Essay

Essay

Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné (1766 - 1878) was a supercentenarian Californio who was mayordoma of Missión San Gabriel Arcángel and owner of Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual, in present day Los Angeles area of Southern California. Pérez was born in Loreto, Baja California (then capital of Las Californias), to Diego Pérez of Spain and Antonia Rosalía Cota (but named as Lucía Valenzuela by Miguel Blanco).[citation needed] 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 Pérez with several children.

Pérez managed to obtain employment at Missión San Gabriel, initially as cook and midwife for those such as Governor Pío Pico.[1] She was eventually made "keeper of the keys" of the missión itself. When she retired, the fathers at San Gabriel rewarded Pérez with Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual,[2] now the cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and San Marino, California.[3] This land had belonged to Tongva-speaking Native Americans, often referred to as Gabrieleños. With the Mexican conquest of California, as a woman, Pérez was unable to keep ownership of property in her own name, so she married a retired Mexican army lieutenant Juan Mariné (d. 1836).[4] According to her descendants, Mariné and his sons lost all the land in a short time by gambling.

Pérez lived many years a house still standing in South Pasadena, called Adobe Flores.[5] She spent many years of her remaining life in the homes of various daughters, including that of Rita de Guillén de la Ossa, wife of Vicente de la Ossa, owner of Rancho de los Encinos, foundation of Encino, California. (What remains of that 100-acre (0.40 km2) rancho is now Los Encinos State Historic Park.[6][7])

Pérez 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 on a more conservative 112 years, making her a "famous centenarian of the early California and of U.S. history.[1] She is buried with the priests in the Mission San Gabriel, a highly unusual honor at that time for a woman: a marble bench inscribed with her name marks the spot.[8] Her numerous descendants married into the Californios or founding Spanish families of old Southern California, including son-in-law Michael ...