Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné

{{Infobox person

| name = Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné

| image = Eulalia Perez (1765-1878).jpg

| alt = Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné

| caption =

| image_size =

| birth_name = Eulalia Pérez Cotes (also Cota)

| birth_date = 1766?

| birth_place = Loreto, Baja California Peninsula, New Spain {{small|(now Baja California Sur, Mexico)}}

| death_date = June 11, 1878

| death_place = Los Angeles, California, US

| occupation = Mayordoma

| spouse = {{plainlist|

Miguel Antonio de Guillén
{{marriage|Juan Mariné|1833|1836}}

}}

Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné (1766? – June 11, 1878) was a Californio who was mayordoma of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and grantee of Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual in the San Rafael Hills, in present-day Los Angeles County, California. She claimed to have been born in 1766, if so making her 112 years old at the time of her death in 1878, but her case has not been verified or fully proven.

Life

=Early years=

File:Mapa del Virreinato de la Nueva España (1794).svg

Eulalia Pérez was born in Loreto, the capital on the Baja California Peninsula of the Las Californias Province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (in what is today the modern Mexican state of Baja California Sur), to Diego Pérez of Salamanca, Spain and Antonia Rosalia Cotes (or Cota) thought to be mulatta. Macedonio Gonzalez, one of Eulalia's nephews, knew Antonia Cota as Lucia Valenzuela according to Eulalia's English-born son-in-law and author Michael C. White, aka: Miguel Blanco.{{cite web

| last = White

| first = Michael C.

| title = California all the way back to 1828

| year = 1956

| publisher = G. Dawson

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FwPjAAAAMAAJ

| oclc=1883045

| lccn = 56001844

}} Diego Pérez was a ship captain, thought to come from Salamanca—family members have been unable to trace records of his commission through the Archivo General de Indias or in Loreto, which has been ravaged by hurricanes over the centuries.{{cite web

| last = Chambers

| first = David

| title = Eulalia Perez de Guillen Marine

| publisher = David Chambers

| url = http://davidchambers.us/?page_id=10

| accessdate = December 30, 2009

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120402101741/http://davidchambers.us/?page_id=10

| archive-date = April 2, 2012

| url-status = dead

}} Her siblings were Teresa, Petra, Juana, Josefa, Bernardo, and León.

According to family lore, Capitan Pérez taught his daughter how to read and write, a fact later important to her survival and eventual prominence. She married Spanish army Sergeant Miguel Antonio Guillén at age fifteen. He was in the company at the Presidio of San Diego. They moved from Baja about 1800—on foot in those days—to the garrison at the new Mission San Gabriel, with their children Petra, Rosaria, and Isidoro. Miguel died while later serving at the garrison at San Diego, leaving Pérez with several children.

=Misión San Gabriel=

File:Mission San Gabriel 4-15-05 6611.JPG (April 2005), where Eulalia lived many years]]

Pérez managed to obtain employment at Misión San Gabriel, initially as cook and midwife for those such as Governor Pío Pico. She was eventually made "keeper of the keys" (mayor doma) of the mission itself. Victoria Reid, an Indigenous Californian, worked as her assistant for a time in her young age.{{Cite book |last=Raquel Casas |first=Maria |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/61330208 |title=Latina legacies : identity, biography, and community |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Vicki Ruíz, Virginia Sánchez Korrol |isbn=978-0-19-803502-2 |location=New York |pages=19–38 |chapter=Victoria Reid and the Politics of Identity |oclc=61330208}}

=Rancho del Rincon del San Pascual=

File:Map of Mexico including Yucatan and Upper California 1847.jpg headwaters: Mexico's rule over California greatly affected Eulalia's life.]]

When she retired, Mexican Governor José Figueroa rewarded Pérez as the grantee of the {{convert|14402|acre|km2|adj=on}} Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual with her husband Juan Mariné.{{Cite book|url=http://www.laokay.com/halac/FloresAdobe.htm|title=Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County|last=Kielbasa|first=John R.|publisher=Dorrance Publishing Co.|year=1998|isbn=0-8059-4172-X|location=Pittsburg|contribution=Flores Adobe}}.http://www.laokay.com/halac/FloresAdobe.htm laokay: Rancho San Pascual history . accessed 8/20/2010

Rancho San Pascual encompasses the present day cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and San Marino.

