Wandering Lizard

Biographical Notes

Juan Bautista Valentin Alvarado y Vallejo

In January 1842 Mexican President Santa Anna responding to the Californios request for military assistance, sent Brigadier General Manuel Micheltorena and 300 men to California. Micheltorena was to assume the governorship and the position of commandante general. The troops that he brought with him included a number of convicts and relations with the local population quickly deteriorated. In October 1842 Commodore Thomas ap Catsby Jones mistakenly thought that war had broken out between the United State and Mexico. He sailed into Montery Bay and demanded its surrender. Micheltorena's force was still in the south and the Monterey presidio was undermanned. Alvarado reluctantly surrendered.

Following his surrender, Alvarado appears to have retired to his rancho El Alisal where he went on a drinking binge. The next day Commodore Jones learned of his mistake and invited Alvarado back to Monterey so that he could relinquish control of the town and depart. Alvarado declined referring the commodore to Micheltorena. Jones sailed south and apologized to Micheltorena. Micheltorena then requested Alvarado to come south to a transfer of command ceremony. Alvarado sent a proxy instead.

Micheltorena eventually took up residence in Monterey but he never did get his troops under control. By 1844 several rumors of revolt were circulating, at least one of which involved Alvarado so Micheltorena ordered him arrested. Alvarado was not held for very long and shortly thereafter was granted the large Las Mariposas tract in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. One of the reasons for Micheltorena's favorable attitude toward Alvarado was that he had been ordered to enlist as large a militia force as possible in preparation for possible war with the United States.

On November 14, 1844, a group of Californios led by Manuel Castro revolted against Mexican authority. Jose Castro took command of the rebel's military force with Alvarado second in command. Castro's force and a slightly smaller force led by Micheltorena met but did not clash militarily. Instead negotiations were entered into and agreement was reached that was to see Micheltorena agree to send his convict troops out of California.

The rebel force disbanded but Micheltorena went back on his word and prepared anew to crush the revolt. Issac Graham joined with Micheltorena in an effort to redress the wrong that he believed Alvarado had done him earlier. Castro and Alvarado also enlisted foreigners to assist their side in the struggle. The two forces skirmished in February 1845 at the Los Angeles River. Once again Castro and Alvarado prevailed. In subsequent negotiations Micheltorena agreed to leave California with his unruly troops. This time he did leave.

Pio Pico was named Governor, Jose Castro commandante general, and in May 1845 Alvarado returned to Monterey and his family as Administrator of the Customs House. Alvarado was elected to represent California in the Mexican Congress and, late in 1845 he resigned his customs position in preparation for the move to Mexico City. (He did not go because Governor Pico did not authorize any funds for the appointment.) Pico in Los Angeles and Castro in Monterey did not get along. Relations between north and south deteriorated.

In January 1846, Captain John Charles Fremont arrived in Monterey at the head of a small American survey party. Fremont's actions in California alarmed the Californios and Castro called out the militia to defend California against foreign aggression. In March Alvarado joined with Castro in a standoff with Fremont at Gavilan Peak. Fremont declined a clash and moved north toward Oregon. An unstable political situation in Mexico further complicated relationships between Californios. Relations between Pico and Castro continued to move toward civil war.

On June 14, 1846, a group of armed foreigners occupied the town of Sonoma, took local officials prisoner (including Vallejo), and declared the "Bear Flag Republic" to be independent of Mexico. On July 7 Commoodore John Sloat occupied Monterey and informed the citizenry that Mexico and the United States were at war. The American action unified Alvarado, Castro and Pico in opposition to the American military invasion, but it was too little too late. By the end of August American forces were in control in Monterey, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Castro and Pico had fled to Mexico and Alvarado had been captured by American forces.

In September Manuel Castro attempted to renew hostilities in the south but his effort was short lived. Alvarado was paroled and he spent the remainder of the conflict living quietly in Monterey. Following the cessation of hostilities, Alvarado was invited to take office as Secretary of State and to exercise the powers of governor. He declined. The Alvarado family remained in Monterey until 1848 when they moved to Martina's family estate at Rancho San Pablo.

Gold was discovered in the Sierras in 1848, but Alvarado like many of the Californios decided to remain with agriculture rather than to go into the mountains. (He did briefly and unsuccessfully try his hand at developing a silver mine near Monterey.) Much of the former social elite of California seemed to feel that fate had decreed that they were not to share in California's mineral wealth. Unlike Vallejo he refused to participate in the constitutional convention held at Monterey in September 1848 and did not subsequently seek any public office. Most of his time was devoted to unsuccessful business activities and extensive litigation over the ownership of land grants that he had authorized while governor.

In 1860 Alvarado opened the Union Hotel on Rancho San Pablo. It's name appears to have represented his political sympathies with regard to the conflict between the states. That same year he donated land for the construction of St. Paul's Catholic Church. When France installed Maximillian as the Emperor of Mexico, Alvarado and many other Californios supported the Mexican opposition. As the 1870s unfolded Alvarado's economic situation continued to deteriorate, his wife died and he settled into a deep depression. During this period, at the urging of Vallejo and Hubert Howe Bancroft, Alvarado wrote his "Historia de California." Alvarado died on July 13, 1882. He was buried in Oakland's St.Mary's Catholic Church.

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