From Po Pico to #Calexit: California s Tortured Road from Diversity to Equality

In the wake of Donald Trump's electoral victory, a number of news outlets have highlighted California's outlier status: as the country seemingly veers to the right, the Golden State appears to have moved to the left. Some residents have even demanded secession, an idea with its own hashtag: #Calexit.

Under Spanish control, Mexican rule, and later U.S. statehood, California remained one of the more diverse regions of the Americas. At the same time, though, California's diversity did not necessarily imply racial and ethnic equality.

The state's diversity no doubt played into its rejection of Donald Trump, but it is important to note that California's racial politics, dating back to Spanish colonization, have long been complicated. Under Spanish control, Mexican rule, and later U.S. statehood, California remained one of the more diverse regions of the Americas. At the same time, though, California's diversity did not necessarily imply racial and ethnic equality. Few individuals encapsulate the complex racial dynamics that laid the foundation for modern California like the family of California's last Mexican governor, P o Pico.

What does P o Picos legacy mean today?

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P o Pico's grandfather, Santiago de La Cruz Pico came to California as a soldier in 1775. His son and P o's father, Jos Mar a Pico served as a sergeant for the Spanish crown in San Diego.[1] At the time, the territory drew a wide variety of people, mostly poor pobladores or townspeople, a racially diverse group who saw California as an economic opportunity, writes historian Carlos Manuel Salomon.[2]

Like many borderlands far removed from bureaucratic centers, Alta California (as it was known under Spain and Mexico) shook off arbitrary caste distinctions and instead embraced a more fluid conception of race. Mestizos and mulatos, racial classifications to which many Californios like the Picos belonged, could attain land grants and even hold public office. Far from Mexico City, Californios developed a sense of independence and self-government.

Multiracial heritage, however, did not necessarily ensure solidarity with other marginalized groups. The Pico family, like many others in Alta California, emerged from the unique culture of New Spain, tracing its ancestry back to a mix of Spanish, Indian, and African roots. Despite his own racially mixed status, Santiago de la Cruz Pico as a soldier helped spread Spanish imperialism across Mexico, often at the expense of indigenous populations. Jose's work for the crown accomplished similar ends.[3]

Due in part to New Spain's colonial caste system, many Californios wanted to identify as Spanish or European; the newly forged Californio identity did not fully erase racial and class distinctions. For example, perhaps due to his lengthy service for the crown, Jose Maria Pico was listed as a Spaniard in the 1790 census even as his father and brothers were recorded as mulatos. Moreover, Californios benefitted mightily from the mission system established under Spanish rule and later secularized by the Mexican government, which gained independence in 1821. Needless to say, under both regimes indigenous peoples suffered. Throughout, the Picos acquired land grants and exploited native labor.

Portrait of P o Pico in 1856. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.

With the Treaty of Guadalupe (1848), which formally ended the Mexican-American War, the U.S. promised to honor Mexican and Spanish land grants, and Mexican-born Californians were given the choice to move south or stay and become U.S. citizens. Unfortunately, Mexican land grants lacked the kind of specificity found in American property law; Mexico had not employed a Jeffersonian grid system that rigidly defined land ownership, so Anglo-American newcomers found ways to challenge land claims in court.

The Land Act of 1851 required Mexican landholders to prove the legitimacy of their holdings to a three-person Board of Land Commissioners in San Francisco. The process of defending these claims and fending off squatters took years and often depleted the coffers of Californio families. Even in victory, they would often pay their legal fees in land.[4] Having authored numerous land grants himself as governor in the waning days of Mexican California, P o Pico provided endless testimony before the board from 1851-56, defending the property transfers.[5]

American statehood also brought with it much more rigid conceptions of race. The new state constitution barred persons with African ancestry from court testimony against whites, jury service, public education, and voting, and generally discouraged black migration to the state. Pico endured disparaging remarks from whites that demonstrate the new racial logic; San Francisco land claim attorney Isaac Hartmann described Pico as a a corrupt, non-English, speaking negroid, dwarfist. [6]

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