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44-635: Barracks for the soldiers, a nunnery, the Jose Castro House , the Plaza Hotel and other buildings were constructed around a large grassy plaza in front of the church and can be seen today in their original form. The Ohlone , the original residents of the valley, were brought to live at the mission and baptized, followed by Yokuts from the Central Valley. Mission San Juan Bautista has served mass daily since 1797, and today functions as

88-522: A parish church of the Diocese of Monterey . Following its creation in 1797, San Juan's population grew quickly. By 1803, there were 1,036 Native Americans living at the mission. Ranching and farming activity had moved apace, with 1,036 cattle, 4,600 sheep, 22 swine, 540 horses and 8 mules counted that year. At the same time, the harvest of wheat, barley and corn was estimated at 2,018 fanegas, each of about 220 pounds. Father Pedro Estévan Tápis (who had

132-435: A republican government in 1824, Alta California, like many northern territories, was not recognized as one of the constituent States of Mexico because of its small population. The 1824 Constitution of Mexico refers to Alta California as a "territory". Resentment was increasing toward appointed territorial governors sent from Mexico City, who came with little knowledge of local conditions and concerns. Laws were imposed by

176-475: A ceasefire was arranged. After an unsettled period, Alvarado agreed to support the 1839 constitution, and Mexico City appointed him to serve as governor from 1837 to 1842. Other Californio governors followed, including Carlos Antonio Carrillo , and Pío Pico . The last non-Californian governor, Manuel Micheltorena , was driven out after another rebellion in 1845. Micheltorena was replaced by Pío Pico, last Mexican governor of California , who served until 1846 when

220-662: A petition to the governor in 1782 which stated that the Mission Indians owned both the land and cattle and represented the Ohlone against the Spanish settlers in nearby San José. The priests reported that Indians' crops were being damaged by the pueblo settlers' livestock and that the settlers' livestock was also "getting mixed up with the livestock belonging to the Indians from the mission" causing losses. They advocated that

264-585: A province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula , it had previously comprised the province of Las Californias , but was made a separate province in 1804 (named Nueva California ). Following the Mexican War of Independence , it became a territory of Mexico in April 1822 and was renamed Alta California in 1824. The territory included all of

308-599: A special talent for music) joined Father Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta , at Mission San Juan Bautista in 1815 to teach singing to the Native Americans. He employed a system of notation developed in Spain that uses varied colors or textures for polyphonic music, usually (from bottom to top) solid black, solid red, black outline (sometimes solid yellow) and red outline (or black outline when yellow was used). His choir of Native American boys performed for many visitors, earning

352-678: A studio. Jose Castro House The José Castro House ( Spanish : Casa José Castro ), sometimes known as the Castro-Breen Adobe , is a historic adobe home in San Juan Bautista, California , facing the Plaza de San Juan. The Monterey Colonial style house was built 1838-41 by General José Antonio Castro , a former Governor of Alta California . It was later sold to the Breen family, who lived there until 1933, when

396-485: Is a two-story adobe home, completed in a Monterey Colonial style. The home is clad in stucco and includes a second-story full-length covered porches on both long sides, characteristic of Monterey Colonial architecture. The pane glass windows beside the front door of the José Castro House are not typical of Monterey architecture and reflect the influence of Greek Revival architecture, which was also popular in

440-477: The Carmel River ." Alta California was not easily accessible from New Spain: land routes were cut off by deserts and Indigenous peoples who were hostile to invasion. Sea routes ran counter to the southerly currents of the distant northwestern Pacific. Ultimately, New Spain did not have the economic resources nor population to settle such a far northern outpost. Spanish interest in colonizing Alta California

484-665: The Council of the Indies planned settlements in 1744, although these plans did not take action. Don Fernando Sánchez Salvador researched the earlier proposals and suggested the area of the Gila and Colorado Rivers as the locale for forts or presidios preventing the French or the English from "occupying Monterey and invading the neighboring coasts of California which are at the mouth of

