{"id":9346,"date":"2016-03-30T07:47:46","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T13:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/?p=9346"},"modified":"2016-07-03T21:33:30","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T03:33:30","slug":"cape-crusaders-10-key-figures-in-los-cabos-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/cape-crusaders-10-key-figures-in-los-cabos-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Crusaders: 10 Key Figures in Los Cabos History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Cabos<\/a> has a long history<\/a>, and has been inhabited, loosely speaking, for more than\u00a010,000 years. For the vast majority of that time it was the territory of hunter gatherers called the Peric\u00fa. Very few names of Peric\u00faes are known to us now, and those that are\u2013Chicor\u00ed, Bot\u00f3n and Ger\u00f3nimo, por ejemplo<\/em>\u2013are primarily remembered for plotting against and killing colonizing Spaniards. Given this lack of reliable information for so much of the human history of the area, it will come as no surprise that a survey of the most important figures in local history necessarily starts in the Spanish colonial period.<\/p>\n

Some of these figures were heroic, some were pioneers, while others were merely in the right\/wrong place at exactly the right\/wrong time. But all 10 played a huge role in making Los Cabos the place that it is today.<\/p>\n

\"Cape<\/a>

Sebasti\u00e1n Vizca\u00edno is an important figure in the history of Baja California Sur, most notably for naming Cabo San Lucas and La Paz, and giving San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo its first Spanish name: San Bernab\u00e9.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sebasti\u00e1n Vizca\u00edno <\/strong>(1548 – 1624)<\/p>\n

Vizca\u00edno was a central figure in the development of Los Cabos, and appears at several key points during its early colonial history. He was a merchant aboard the treasure laden galleon<\/a> Santa Ana when it was attacked an taken by English privateers led by Thomas Cavendish in 1587. He was granted a concession to the pearl beds of La Paz in 1596, the first person so honored since Cort\u00e9s had landed there in 1535. And in 1602 he was given command by the Spanish Viceroy in M\u00e9xico to explore the Pacific Coast of California (then one territory) to locate safe harbors for the lucrative Manila \u2013 Acapulco galleon trade.<\/p>\n

Originally from Extremadura, an extremely poor region in Spain that produced an enormously disproportionate number of famed explorers and adventurers \u2013 Cort\u00e9s, Balboa, Pizarro and Hernando de Soto, to name but a few \u2013 Vizca\u00edno became a soldier at an early age, participating notably in the Spanish invasion of Portugal in the early 1580s. He became wealthy soon after, in New Spain (then the name of M\u00e9xico), when he married well, and carried off a series of successful business ventures. He was involved with the hazardous galleon trade from 1586 \u2013 1589, and in addition to his explorations in California, mapped the coast of Japan and served as a Spanish diplomat there.<\/p>\n

Did I mention his talent for naming? Vizca\u00edno ensured his place in the history books by naming seemingly every place he ever visited in California, even if others had done it first. It was Vizca\u00edno who named La Paz (Cort\u00e9s had called it Santa Cruz), and it was Vizca\u00edno who gave San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo the name by which it was known for well over 100 years:\u00a0 San Bernab\u00e9. Before that, it had been known by the original inhabitants, the Peric\u00faes, as A\u00f1uit\u00ed. Later, when the mission was named in honor of Jos\u00e9 de la Puente, the town gradually followed suit.<\/p>\n

Among his other lasting contributions are the names San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Monterey. Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of them as well.<\/p>\n

Don Jos\u00e9 de la Puente <\/strong>(1670 \u2013 1739)<\/p>\n

\"Cape<\/a>

The coat of arms of the Marqu\u00e9s de Villapuente, by far the most generous benefactor during the peninsula\u2019s Jesuit mission period.<\/p><\/div>\n

Better known by his title, Marqu\u00e9s de Villapuente, this man was one of the most remarkable in all of M\u00e9xico. His name will always be remembered in Baja California Sur, if only because the missions at San Jos\u00e9 de Comond\u00fa and San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo were named in his honor, and that of Santa Gertrudis for his wife. You will find very few people today, however, who know of his great deeds, or understand why he\u2019s so important to local history.<\/p>\n

The first permanent settlement in California was at Loreto, and was founded in 1697 by Juan Mar\u00eda Salvatierra and the Society of Jesus. The capital of the territory until 1777 (when it moved to Monterey), Loreto was the beachhead for over 70 years of Jesuit mission building<\/a>, a time that in retrospect is considered perhaps the most formative period in peninsular history. The reason for this is that the Jesuits basically answered to no one but God. Part of the deal they made to proselytize on the peninsula was that they would be privately funded, and entirely self-sufficient. Thus was born the Pious Fund, and the Marqu\u00e9s de Villapuente was by far its greatest donor. He paid for almost half the missions founded by the Jesuits in California\u2013standard price then was $10,000 pesos for a new mission\u2013including the southern loop of La Paz, Santiago, San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo, and Todos Santos.<\/p>\n

