Uncovering the Long History of Blacks in Mexico—Part II

Alva Moore Stevenson


Africans have been in Mexico at least since 1510. Those who were imported as slaves resisted their oppression, as in other parts of the Americas. In my last article for VidaAfroLatina.com, I wrote about one of the most famous, Gaspar Yanga, who led an uprising and escape from a sugar plantation in Veracruz in 1570.

Yanga went on to negotiate peace and freedom for his community of escaped slaves. It’s the only known example of a fully successful attempt by a maroon colony to have free status sanctioned and guaranteed by law. Yanga’s efforts represent an exceptional legacy upon which Black Mexicans continued to build.

The import of African slaves had all but ceased by the mid-16th century. Spanish colonizers in Mexico were confronted with an increasingly mixed-race society due to miscegenation. Castas, people of mixed blood, not only blurred and crossed racial lines, but economic lines as well. To reinforce their identity as the elite class, Spaniards in Mexico instituted a caste system as a method of social control. This was an ordering of racial groups according to their limpieza de sangre, literally cleanliness of blood.

In other words, people’s place in society was determined by their proportion of Spanish blood. But the castas largely ignored this caste system. Afro-Mexicans such as Vicente Guerrero played critical roles in Mexico’s independence of August 1821. Of African and indigenous ancestry, Guerrero was born of the peasant class and worked as a mule driver. He became commander in chief of the Mexican army during the last three years of the war for independence which lasted from 1810 to 1821. He was a member of the three-person junta that ruled Mexico for part of the post-war period from 1823 to 1824. And he was president of the country from 1829 into early 1830. Guerrero believed in ending privileges and he promoted equality for all races and social and economic classes. The Mexican government, during his presidency, abolished slavery in 1829.

Martha Menchaca, author of “Recovering History, Constructing Race,” discusses the reasons behind the northward migration of Afro-Mexicans and other non-White Mexicans in the early 19th century in her book. She writes, “Blatant racial disparities became painfully intolerable to the non-White population and generated the conditions for their movement toward the northern frontier, where the racial order was relaxed and people of color had the opportunity to own land and enter most occupations.”

In the period up to 1848 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Black Mexicans and African Americans crossing back and forth over Mexico’s northern border experienced great social fluidity.

California was a part of Spain from 1769 to 1821, and from 1821 to 1848 it belonged to Mexico. Like the castas in 17th and 18th century Mexico City, early Black Californians ignored social strictures related to race.

This racial ambiguity made possible the success of the Afro-Mexican Pico family. Of Spanish, African, indigenous and Italian ancestry, Pío Píco was the last Mexican governor of California. He served in that position in 1831 and again from 1845 to 1846. A consummate politician and “revolutionist,” Pio Píco was also a wealthy landowner, military commander and also served as a Los Angeles city councilman in 1853. His brother, Andres, represented California at the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga in 1847, ending the Mexican War in California. He also served as state senator in 1851 and from 1860 to 1861.

Members of the Camero, Moreno and Quintero families, and other Afro-Mexican families, were landowners as well as skilled tradesmen. Such families lived not only in California, but across the Southwest. Afro-mestizos comprised part of the population that founded the towns of Nacogdoches, San Antonio, Laredo and La Bahía in Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Los Angeles and Santa Barbara in California.

In contemporary Mexican society, the caste system no longer functions openly. But Afro-Mexicans remain largely marginalized and are concentrated at the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

Bobby Vaughn, a scholar of Afro-Mexican studies, says that issues of race in Mexico have “been so colored by Mexico’s preoccupation with the Indian question that the Afro-Mexican experience tends to blend almost invisibly into the background, even to Afro-Mexicans themselves.” The national focus on Mexican identity as a blend of Spanish and Indian heritage effectively excludes Afro-Mexicans.

