Mexican land grants made legal claims difficult when miners,
squatters, and homesteaders overran Californios' lands, as the transcript
of the legal challenge United States vs. Mariano G. Vallejo makes clear.
shown here. In the case, filed on May 31, 1852, Vallejo claimed ownership
of 66,622.17 acres in Sonoma County, at Petaluma and near Sonoma. He
finally won the case in 1874, 22 years later.
Even when Californio families won legal title to their lands, many found
themselves bankrupt from attorney's fees or taxes. The Peralta family lost
all but 700 of their 49,000 acres in the East Bay (encompassing the
present-day cities of San Leandro, Alameda, Oakland, Piedmont,
Emeryville, Berkeley, and Albany) to lawyers, taxes, squatters, and
speculators. Eight Californios participated in the California constitutional
convention of 1849, but over time their political power declined along with
their land base.
Romanticizing History
Interestingly, during this period, Los Angeles boosters played up a mythical
"Spanish fantasy past." It popularized pastoral imagery of pious
missionaries, quaint natives, and genteel Californios, and in some ways it
persists to this day.
The oil painting Santa Clara Mission in 1849, and the watercolor A
California Magnate in His Home (it is General Don Andres Pico) are good
examples of this genre. Still, although certainly not entirely realistic, these
scenes serve to give some idea of what life was like. The oil painting
shows vaqueros on horseback, Indians in a wagon, and a priest at the
gates of the mission itself. The watercolor shows the "magnate" (General
Don Andres Pico) and probably his daughter in the corridor of a farm
building (the ex-mission of San Fernando) with a musician, men and
women, and animals. In the distance are an orchard and vaqueros
lassoing cattle.
These scenes portrayed a California that no longer existed (if, in fact, it
ever did). The actual Mexican population continued to suffer from racism
and was sequestered to a portion of Los Angeles known as Sonoratown
(the area north of old Sunset Boulevard, east of Broadway, and west of
North Main Street).