Pío Pico

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Governor of Alta California
Pío de Jesus Pico IV

Governor of Alta California
In office 1832 – 1832
Preceded by	Manuel Victoria
Succeeded by	Agustín V. Zamorano and José María de Echeandía
In office 1845 – 1846
Preceded by	Manuel Micheltorena
Succeeded by	José Mariá Flores

Born	May 5, 1801 Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
Died	September 11, 1894 (age 93) Los Angeles, California
Spouse	María Ignacia Alvarado
Profession	Entrepreneur, Politician
Religion	Roman Catholic

Pío de Jesus Pico IV (May 5, 1801 – September 11, 1894) was the last Mexican Governor of Alta California.

1 Origins
2 Business life
3 Political life
4 Epilogue
5 Quote(s)
6 See also
7 References

[edit] Origins

Pío Pico was born at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to José María Pico, and María Eustaquia Gutiérrez with the aid of midwife Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné. He was the fourth of ten children with a mixed ancestry of African, Native American, Spanish, and others. His grandmother was listed in the 1790 census as mulatta. His grandfather was among the soldiers accompanying Juan Bautista de Anza on the expedition that launched from Tubac, Arizona for California around 1775 with the intent to explore and colonize. After the death of his father in 1819 he settled in San Diego, California. His marriage to María Ignacia Alvarado was on February 24, 1834.

[edit] Business life

Pico set up a tanning hut and dram shop in 1821 at Los Angeles, selling a drink for two bits (25 cents). Some of those drinks were served to unwitting customers from hollowed out ox-horns sporting false wooden bottoms. His retailing businesses became a significant source of his income.

By the 1850s Pico was one of the richest men of Mexican Alta California. In 1850 he purchased 8,894 acre (3,600 hectare) Rancho Paso de Bartolo Viejo, which included half of present day Whittier, where he built his home in 1852 and lived until 1892. There his home remains preserved as Pio Pico State Historic Park. Pico also owned the former Mission San Fernando Rey de España, Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, now part of Camp Pendleton, as well as several other ranchos totaling over one half-million acres, or 800 mi² (2,000 km²).

In Los Angeles, he constructed the three story, 33-room hotel, Pico House (Casa de Pico) on the old plaza, opposite today's Olvera Street. At the time of its opening in 1869, it was the most extravagant and lavish hotel in Southern California. However, even before 1900, it began a slow decline along with the surrounding neighborhood, as the business center moved further south. After decades of serving as a shabby flop house, it was deeded to the State of California in 1953, and is now a part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument. It is currently used on occasion for exhibits and special events.

[edit] Political life

Pico served twice as Governor of Alta California taking office the first time from Manuel Victoria 1832 who was deposed for refusing to follow through with orders to secularize mission properties. As Governor pro tempore and Vocal of the Departmental Assembly, he set forth with secularization, handing the reigns of governor to Zamorano and Echeandia to respectively govern the north and south after only twenty days in office. In 1844 he was chosen as a leader of the California Assembly, and began his second term as governor insucceeding the unpopular governor Manuel Micheltorena 1845. Pico made Los Angeles the state capital then. In the year leading up to the war between the U.S. and Mexico, Governor Pico was outspoken in favour of California becoming a British Protectorate rather than American territory.

He actively challenged the government of Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado 1837 to 1839 and was imprisoned on several occasions. During the Mexican-American War, when U.S. troops occupied Los Angeles and San Diego in 1846, Pico fled to Baja California, Mexico, to argue a case for sending troops to defend California before the Mexican Congress as well as prevent himself being taken prisoner. After the war, Pico returned to Los Angeles in 1848, successfully surviving the Mexican-American transition after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1853 he was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council, but did not assume office. Pico also had a run in 1834 for office as first alcalde (mayor) of San Diego, but was unsuccessful.

[edit] Epilogue

After the Mexican-American War Pico dedicated himself to his businesses until his death. Pico's gambling, his losses to loan sharks, bad business practices, being defrauded, and the 1883 flood ruined him financially and forced him to liquidate his real estate holdings. He died impoverished shortly after in 1894 at the home of his daughter Joaquina Pico Moreno in Los Angeles. He was buried in a modest tomb in El Campo Santo Cemetery at the Homestead Museum in the present City of Industry.

Pico had three nationalities during his life: he was born a Creole in New Spain, was later a Mexican citizen, then a United States citizen. He was known for his extravagant lifestyle, with fine clothes, expensive furnishings, and heavy gambling.

In 1927, Pío Pico State Historic Park was created from the ruins of his Rancho de Bartolo (El Ranchito) in Whittier, and Casa Pico mansion. Pico Boulevard, a major east-west thoroughfare in Los Angeles, is named after the former governor. Elementary and junior high schools in Los Angeles' Koreatown district is also named in his honour. Also, Pico Rivera, a city located in southeastern Los Angeles County, is named for him.

[edit] Quote(s)

“	What are we to do then? Shall we remain supine, while these daring strangers are overrunning our fertile plains, and gradually outnumbering and displacing us? Shall these incursions go on unchecked, until we shall become strangers in our own land?	”
	— Pío de Jesus Pico IVÌ ^[1]