Colonized by Spain
In 1772 the first Spanish explorers came to the Amador-Livermore Valley. On their heels came missionaries, soldiers, and colonists to claim Upper California and convert its natives to the Spanish way of life. Bringing new animals, plants, and microbes, the Spanish invasion disrupted local ecologies and economies. Many Native people who survived the diseases found that neither coexistence nor resistance was viable, and they had no good options left.
For the Spanish, the Valley became a vast cattle range under the authority of Missions Santa Clara and San Jose. Many of its people went into the missions. There the priests claimed extensive control over their daily lives—enforced with whips, manacles and guns—in the quest to make them devout Catholics and loyal Spanish subjects.
When the mission lands were broken up after Mexico declared independence from Spain, the vast majority were granted to colonists as ranchos rather than returned to the Native people. Many of the Native people remained on the land as laborers because they had nowhere to go. The rancheros enjoyed their position at the top of California society for less than two decades before war with the United States in 1846 and the discovery of gold in 1848 brought a wave of new immigrants and new disruptions.
For the Spanish, the Valley became a vast cattle range under the authority of Missions Santa Clara and San Jose. Many of its people went into the missions. There the priests claimed extensive control over their daily lives—enforced with whips, manacles and guns—in the quest to make them devout Catholics and loyal Spanish subjects.
When the mission lands were broken up after Mexico declared independence from Spain, the vast majority were granted to colonists as ranchos rather than returned to the Native people. Many of the Native people remained on the land as laborers because they had nowhere to go. The rancheros enjoyed their position at the top of California society for less than two decades before war with the United States in 1846 and the discovery of gold in 1848 brought a wave of new immigrants and new disruptions.
The Spanish Invasion
Although Spain had conquered Mexico in the 1500s, they had little interest in Upper California until nearly two centuries later, when Russian and British expansion threatened their existing empire in North America. Short of money and manpower, in 1769 King Carlos III sent Franciscan missionaries, accompanied by small groups of soldiers and civilian colonists, to convert the Native peoples of Upper California to the Catholic faith, teach them European ways, and transform them into a loyal class of servants and laborers.
Outreach began with diplomacy, trade and preaching, followed quickly by the building of missions, forts (presidios) and towns (pueblos) and the introduction of European livestock and food crops. As the Spanish established themselves, they increasingly used force to protect what they had taken. They arrested and flogged Natives who hunted the livestock that overran Native hunting and gathering grounds, they sent soldiers to bring back converts who fled the missions, and they met organized resistance with lethal violence.
Outreach began with diplomacy, trade and preaching, followed quickly by the building of missions, forts (presidios) and towns (pueblos) and the introduction of European livestock and food crops. As the Spanish established themselves, they increasingly used force to protect what they had taken. They arrested and flogged Natives who hunted the livestock that overran Native hunting and gathering grounds, they sent soldiers to bring back converts who fled the missions, and they met organized resistance with lethal violence.
Life at Mission San Jose
Native people from the Amador-Livermore Valley began to join Mission Santa Clara (founded 1777) in the 1790s, but it was only after the establishment of Mission San Jose in 1797 that the tribes of the Valley joined the missions in large groups. They knew they faced a difficult life in the missions, but the invaders had made their traditional way of life impossible.
At the mission, living conditions were cramped and unsanitary. The Franciscan priests were strict about work and religion, although they did not try to make the Native converts (whom the priests termed neophytes) give up their languages or all of their culture. The priests used beatings and imprisonment to enforce their commands.
Daily routines combined Catholic worship and instruction with work to support the mission’s people: tending fields or livestock, grinding meal or cooking, and manufacturing such as weaving or soapmaking. Neophytes were, for all practical purposes, enslaved: they had little control over their work lives, could only leave the mission temporarily and with special permission, and faced constant enforcement of Catholic morality in their personal lives.
At the mission, living conditions were cramped and unsanitary. The Franciscan priests were strict about work and religion, although they did not try to make the Native converts (whom the priests termed neophytes) give up their languages or all of their culture. The priests used beatings and imprisonment to enforce their commands.
Daily routines combined Catholic worship and instruction with work to support the mission’s people: tending fields or livestock, grinding meal or cooking, and manufacturing such as weaving or soapmaking. Neophytes were, for all practical purposes, enslaved: they had little control over their work lives, could only leave the mission temporarily and with special permission, and faced constant enforcement of Catholic morality in their personal lives.
The Rancho Era
When Mexico declared independence from Spain in 1821, the long-anticipated project of secularizing the missions acquired new momentum. Half of the lands and herds were supposed to be returned to the Native converts of the missions, but instead, over the following years, most—including all of Mission San Jose’s lands in the Amador-Livermore Valley—were granted to Spanish and Mexican colonists as ranchos. In the Valley, the largest of these grants was Rancho el Valle de San José, granted to Agustín and Juan Pablo Bernal and their brothers-in-law Antonio Suñol and Antonio Maria Pico.
The ranchero families enjoyed great wealth in land and livestock, but this prosperity rested on the labor of Native workers who had nowhere to go after the secularization of the missions and no land of their own for making a living.
The ranchero families enjoyed great wealth in land and livestock, but this prosperity rested on the labor of Native workers who had nowhere to go after the secularization of the missions and no land of their own for making a living.
Then the World Rushed In
In the late 1840s two events shook California to its foundations: the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush that immediately followed it. No sooner had the United States taken control of this land than a flood of migrants came from around the world to Northern California.
This influx meant difficult times for those who already lived here. Ranchero families had to deal with squatters and prove their land claims to a new legal regime, but Native people faced a new wave of colonists who regarded them as less than human.
In the Amador-Livermore Valley, the Bernal family moved in from the city of San Jose to protect their claims to Rancho El Valle de San José. Joining them was an Austrian immigrant named John Kottinger, a scholar and lawyer who had married into the family. Kottinger used his legal skills to protect the family’s interests during these years, and his entrepreurial instincts to profit from the opportunities they offered.
This influx meant difficult times for those who already lived here. Ranchero families had to deal with squatters and prove their land claims to a new legal regime, but Native people faced a new wave of colonists who regarded them as less than human.
In the Amador-Livermore Valley, the Bernal family moved in from the city of San Jose to protect their claims to Rancho El Valle de San José. Joining them was an Austrian immigrant named John Kottinger, a scholar and lawyer who had married into the family. Kottinger used his legal skills to protect the family’s interests during these years, and his entrepreurial instincts to profit from the opportunities they offered.