Born the son of a mayor in the Camargo province in Spain, Jos\u00e9 de la Puente was sent to New Spain at the age of 12, where he was put under the guidance of his uncle, then Captain of the Royal Guards. Given this martial upbringing, it should come as no surprise that the young Jos\u00e9 became a formidable soldier:\u00a0 he fought pirates on the Spanish Main, helped put down an Indian uprising in Mexico City, fought against the French Navy in the Nine Years War, and defended Veracruz against English and Dutch enemies during the War of the Spanish Succession. He also became very, very rich; receiving his title at age 34.<\/p>\n

His generosity is legendary. In addition to the vast sums he donated to the Jesuit cause in California\u2013a few years before his death\u00a0 he also ceded to the Pious Fund some 500,000 acres of land in mainland M\u00e9xico, which were home to over 230,000 head of cattle\u2013the Marqu\u00e9s also founded two Jesuit missions in what is now Arizona, funded Jesuit colleges in Havana and Caracas, gave to Franciscan missions in Africa, and supported Christian causes in China, India, Syria and the Philippines.<\/p>\n

He was, suffice it to say, a giant of a man, and his largesse was in large part responsible for the development of what is today the state of Baja California Sur.<\/p>\n

Nicol\u00e1s Tamaral <\/strong>(1687 \u2013 1734)<\/p>\n

The Marqu\u00e9s de Villapuente may have provided the seed money for the mission at San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo, but it was Nicol\u00e1s Tamaral who founded it in 1730, and provided, albeit briefly, much needed shore support for the Manila galleons, which stopped to take on fresh water nearby before proceeding to Acapulco.<\/p>\n

Tamaral, a native of Seville, joined the Jesuits at age 17, and was working as a missionary in New Spain by the age of 25. He first came to California in 1717 and remained there for the rest of his life, establishing a mission at La Pur\u00edsima before continuing south to what was then known as San Bernab\u00e9. It was there that he raised the ire of the Peric\u00faes by urging them to abandon polygamy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem was greater here than elsewhere, judging from Tamaral\u2019s detailed accounts,\u201d writes Peter Masten Dunne in Black Robes in Lower California<\/em>. \u201cFirst of all the men were unaccustomed to any restraint whatsoever. The plurality of women meant that each male could have a number of wives. Still another and a very practical advantage influenced the men to polygamy. Reared in utter idleness, a man could loll and sleep all day long on the ground under the shade of a palo blanco<\/em> while his women ranged about for food to feed him, and emulated each other in trying to please him most. Truly the men were badly spoiled.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cape<\/a>

The Rebellion of the Peric\u00faes began in October 1734, when native inhabitants killed two Jesuit missionaries: Lorenzo Carranco in Santiago, and Nicol\u00e1s Tamaral in San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo. Tamaral\u2019s death is remembered in this tableau above the entryway of the city\u2019s old Catholic church.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Jesuit ban on polygamy is largely credited for the deaths of missionaries Lorenzo Carranco in Santiago and Tamaral in San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo. The former was beaten to death with sticks and stones, the latter beheaded with a knife. Tamaral\u2019s death is the subject of a tile mosaic above the entrance to the parrish church in San Jos\u00e9.\u00a0 The tableau incorrectly depicts the Peric\u00faes\u2013they are portrayed wearing loincloths, which they never did\u2013and glosses over the friar\u2019s grisly death, both understandable given the modest sensibilities of most churchgoers.<\/p>\n

The long-term consequences of these killings were profound. The subsequent Rebellion of the Peric\u00faes<\/a> (1734 \u2013 1737) set in motion political tides that eventually resulted in the expulsion of the Jesuits from Calfornia, as well as the cultural extinction of the Peric\u00fa.<\/p>\n

Thomas Ritchie <\/strong>(1811 \u2013 1872)<\/p>\n

It is a curious fact, but if you look at the \u201cfirst families\u201d of Los Cabos, you will discover that many have English names:\u00a0 Green, Wilkes, Collins, Ritchie. In many chronicles, the founders of these lines are referred to as pirates. In truth, almost all were deserters from whaling vessels. Ritchie\u00a0certainly was, although his reasons were different than most. Usually, desertion was a means to escape cruel conditions. He was cabin boy on a ship captained by his uncle, and stayed because he had fallen in love with dark haired lass in San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo: presumably his first wife, Loreto Higuera.<\/p>\n