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528-649: The Kumeyaay village of Kosa'aay , which became the first European settlement in the present state of California. At first contact, the villagers provided food and water for the expedition, who were suffering from scurvy and water deprivation . The first Alta California mission was founded that same year adjacent to the village Mission San Diego de Alcalá , founded by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra and Gaspar de Portolá in San Diego in 1769. Similar to

572-531: The Pimería Alta from 1687 until his death in 1711. In 1697, a Jesuit expansion into California was funded and the Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó was established that same year. Plans in 1715 by Juan Manuel de Oliván Rebolledo resulted in a 1716 decree for extension of the conquest (of Baja California) which came to nothing. Juan Bautista de Anssa proposed an expedition from Sonora in 1737 and

616-574: The San Andreas Fault , and has suffered damage from numerous earthquakes , such as those of 1800 and 1906. However, the mission was never entirely destroyed at once. It was restored initially in 1884, and then again in 1949 with funding from the Hearst Foundation . The three-bell campanario , or "bell wall," located by the church entrance, was fully restored in 2010. An unpaved stretch of the original El Camino Real , just east of

660-460: The 1769 Portola expedition first established a military/civil government, and the local political structures were unchanged. The friction came to a head in 1836, when Monterey-born Juan Bautista Alvarado led a revolt against the 1836 constitution, seizing control of Monterey from Nicolás Gutiérrez . Alvarado's actions nearly led to a civil war with loyalist forces based in Los Angeles, but

704-737: The Californios. In 1846, following reports of the annexation of Texas to the United States, American settlers in inland Northern California took up arms, captured the Mexican garrison town of Sonoma, and declared independence there as the California Republic . At the same time, the United States and Mexico had gone to war, and forces of the United States Navy entered into Alta California and took possession of

748-604: The Indigenous people be allowed to own property and have the right to defend it. In 1804, due to the growth of the Spanish population in new northern settlements, the province of Las Californias was divided just south of San Diego, following mission president Francisco Palóu's division between the Dominican and Franciscan jurisdictions. Governor Diego de Borica is credited with defining the border between Alta (upper) and Baja (lower) California 's as Palóu's division , while

792-701: The San Juan Bautista Mission the nickname "the Mission of Music." Two of his handwritten choir books are preserved at the San Juan Bautista Museum. When Father Tapis died in 1825 he was buried on the mission grounds. The town of San Juan Bautista, which grew up around the mission, expanded rapidly during the California Gold Rush and continues to be a thriving community today. The mission is situated adjacent to

836-630: The U.S. military occupation began. In the final decades of Mexican rule, American and European immigrants arrived and settled in the former Alta California. Those in Southern California mainly settled in and around the established coastal settlements and tended to intermarry with the Californios. In Northern California, they mainly formed new settlements further inland, especially in the Sacramento Valley , and these immigrants focused on fur-trapping and farming and kept apart from

880-425: The United States and Spain, established the northern limit of Alta California at latitude 42°N, which remains the boundary between the states of California, Nevada and Utah (to the south) and Oregon and Idaho (to the north) to this day. Mexico won independence in 1821, and Alta California became a territory of Mexico the next year. Mexico gained independence from Spain on August 24, 1821, upon conclusion of

924-543: The age of two. The precolonial Indigenous population of California is estimated to have numbered around 340,000 people, who were diverse culturally and linguistically. From 1769–1832, at least 87,787 baptisms and 63,789 deaths of Indigenous peoples occurred, demonstrating the immense death rate at the missions in Alta California. Conversion to Christianity at the colonial missions was often resisted by Indigenous peoples in Alta California. Many missionaries in

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968-647: The areas formerly comprising Alta California were ceded to the U.S. in the treaty which ended the war . In 1850, California joined the union as the 31st state . The El Camino Real trail established by the Spanish extended from Mexico City west to Santa Fe , and California, as well as east to Florida . To the southeast, beyond the deserts and the Colorado River , lay the Spanish settlements in Arizona . Spanish soldiers, settlers, and missionaries invaded

