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Greetings!
You may have seen that we worked on replacing the tile map outside of City Hall recently. So why was this important to me and what's the history?
Well, 250 years ago a group led from Tubac, Sonora, Mexico (now Arizona) on a journey to colonize Alta California in Monterey and San Francisco. No matter what our present thoughts are on the history of colonizing in America and the damage done to tribal communities, the historical fact of this journey changed the course of Alta California history. During the same timeframe that a group of men, women, and children were paving the way by land to build cities alongside the missions, the Revolutionary War was being fought in Boston. The events during 1775 - 1776 changed the course of history for our future nation on both sides of the country...not just on the East coast. To me, it's important to honor and recognize these important events.
De Anza led 240 people on this journey, of which 155 were women or children, and a few babies born along the way. The group included many afro-latinos and indigenous natives of Mexico. The trip left in September of 1775 and landed in Monterey on March 10th, 1776 at the Presidio of Monterey - near the Royal Presidio Chapel and current El Estero Park. Not only did they succeed in colonizing Monterey and San Francisco, but their descendants had future impact here in Alta California. Direct descendants included the bandit Tiburcio Vasquez, Governors Castro and Pico, Constitution Convention delegate Jacinto Rodriguez (Osio Adobe), and names like Bernal and Pacheco can still be found prominently through the area. The Bernal family rancho is where William Hartnell hosted the first higher education school "el Colegio de San Jose." You can explore the interactive De Anza Trail Map and timeline here. This includes the diaries of De Anza, Franciscan Pedro Font, and Father Garces. During the De Anza journey Font kept a diary and drew a map of their route - one of the earliest maps of the area from San Francisco to Monterey Bay, and he also gave name to the "Sierra Nevada" mountain range.
So what's the story of the map? San Francisco based artist Edgar Walter donated a unique tile map of the portion of Alta California that includes Monterey and San Francisco to the City in 1935 to celebrate our new City Hall and gardens. Walter was also close friends with artists who worked in Monterey including Douglas Tilden (Serra Cross) and Arthur Putnam (Sloat Monument eagle). The tile map was based on the Pedro Font journal map and was made in Montalvan factory in Triana, Seville, Spain. When installed, the tile was attached to a concrete base within the sunken rose garden. In the 1930's, Monterey was highlighting the early Spanish influence and preserving adobes and creating the Path of History.
I noticed early on when arriving in Monterey that the tile was in bad shape. Water had seeped through the concrete and mortar, pushing out and damaging the tile. In 2023 I started researching it and found that a few repair attempts had been looked into in the past...but by 2024 the map collapsed entirely off the wall after a storm. I was able to work with artist Jos Sances to recreate the map based on the original Pedro Font drawing and photos of when the tile map was last undamaged in 1980. Alta California and early Spanish influence can be seen throughout Monterey, so I thought it was important to honor this history for our future generations.
More info and photos can be found in the press release here. Happy holidays everyone! One last piece from the De Anza journey (translated from Spanish). On Christmas Day, 250 years ago, the group was outside of Los Angeles making their way to Mission San Gabriel.
"For the reason that on this holy night of the Nativity, a little before midnight, the wife of a soldier happily gave birth to a son, and because the day was very raw and foggy, it was decided to remain today." The child born was named Salvador Ignacio Rivas, later a soldada de cuera (leather jacket cavalry soldier) of the Monterey Presidio.
Warmly,
Brian
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