Ritchie\u2019s two-story house overlooking M\u00e9dano Beach was the social and commercial center of San Lucas for many decades. He raised cattle, made whiskey, operated a de facto<\/em> hotel and post office for the whalers, naval officers and adventurers who dropped anchor in the bay; and later, after gold and silver mines appeared at El Triunfo and San Antonio, arranged transportation for those seeking to strike it rich.<\/p>\n

\"Cape<\/a>

Thomas Ritchie\u2019s two story house overlooking M\u00e9dano Beach in Cabo San Lucas was the town\u2019s de facto meeting place during the middle part of the 19th century. Not only did naval officers, whalers and pirates often visit, but so too did cattlemen, miners, naturalists and regional politicos.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ross Browne, whose Explorations in Lower California<\/em> offers one of the classic 19th century portraits of life in Los Cabos, wrote of Ritchie:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has undergone many tribulations at the hands of the Mexicans.\u00a0 Without cause they have robbed him, have made him pay taxes, have taken him prisoner and have threatened to kill him.\u00a0 He is now considered an inevitable and unavoidable citizen of this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one time, his property was confiscated and he was thrown into prison in Mazatl\u00e1n.\u00a0 An English warship threatened to bomb the city if he was mistreated or abused anew.\u00a0 Because he survived the severe wounds inflicted upon him, which would have killed any other man on Earth, it was said it would be miracle if he were ever to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ritchie did eventually die, of course, but not before fathering eleven children\u2013four with his first wife, seven with his second, Ynes Villavicencio\u2013and helping to give birth to a now famous resort city.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Antonio Mijares<\/strong> (1819\u20131847)<\/p>\n

If Fr. Tamaral was the first martyr of San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo<\/a>, Lt. Mijares was the second. But whereas Tamaral is publicly remembered with a mosaic that shows him being brutally murdered, Mijares is forever memorialized by a majestic monument, a place of honor in the Jard\u00edn de los Cabe\u00f1os Ilustres\u2013the entire garden set around the place where Mijares heroically fell\u2013and a broad central boulevard that bears his name.<\/p>\n

Why so much for one, so little for the other? Tamaral was a Spanish friar. Mijares, on the other hand, was a Mexican hero.<\/p>\n

Most accounts of the Mexican American War (1846 \u2013 1848) gloss over, or omit entirely, the battles fought on the Baja California peninsula, the majority of wich took place after the occupation of Mexico City, when the war was essentially over.<\/p>\n

San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo was the site of two important engagements: one a battle, the other a siege. At the outset of the war, the U.S. Navy had essentially blockaded the peninsula and urged neutrality on Mexican citizens there. The stout citizens of San Jos\u00e9, however, after hearing of armed resistance at Muleg\u00e9, immediately tore down a foreign flag that had been hoisted and expelled American civilians.<\/p>\n

In retaliation, Commodore Shubrick installed in San Jos\u00e9 a detachment of 24 men under the command of a Lt. Heywood, armed with cannon and rifles. Young Lt. Mijares, under orders from the head of Mexican peninsular forces, Capt. Manuel Pineda, valiantly led an attack on Heywood\u2019s position on Nov. 20, 1847. This was the critical action of the Battle of San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo, during which Mijares was fatally wounded.<\/p>\n

The courage of men like Pineda and Mijares is one of the reasons Baja California was not ceded along with numerous other Mexican holdings in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.<\/p>\n

(to be continued)\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Cabos has a long history, and has been inhabited, loosely speaking, for more than\u00a010,000 years. For the vast majority of that time it was the territory of hunter gatherers called the Peric\u00fa. Very few names of Peric\u00faes are known to us now, and those that are\u2013Chicor\u00ed, Bot\u00f3n and Ger\u00f3nimo, por ejemplo\u2013are primarily remembered for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1496,128,1057,21,1492,1500,849,1498,1499,841,42,1497,1494,1501,112,1493,1495,402],"class_list":["post-9346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-antonio-mijares","tag-baja-california","tag-baja-california-sur","tag-cabo-san-lucas","tag-cape-crusaders","tag-heroes","tag-history","tag-jose-de-la-puente","tag-key-figures","tag-la-paz","tag-los-cabos","tag-marques-de-villapuente","tag-nicolas-tamaral","tag-pioneers","tag-san-jose-del-cabo","tag-sebastian-vizcaino","tag-thomas-ritchie","tag-todos-santos-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9346"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9753,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9346\/revisions\/9753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}