Since the mid-1990s, Afro-Mexicans from 30 African-descendant areas are meeting in what is called an Encuentro de Pueblos Negros, a gathering of Black towns. The annual event is led by Father Glyn Jemmott, a Trinidadian Catholic priest and an advocate for Afro-Mexican communities. According to Jemott, the residents of these towns are striving “to relate our common history as Black people, to strengthen our union as communities, to organize and open realizable paths to secure our future, and to resist our marginalization in the life of the Mexican nation.”

Their movement parallels similar ones involving African-descended peoples in Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.

Pio Píco (5 May 1801-11 Sept 1894), revolutionary, governor, city councilman, landowner and businessman was born Pio de Jesus Píco at the San Gabriel Mission in California. His ancestry was African, Hispanic, Native American and European. Pico was the fourth of ten children. His parents were José María Pico, founder of the Píco family in Southern California and a native of Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico. His wife, María Eustaquia Gutiérrez, hailed from San Miguel de Horcasitas, Sonora. José Pico migrated to California in 1801 with the Anza Expedition. Among the positions he held were sergeant and corporal. Many members of the Pico family served in the military including Pio Píco’s maternal and paternal uncles. The military career of José Pico perhaps set the tone and example for not only his sons’ military but political involvement. Andrés was both captain and chief commander in the Mexican army and signed the Treaty of Cahuenga which paved the way for California to become a part of the U.S. After statehood, he was assemblyman for both the First and Second Districts. José Antonio served as both sergeant and lieutenant.

After the death of his father in 1819, Pio and his family were moved south to San Diego. Their financial circumstances were grim – they had no monies or property. He ran a general store of sorts which carried liquors, provisions, chairs and shoes. Pico also traded and sold cattle, sugar and other goods. His mother María and sisters including Tomasa worked at fine needlework. Little is known of Pico’s early formal education except that he learned to read and write from Matilde and Don José Carrillo. Although Don Carrillo had a school at the presidio of San Diego, it is unlikely Pio ever attended. There is no indication that Píco, indeed, received any formal institutional learning. At a relatively early age – somewhere in his early-to-mid twenties he would begin gambling, a habit which would plague him throughout his life.

The Pico family was intimately involved in the politics of the day. Patriarch José María remained in the active Mexican military until his death. California was a part of Spain and subsequently Mexico, which gained its independence in 1821. The state then became a part of the United States with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 which ceded California to the U.S. Pío was politically aware but would not become actually involved until 1827-1828 when he was named scribe or secretary to Attorney General Captain Don Pablo de la Portilla. Pío’s political opinions were forming, influenced by his late father and other military officials. He felt that the people or the citizens comprised the nation [California] over which the military had no superiority. This really forms the core of his political views and role as a revolutionary in the early days of the state (prior to 1848) which was yet a part of Mexico. This time period was one of revolutions and counter-revolutions which were the order of the day during California’s Mexican period. They were also the means for political advancement. Pico was integrally involved in the unrest and was a major player in the unsuccessful attempt to establish Los Angeles as the seat of the Mexican territory in 1828. In 1831 he would be one of the leaders of a revolt against the despotic policies of Governor (Jéfe Político or Political Chief) Manuel Victoria. Victoria would surrender after the famous (First) Battle of Cahuenga and Pico installed as Provisional Governor for a short period of twenty days. Pico married María Ygnacia Amador in February of 1834 in Los Angeles. Like Pico’s father, María’s father Javier Alvarado was also a career soldier. In April of that same year Pico was named administrator of the Missíon de San Luís Rey.