1012-628: The central government without much consideration of local conditions, such as the Mexican secularization act of 1833 , causing friction between governors and the people. In 1836, Mexico repealed the 1824 federalist constitution and adopted a more centralist political organization (under the " Seven Laws ") that reunited Alta and Baja California in a single California Department ( Departamento de las Californias ). The change, however, had little practical effect in far-off Alta California. The capital of Alta California remained Monterey, as it had been since

1056-478: The decade-long Mexican War of Independence . As the successor state to the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Mexico automatically included the provinces of Alta California and Baja California as territories. Alta California declared allegiance to the new Mexican nation and elected a representative to be sent to Mexico City. On November 9, 1822, the first legislature of California was created. With the establishment of

1100-561: The division became the political reality under José Joaquín de Arrillaga , who would become the first governor of Alta California. The cortes (legislature) of New Spain issued a decree in 1813 for at least partial secularization that affected all missions in America and was to apply to all outposts that had operated for ten years or more; however, the decree was never enforced in California. The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, between

1144-786: The flag of the State of California. After the United States Navy's seizure of the cities of southern California, the Californios formed irregular units, which were victorious in the Siege of Los Angeles , and after the arrival of the United States Army , fought in the Battle of San Pasqual and the Battle of Domínguez Rancho . But the Californios were defeated in subsequent encounters, the battles of Río San Gabriel and La Mesa . The southern Californios formally surrendered with

1188-592: The homelands of the Indigenous peoples of California , people of the Great Basin , and the Pueblo peoples in the establishment of Alta California. Evidence of Alta California remains in the numerous Spanish place names of American cities such as Las Vegas , Los Angeles , Sacramento , San Bernardino , San Diego , San Francisco , San Jose , Santa Ana , and Santa Rosa . Father Eusebio Kino missionized

1232-467: The house became a museum as part of San Juan Bautista State Historic Park . José Antonio Castro's father José Tiburcio Castro was a soldier, member of the Diputación (the legislature of Alta California ), administrator of Mission San Juan Bautista after it was secularized, and grantee of Rancho Sausal . The elder Castro used his position to obtain land grants for relatives and friends. His son

1276-402: The mid-19th century. Nowadays, the José Castro House property includes a half-acre orchard and garden, open to the public as part of the state historic park. This article incorporates content in the public domain from the U.S. National Park Service . Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as Nueva California ('New California') among other names, was

1320-455: The mission to Hitchcock as a filming location. A steeple, added sometime after the mission's original construction and secularization, had been demolished following a fire, so Hitchcock added a bell tower using scale models, matte paintings, and trick photography at the Paramount studio in Los Angeles. The tower does not resemble the original steeple. The tower's staircase was assembled inside

1364-561: The mission, lies on a fault scarp. Although initially secularized in 1835, the church was reconsecrated by the Catholic Church in 1859, and continues to serve as a parish of the Diocese of Monterey . The mission includes a cemetery, with the remains of over 4,000 Native American converts and Europeans buried there. The mission and its grounds were featured prominently in the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo . Associate producer Herbert Coleman's daughter Judy Lanini suggested

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1408-630: The missions until they were secularized, beginning in 1833. The transfer of property never occurred under the Franciscans. As the number of Spanish settlers grew in Alta California, the boundaries and natural resources of the mission properties became disputed. Conflicts between the Crown and the Church arose over land. State and ecclesiastical bureaucrats debated over authority of the missions. The Franciscan priests of Mission Santa Clara de Asís sent

1452-552: The northern port cities of Monterey and San Francisco. The forces of the California Republic, upon encountering the United States Navy and, from them, learning of the state of war between Mexico and the United States, abandoned their independence and proceeded to assist the United States forces in securing the remainder of Alta California. The California Republic was never recognized by any nation and existed for less than one month, but its flag (the "Bear Flag") survives as