{{cite web

| url = http://www.californiaweekly.com/ca_ranchos.htm

| title = California Ranchos by County

| publisher = California Weekly Explorer

| accessdate = 2007-05-25

| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070521163447/http://www.californiaweekly.com/ca_ranchos.htm

| archivedate = 2007-05-21}} This had been part of the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieleño Native Americans for thousands of years.

Within the independent Mexican territory of Alta California, as a woman Pérez was unable to have ownership of property in her own name, so she married retired Mexican artillery lieutenant Juan Mariné (d. 1836).

{{cite web

| url=http://www.cagenweb.com/re/losangeles/langetim.htm

| title=Los Angeles Area Timeline

| publisher=CaGenWeb

| author=Aileen Fish Underwood

| date=2006-04-25

| accessdate=2007-05-25

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070128223654/http://www.cagenweb.com/re/losangeles/langetim.htm

|archivedate = 2007-01-28}} (According to descendants, the fathers at San Gabriel Mission made her the grant under Spanish rule; when Mexico acquired Alta California, Pérez then married Juan Mariné because Mexican law did not allow women to own land.)

According to some descendants, Mariné and his sons lost all the land in a short time by gambling. In another narrative, one of Marine's sons, Fruto, was an active soldier and could not take charge of the Rancho. He sold it to José Pérez and Enrique Sepúlveda in 1839. Perez and Sepúlveda submitted a new land claim and in 1839 were re-granted their own title to Rancho San Pascual by Mexican Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. Both built small adobe houses near the Arroyo Seco. Jose Perez died in 1841 and Enrique Sepulveda died in 1843, which left Rancho San Pascual abandoned until a new grantee later that year.

=Flores Adobe – South Pasadena=

File:Southpasadena ca cityhall.jpg City Hall, near Eulalia's final home]]

Pérez lived in the Adobe Flores, the 1839 adobe headquarters of Juan Perez on Rancho San Pascual on the southern slope of Raymond Hill. It was restored by architect Carleton Winslow, Sr. in the early 20th century and is still standing on Foothill Street in South Pasadena, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was named after a Californio hero, General Jose Maria Flores, the commander of the Mexican forces in Alta California during the Mexican–American War, who had camped near the adobe.{{cite news

| first = Cecilia

| last = Rasmussen

| title = At Flores Adobe, history stands solid

| work = Los Angeles Times

| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-mar-11-me-then11-story.html

| date = March 11, 2007

| access-date = April 29, 2009}}

She spent many years of her remaining life in the homes of various daughters, including that of Maria Rita de Guillén de la Ossa, wife of Jose Vicente de la Ossa, owner of Rancho de los Encinos, foundation of Encino, California. (What remains of that {{convert|100|acre|km2|adj=on|disp=or}} rancho is now Los Encinos State Historic Park.{{cite web

| title=Los Encinos State Historic Park

| publisher=State of California

| author=Los Encinos Docents Association

| url=http://los-encinos.org/

| accessdate=2007-05-25}}{{cite web

| title=Life and Times, episode on Los Encinos, first aired October 10, 2007

| publisher=KCET

| author=KCET

| url=http://www.kcet.org/lifeandtimes/archives/200710/20071010.php

| accessdate=2007-10-12

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030130429/http://www.kcet.org/lifeandtimes/archives/200710/20071010.php

| archive-date=October 30, 2007

| url-status=dead

}})

Death

File:Los Encinos De La Osa Adobe southern face.jpg house of 1850, built by Vicente de la Osa at Rancho Los Encinos, where Eulalia spent much time with one of her children]]

Pérez died in the Los Angeles area on June 11, 1878. Her death certificate, located in the Santa Ana courthouse, records that she lived to be 140, but descendants for the most part agree on more conservative figures like 110 or 112 years old, making her a famous centenarian of early California and of Mexican (later U.S.) history.

