Don Guillermo Castro (born 1810) was a

Californio Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...

ranchero, military officer, and surveyor who once owned vast land holdings in

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a List of counties in California, county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and List ...

. He is the namesake of the city of

Castro Valley Castro Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Alameda County, California, United States. At the 2010 census, it was the fifth most populous unincorporated area in California and the twenty-third most populous in the United States. The popula ...

and his estate,

Rancho San Lorenzo Rancho San Lorenzo was a Mexican land grant given in 1841 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Guillermo Castro a career soldier posted to the Pueblo of San José. The land grant included present day Hayward, San Lorenzo, and Castro Valley, including ...

, is the namesake of the city of

San Lorenzo San Lorenzo is the Italian and Spanish name for Lawrence of Rome, Saint Lawrence, the 3rd-century Christian martyr, and may refer to: Places Argentina * San Lorenzo, Santa Fe * San Lorenzo Department, Chaco * Monte San Lorenzo, a mountain on t ...

Biography

Castro was born in

Rancho San Francisco de las Llagas Rancho San Francisco de las Llagas was a Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Clara County, California given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Carlos Antonio Castro. The grant extended along Llagas Creek from about one mile south of pres ...

, near

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

, California, in

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

, to Carlos Antonio Castro. Castro was a career soldier and lieutenant of the militia in the

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

army, posted to the

Pueblo of San José San Jose, California, is the third largest city in the state, and the largest of all cities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, with a population of 1,021,795. Site chosen by Anza For thousands of years before the arrival of E ...

. He also worked as a surveyor for the government (listed as such in 1838). Three years later, in 1841, Governor Juan Alvarado granted Castro as a reward for service. The grant, called

, included much of what is today

, Hayward, and

. Soon after receiving his land grant, Castro married Luisa Peralta of the Rancho San Antonio (owned by

Luís María Peralta Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, possibly Luisa's father). The young couple received 300 cattle as a wedding gift. As a rancher, Castro added 4000 sheep and 500 horses, and in the next 7 years, 7 children. The

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

home of the couple was discovered years later beneath the foundation of the old Hayward city hall. Over the next 26 years, Castro set himself on the path to self-destruction, due to his compulsive gambling. He began selling off portions of his rancho to cover his gambling debts, finally mortgaging his property. To add to his financial problems he had to pay for lawsuits to force squatters off his land, brought by the influx of settlers from the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

. One squatter he tried to evict, and later hired, was

William Dutton Hayward William Dutton Hayward (August 31, 1815 – July 10, 1891) was the founder and namesake of the city of Hayward, California. Early life William grew up on his father’s farm where he was born, near Hopkinton, Massachusetts. In 1836 he proceeded ...

for whom the city of Hayward was later named. In 1864, sheriff I. A. Mayhew presided over the sale of the last of the rancho for 400,000 dollars to

Faxon Atherton Faxon Dean Atherton (1815–1877) was an American businessman, trader and landowner; initially successful in Valparaíso, Chile, he became a prominent citizen of San Mateo County, California. He is the namesake of Atherton, California. Early ...

. Destitute, Castro left California for

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

with his wife and younger children. A contemporary, Jacob Harlan said of Castro, "Of the Spanish Californians that I have known, Guillermo Castro was the best. He was a sparse, wiry man with brown eyes and hair and was physically active and tough. He was a splendid horseman and he was very extravagant and spent his money freely."

Castro family

Guillermo Castro was a grandson of Joaquin Ysidro de Castro, who came to the San Jose area as a member of the 1775 colonization expedition led from Mexico by

Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding fa ...

. The Castro family became one of the most numerous and important

families of

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

, and Guillermo was one of many Castro rancho grantees.

References

* http://mycastrovalley.com/history/page02.html MyCastroValley Website: Castro Valley - Don Castro - 1838 * https://web.archive.org/web/20060629065825/http://haywardareahistory.org/CastroValleyEras.html Hayward Historical Society Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Castro, Guillermo 1810 births Year of death missing Californios People of Alta California Military personnel from California People from Castro Valley, California