1496-536: The present-day U.S. states of California , Nevada , and Utah , and parts of Arizona , Wyoming , and Colorado . The territory was re-combined with Baja California (as a single departamento ) in Mexico's 1836 Siete Leyes (Seven Laws) constitutional reform, granting it more autonomy. That change was undone in 1846, but rendered moot by the outcome of the Mexican–American War in 1848, when most of

1540-596: The province wrote of their frustrations with teaching Indigenous people to internalize Catholic scripture and practice. Many Indigenous people learned to navigate religious expectations at the missions with complex social behaviors in order to maintain their cultural and religious practices. In 1784, the Spanish established the first rancho, Rancho San Pedro , as a 48,000 acre site for cattle grazing . Nine ranchos were subsequently established before 1800. Spanish, and later Mexican, governments rewarded retired soldados de cuera with large land grants, known as ranchos , for

1584-461: The raising of cattle and sheep . Hides and tallow from the livestock were the primary exports of California until the mid-19th century. Similar to the missions, the construction, ranching and domestic work on these vast estates was primarily done by Indigenous peoples , who learned to speak Spanish and ride horses. Under Spanish and Mexican rule, the ranchos prospered and grew. Rancheros (cattle ranchers) and pobladores (townspeople) evolved into

1628-481: The site of this mission, subsequent missions and presidios were often founded at the site of Indigenous villages. Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was founded at the Tongva village Toviscanga and the Pueblo de Los Ángeles at the village of Yaanga . The first settlers of Los Angeles were African and mulatto Catholics, including at least ten of the recently re-discovered Los Pobladores . Mission San Juan Capistrano

1672-504: The unique Californio culture. By law, mission land and property were to pass to the Indigenous population after a period of about ten years, when the Indigenous people would become Spanish subjects. In the interim period, the Franciscans were to act as mission administrators who held the land in trust for the Indigenous residents. The Franciscans, however, prolonged their control over the missions even after control of Alta California passed from Spain to independent Mexico, and continued to run

1716-504: Was declared a California Historical Landmark and purchased by California State Parks , which incorporated it into the San Juan Bautista State Historic Park . Currently, the park uses the José Castro House as a fully furnished house museum , displaying a snapshot of how domestic life was in mid-19th century California. The house was made a National Historic Landmark in 1970. José Castro House

1760-489: Was founded at the Acjachemen village of Acjacheme . Mission San Fernando was founded at Achooykomenga . As the Spanish and civilian settlers further intruded into Indigenous lands and imposed their practices, ideas of property, and religion onto them backed by the force of soldiers and settlers, Indigenous peoples formed rebellions on Spanish missions and settlements. A major rebellion at Mission San Gabriel in 1785

1804-462: Was granted land facing the Plaza de San Juan, where he built an adobe house in 1841. José Antonio Castro used the house as an administrative base for his military operations (soldiers' barracks were next door) and let his secretary use it as a residence. In 1848, José Antonio Castro sold the home to Patrick Breen, a survivor of the Donner Party . His family occupied the home until 1933, when it

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1848-557: Was led by the medicine woman Toypurina . Runaways from the missions were common, where abuse, malnourishment, and overworking were common features of daily life. Runaways would sometimes find shelter at more distant villages, such as a group of runaways who found refuge at the Vanyume village of Wá'peat , the chief of which refused to give them up. Many children died young at the missions. One missionary reported that 3 of every 4 children born at Mission San Gabriel died before reaching

1892-567: Was revived under the visita of José de Gálvez as part of his plans to completely reorganize the governance of the Interior Provinces and push Spanish settlement further north. In subsequent decades, news of Russian colonization and maritime fur trading in Alaska, and the 1768 naval expedition of Pyotr Krenitsyn and Mikhail Levashov alarmed the Spanish government and served to justify Gálvez's vision. The Portolá expedition

1936-462: Was the first European land-entry expedition into the area that is now California. The missionaries and soldiers encountered numerous Indigenous peoples of the area , who became the primary subjects of the expanding Jesuit and Franciscan missions that were already established in Baja California and Baja California Sur . The expedition first established the Presidio of San Diego at the site of

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