Legacy

Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné is one of only two non-clergy buried with the priests in the San Gabriel Mission courtyard cemetery. Although there are an unknown number of Native Americans from the Kizh tribe or Gabrielino (as they were later identified due to their proximity to the Mission) in the courtyard cemetery, the priests were buried in a designated section immediately adjacent to the wall of the Mission in a place of honor. In Catholic tradition, burials closest to the most sacred areas of the church are reserved for individuals of stature, usually clergy. Eulalia being honored in this way (Thomas Workman-Temple II, Mission Historian being the other), was a highly unusual honor at that time for a woman: a marble bench inscribed with her name marks the spot.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Her numerous descendants married other Californios from other founding Spanish and Mexican families of pre-statehood California.

Some of Eulalia Perez de Guillen Marine's (deceased) descendants include:

Maria Rita de Guillen de la Ossa, wife of Don Jose Vicente de la Ossa, owners of Rancho de los Encinos in Encino, Los Angeles
Katherine Kevane Murray, champion of English for Spanish-speaking children in California public schools{{cite web |url=http://historicparks.org/imagegallery/delaosa/pages/KatherineKevano_jpg.htm |title=De la Ossa Family Photographs: Katherine Kavane 1905 |website=historicparks.org |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402102035/http://historicparks.org/imagegallery/delaosa/pages/KatherineKevano_jpg.htm |archive-date=2 April 2012 |url-status=dead}}
Alexander Howison Murray Jr. (1907–1993), twice mayor of Placerville

{{cite book

| first = Betty

| last = Yoholam

| title = I Remember" Stories and Pictures of El Dorado County Pioneer Families

| publisher = Cedar Ridge Publishing

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QZLEPAAACAAJ

| pages = 145–146, 237

| date = 1 October 2001

| accessdate = 25 December 2018| isbn = 9780965876346

}}{{cite news |title = Sandy Murray: Former mayor dies two years after leaving Placerville |work = Placerville Mountain Democrat |url = https://mountaindemocrat.newspaperarchive.com/placerville-mountain-democrat/1993-11-05/ |pages = 1, 14 |date = November 5, 1993 |accessdate = October 28, 2018 |via = NewspaperArchive.com }}{{cite news |title = Placerville Pioneers Pack Up and Leave |work = Placerville Mountain Democrat |url = https://mountaindemocrat.newspaperarchive.com/placerville-mountain-democrat/1991-04-15/ |pages = 1 |date = April 15, 1991 |accessdate = October 28, 2018 |via = NewspaperArchive.com }}

{{cite web

| title = Murray, Alexander Howison Jr.

| publisher = El Dorado County Library

| url = https://archive.org/details/cpla_000035/cpla_000035_a_access.mp3

| date = 11 April 1978

| accessdate = 8 December 2018}}

Patricia Murray Chambers (1936–2007)

{{cite news

| title = Patricia Chambers (nee Murray)

| newspaper = Washington Post

| url = https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=91126441

| date = 22 July 2007

| accessdate = 25 December 2018}}

{{cite web

| title = Patricia Chambers

| publisher = Frederick news Post

| url = https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fredericknewspost/obituary.aspx?n=patricia-chambers&pid=168463719

| date = 20 July 2007

| accessdate = 25 December 2018}}

{{cite web

| title = Senior Girl Scouts Plan Program for Meet April 28

| publisher = Placerville Mountain Democrat

| url = https://newspaperarchive.com/placerville-mountain-democrat-apr-12-1951-p-8/

| pages = 8

| date = 12 April 1951

| accessdate = 25 December 2018}}

Victoria Duarte Cordova, California genealogist and historian, (1912–2005)

