Tag: Republic of Mexico

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Was California ever a slave state?

The Republic of Mexico’s Constitution, adopted in the 1820s, forty years before the American Civil War, prohibited slavery. By 1846, all mission neophytes had been freed from the mission system and the mission lands had been secularized. Mexican-appointed governors chose administrators for each California mission to give the land and livestock to some mission neophytes and many rancheros. 

American settlers moved into the California territory with Native American and Black slaves after 1840. They never became Mexican citizens or bowed to Mexican laws. In 1846, several American men staged a revolt in Sonoma to make California a republic with their laws. They were named the Bear Flaggers for the flag they created for their republic. Many of these rebels were quite drunk, and some people thought the bear painted on the flag looked more like a pig, but the Americans pulled down the Mexican flag and saluted the new California Republic flag. Now they could keep their enslaved workers and their land without bowing to Mexico. 

The United States Pacific Naval Squadron annexed Alta California a few weeks later, and the California Republic flag was lowered and replaced with the Stars and Stripes. When California became a state in 1850, it joined the Union as a free state. Until the Civil War, some enslavers kept it secret from their workers that they were now legally free.

Because several state flags have a pro-slavery history, many flag enthusiasts see it as a disturbing problem and want to change them.

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Where can you attend a bullfight?

Bullfighting is still popular and legal in many countries—France, Spain (outlawed in some cities), Portugal, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, and some cities in Mexico. This fact was a surprise to me. Another troubling surprise is how many are killed –tormented–for this “sport.” Worldwide, about 250,000 bulls are killed a year according to the Humane Society International. Many people attend bullfights, but outside the bullring, animal rights activists object to the bloody sport.

The largest bullfighting ring in the world is near the Plaza de México in Mexico City. Demonstrators frequently protested the events by waving banners with slogans such as “No more deaths!” They shouted “Torture is not art, it is not culture.” Recently, activists filed a lawsuit, and a judge issued a court order to suspend the events in Mexico City.

In the 1800s bullfights were common entertainments in the Republic of Mexico, which included the territory of Alta California. Pitting bulls against captured bears was also accepted as entertainment near the California missions after Sunday Mass and during week-long wedding celebrations.

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What territory constituted Mexican California in the 1820s?

I never realized how large the California territory was when Spain and then Mexico claimed the land. The region called Californias stretched past the Sierra Nevada Mountains and across the current states of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, as well as some of Arizona. Baja California was also part of this area. The Republic of Mexico governed Nuevo Mexico and Tejas (or Texas) as well. This land fit like puzzle pieces next to what is now known as the Louisiana Purchase, which the United States purchased from France. The United States annexed the Mexican territories of Alta California and Nuevo Mexico after the Mexican-American War in the 1840s. Texas had become a republic but then joined the States as well. The United States actually compensated Mexico for these territories — a highly unusual action at the time for a victor in a war.

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Who built the first white man’s residence in San Francisco and where was it?

Plaque marking the Richardson residence in Yerba Buena, 1835

In earlier years, there was much debate about who built the first dwelling in San Francisco, but the City of San Francisco finally decided the honor belonged to Captain William A. Richardson. In the 1800s, the city of San Francisco was known as Yerba Buena. The Republic of Mexico governed Alta California, and its governor José Figueroa asked Richardson to establish a pueblo at Yerba Buena. In 1835 he built a tent-shanty in which he and his family lived for four months. Richardson then built a wood plank house on a lot that he purchased from the Mexican government for $25. The California Historical Society confirmed that the lot was on the corner of the San Francisco streets of Grant and Clay. The pictured plaque that hangs on the current house says: “The Birthplace of a Great City — Here, June 25, 1835, William A. Richardson, founder of Yerba Buena (later San Francisco) erected its first habitation, a tent dwelling, replacing it in October, 1835, by the first wooden house, and on this ground in 1836, he erected the large adobe building, known as ‘Casa Grande.’ This tablet was placed under the auspices of the Northern Federation of Civic Organizations of San Francisco.” I want to thank my friend Stephanie Sigue for photographing this plaque for me. For a marker of such a momentous event, it is hard to find and obscured from casual viewing, but look carefully and you will find it.