Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eulalia Peréz de Guillén Mariné (1768–1878) was a supercentagenarian Californio who was "keeper of the keys" of Missión San Gabriel Arcángel and owner of Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual (Pascual Corner Ranch) in Alta California (the present day Los Angeles area of Southern California).

Contents 1 Biography 2 Excerpt from Memoirs (ca. 1877) 3 Partial Genealogy 4 Sources 5 Citations

[edit] Biography

Eulalia (USC photo) was born in Loreto, Baja California in 1768 to Diego Pérez of Spain and Antonia Rosalia Cota (but named as Lucía Valenzuela by Miguel Blanco). 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. 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 a sergeant named Miguel Antonio Guillén in the Spanish army and moved with him—on foot, in those days—to Alta California with her children Petra, Isidoro, and Domingo after his return from San Diego where he had earlier helped found the Presidio of San Diego. Miguel died while serving in the garrison at San Diego, leaving Eulalia stranded with several children. She managed to obtain a job at Missión San Gabriel, initially as a cook and a [1] midwife working for people like Governor Pio Pico. Eventually, she was made "keeper of the keys" of the missión itself.

When she retired, the fathers at San Gabriel rewarded Eulalia with Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual (q.v.), now the cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and San Marino, California (or Altadena - q.v.). This land had belonged to Tongva-speaking Native Americans, often referred to as "Gabrielenos" (after the missión). With the Mexican conquest of California, as a woman, Eulalia was unable to keep ownership of property in her own name, so (see timeline) she married a retired Mexican army lieutenant named Juan Mariné. According to her descendants, Mariné and his sons lost all the land in a short time by gambling. Eulalia spent many years of her life in the homes of various daughters, including that of Constancia Guillén de la Ossa (photo), wife of Vicente de la Ossa (photo), owner of Rancho de los Encinos (photo) (foundation of Encino, California), now Los Encinos State Historic Park.

Eulalia died in the Los Angeles area in 1878. Her death certificate, located in the Los Angeles County courthouse in Santa Ana records that she lived to be 140, but descendants for the most part agree that she was only 110 years old at the time of her death, making her a "famous centenarian of the early California and of U.S. history. She is buried with the priests in the Mission San Gabriel, a highly unusual honor for a woman (see photo of memorial). Her numerous descendants were married into the Californios or founding Spanish families of old Southern California, including son-in-law Michael C. White AKA Miguel Blanco (q.v..)

[edit] Excerpt from Memoirs (ca. 1877)

(from Digital History about "Eulalia Pérez," a description of her responsibilities in 1823 at San Gabriel Mission, itself from Three Memoirs of Mexican California, 1877, University of California, Bancroft Library.)

[edit] Partial Genealogy

Spanish Ancestry
        |
        Diego Perez==+==Antonia Rosalia Cota
        |
        +---------------------------------------------------+ other siblings
        |

EULALIA PEREZ==+==Miguel Alejandro de Guillen(==+==Juan Marine)

        |

Constancia de Guillén==+==Don Vicente de la Ossa (q.v. de la Ossa family history PDF)

        |

Rita de la Ossa==+==Daniel Kevane

        |

Katherine Kevane==+==Alexander Howison Murray Sr.

        |

Alexander Howison Murray, Jr.==+==Isadeen Raffetto

[edit] Sources

• Three memoirs of Mexican California: Carlos N. Híjar, Eulalia Pérez, Agustín Escobar as recorded in 1877 by Thomas Savage (Berkeley: Friends of the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, 1988), available at the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkely and the Mercantile Library of New York. The chapter about Eulalia is called "An Old Woman and Her Recollections," recorded on December 11, 1877, at the age of 108 or 109
• Eulalia Perez in Mexican American Voices, edited with an introduction by Steven Mintz
• Eulalia Pérez Recalls Early California, 1823 in Major Problems in Mexican American History
• "The Reminiscences of Eulalia Perez" in The Californians, The Magazine of California History (Grizzly Publications)
• Eulalia Perez, Mother of Rita De La Ossa The De La Ossa Family Photograph Collection
• Library of Congress: Historical Collections (American Memory): California all the way back to 1828. By Michael C. White [Miguel Blanco]. Written by Thomas Savage for the Bancroft Library, 1877. Introduction and notes by Glen Dawson; illustrated by Clarence Ellsworth: a machine-readable transcription.
• California All the way back to 1828. By Michael C. White WebRoots.org (Nonprofit Library for Genealogy & History-Related Research)
• Obituary of Florestina de la Ossa Gilbert, grand-daughter (also cited here)
• City of Pasadena
• Homestead Museum
• Eaton Canyon Nature Center Associates (ECNCA)
• Flores Adobe
• Rancho del Rincon de San Pascual City of South Pasadena
• Abstracts from Eulalia Perez de Guillen by Woody McBride, Fedco Reporter, April 1996
• Los Angeles Area Timeline

[edit] Citations

• UC Berkeley News "California women's "Collective Voice" exhibit" (slideshow)
• Exploration, research, activism, and other women’s work
• Pérez de Guillen, Eulalia California History Quarterly 52:71-75; 53:141
• California's Centenarian: Eulalia Perez de Guillen National Genealogical Society Quarterly June 1962, Volume 50 Number 2 (Washington, DC: National Genealogical Society, 1962)
• Dr. Kathleen Fowler
• California Mission Studies Association
• Professor Nancy Raquel Mirabal
• University of San Diego Department of History
• Organization of American Historians 2005 Program
• Dr. Ana Patricia Rodríguez
• DeGuillen, Eulalia Perez (Dona) Native Daughters of the Golden West - California Pioneer Project
• El Real Ejército de California de Carlos López Urrutía (Mexico)
• Joe Northrop great-grandson of Eulalia Perez
• St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church of Altadena CA