{{cite news

| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-29-ga-237-story.html

| title = Settlers' Descendant Works to Keep Past Alive

| work = Los Angeles Times

| date = 29 August 1990

| access-date = 9 October 2016}}

References

External links

{{cite web

| title = Una vieja y sus recuerdos dictados ... a la edad avanzada de 139 años

| publisher = Calisphere of University of California

| url = http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb20000502/

| place = San Gabriel, CA

| date = 1877

| accessdate = 9 October 2016}}

"The Reminiscences of Eulalia Pérez" in The Californians, The Magazine of California History (Grizzly Publications).
[https://archive.org/details/talescalifornia00ellegoog/page/n15 Tales of California Yesterday] by Rose L. Ellerbe (Los Angeles: Warren T. Potter, 1916), "Three Cooks of San Gabriel," pp. 11–17
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090427074413/http://www.jmichaelwalker.com/j_michael_walker_s_all_the_saints_of_the_city_of_the_angels.htm J. Michael Walker: All the Saints of the City of the Angels] (Berkeley: HeyDay Books, 2008), pp. 142-145, 197
[https://books.google.com/books?id=2zE2BjHkC94C&q=Eulalia Latinos in Pasadena] by Roberta H. Martinez (San Francisco: Aradia Publishing, 2009), pp. 16-18, 25, 28, 30, 34
[https://books.google.com/books?id=c86SJme6UtYC&q=eulalia Latina Legacies: Identity, Biography, and Community] by Vicki Ruíz and Virginia Sánchez Korrol (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 24-25
{{cite book | last=White | first=Michael C. |author2=Savage, Thomas | title=California all the way back to 1828 | url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk080)) | location=Los Angeles | publisher=G. Dawson | year=1956 | oclc=1883045}}
{{cite book |author1=Híjar, Carlos |author2=Pérez, E. |author3=Escobar, A. |author4=Savage, T. |title=Three memoirs of Mexican California |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/mexican_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=28 |location=Berkeley, CA |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |year=1988 |oclc=18444155 |access-date=2006-03-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901102026/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/mexican_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=28 |archive-date=2006-09-01 |url-status=dead }}
[https://books.google.com/books?id=HwKkv9Wr498C&dq=%22eulalia+perez+de+guillen%22&pg=PA192 In America] by Susan Sontag (New York: Macmillan, 2001), p. 193.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=_18E-D8Yy3wC&dq=%22eulalia+perez+de+guillen%22&pg=PA311 Uppity Women of the New World] by Vicki Leon (Newburyport, MA: Conari, 2001), pp. 60-61
{{cite book | last=Lindley | first=Walter |author2=Joseph Pomery Widney | title=California of the South: Its Geography, Climate, Resources, Routes of Travel, and Health-Resorts being a complete guide-book to Southern California (1888)| location=New York | publisher=D. Appleton and Company | year=1888 | url=https://archive.org/details/californiasouth00widngoog }}
[http://www.cagenweb.com/cpl/ndgwda.htm Native Daughters of the Golden West: Doña Eulalia Pérez DeGuillén] - California Pioneer Project
[https://sites.google.com/site/michaelwhiteadobe/ Michael White Adobe website] - (research section: information on Eulalia Pérez
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060302174645/http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.com/publications/index/subject/p.html California History Quarterly: Eulalia Pérez de Guillén] - 52:71-75; 53:141
[http://www.biblio.com/browse_books/catalog/87495/7875.html National Genealogical Society Quarterly: California's Centenarian: Eulalia Pérez de Guillén] - June 1962, Volume 50 Number 2
[http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/03/29_californiawomen.shtml UC Berkeley News: California women's "Collective Voice" exhibit]
[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-mar-11-me-then11-story.html Los Angeles Times: "At Flores Adobe, history stands solid"] - March 11, 2007
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110718100604/http://homesteadmuseum.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/eulalia-perez-de-guillen/ Homestead Museum blogsite] - March 4, 2010
Photos
[http://www.scu.edu/scm/fall2007/testimoniosphotos.cfm Santa Clara University]: Eulalia Perez
[http://www.berkeley.edu/news/multimedia/2005/04/slideshow_pt1.swf UC Berkeley News]: Exhibit's slideshow]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110718100604/http://homesteadmuseum.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/eulalia-perez-de-guillen/ Homestead Museum]: Eulalia Perez de Guillen Marine circa 1878