In 1845, after the Second Battle of Cahuenga against Governor Manuel Micheltorena, Pico was installed in the gubernatorial office (1845-46). During his tenure he would be responsible for the secularization of the California mission system. As told to Thomas Savage in 1877:

“My principal objective in respect to these establishments
was to abolish completely the regime of the missions,
and to establish pueblos in their place, reserving the
necessary buildings for worship and the needs of their
ministers, while suitable buildings would be assigned
for ayuntamientos [city halls] and public schools.” (Pico, 121)

This meant that the vast land holdings of the Catholic Church were sold to private parties. As well the administration of the missions was passed from the missionaries to secular clergy. Píco was accused of recklessly redistributing mission property to friends and allies of the Mexican government – as well as himself - as the American takeover of California neared. Sold off were the missions of San Gábriel, San Luís Rey, San Fernando, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano and San Buenaventura. He personally amassed vast acreages of land including Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores in what is now Orange County and Rancho Paso de Bartolo in what is now Whittier. Píco also is successful this time in relocating the capital of California from Monterey to Los Angeles. One of his great concerns was the unchecked immigration of Americans into the state. In a foreshadowing of similar sentiment today he laments:

"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?"
-- Pio Pico

The impending threat of an American takeover of California was very real. There was a lack of financial resources and none forthcoming from the Mexican government. Given that fact, Píco also considered whether the state should not be an independent protectorate of either the British Empire or France. Mexican General Andres Pico, brother of Pío, surrendered California to American forces under General John Fremont at Campo de Cahuenga. on January 13, 1847. Fearing reprisals or worse from those same American forces; Pico fled to Sonora, México.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which ceded the state and much of the Southwest to the Americans, signaled the end of the Mexican period in California. Píco would be the last Mexican Governor of California before American statehood.

Using his position as councilman in Los Angeles as well as his wealth and influence, Pico establishes education, banking and town development. He was responsible for building the Pico House in 1870 on Main Street which still stands today. In its day, this hotel was the largest and most luxurious as well the city’s social nexus. Pico was an early pioneer in California’s first oil venture which would eventually become Standard Oil Company of California

In Don Pio Pico’s Historical Narrative translated by Arthur Botello (1973) Pico gives great detail of his life and military career. It is notable to mention the absence in this book of any discussion of either his race or ethnicity. One could safely surmise that he considered himself a Mexican.

Disadvantaged by his illiteracy in English and near the end of his life; Pico was swindled out of his vast land holdings. In a financial bind, he entered into a questionable transaction with one Bernard Cohn which was the title to all of his properties masquerading as a mortgage. Pico appealed to the California Supreme Court to re-establish title in a seven-year court case. In Pico v. Cohn (Cal, 1891) the judgment was against him. The ruin of Píco typified the demise of the landowning Dons in California when it became a part of the United States. Their vast wealth was either reduced or completely decimated. Penniless and ill, Pío Píco died in 1894 at the age of 93 in Los Angeles at the home of his daughter Joaquína Moreno.

The name Pío Píco is prominent in Southern California history as evidenced today by Californian place names which include Pico Boulevard, the city of Pico Rivera as well as the many businesses which bear the name. Little known is the fact that the Picos were one of many Afro-Mexican families including Camero, Reyes, Tápia and Valdez who played key roles in California state and city government and were landowners in the 19th century. His shortcomings aside, Pío Píco was an early champion of the rights of the State of California spanning the Spanish, Mexican and American Periods.


Bibliography


Píco dictated his memory of the revolutionary years in California history to Thomas Savage in 1877. This was translated from the original Spanish by Arthur P. Botello as Don Pio Pico’s Historical Narrative (1973). For information on the American period of Pío Píco’s life consult Pío Píco Mansion: Fact, Fiction and Supposition (Journal of the West v. 2, no. 3, July 1963). Additional material may also be found in the Pio Pico Papers housed at the University of California, Berkeley Bancroft Library. In addition there are three dissertations: Pio Pico, ranchero and politician by Marian Elizabeth Smith (1971); Pio Pico: last Mexican Governor of California by Hallie Evelyn Rice (1932); and Don Pio de Jesus Pico: his Biography and Place in History by Jessie Elizabeth Bromilow (1931).



© Alva Moore Stevenson


San Diego Historical Society: San Diego biographies:
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/bio/pico/picopio.htm

San Fernando Historical Society: Pío Píco Remembered
http://www.sfvhs.com/piopico.htm