Rancho San Andrés was a

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...

in present-day

Santa Cruz County, California Santa Cruz County (), officially the County of Santa Cruz, is a county on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,861. The county seat is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County comprises the Santa ...

given in 1833 by Governor

José Figueroa José Figueroa (1792 – 29 September 1835), was a General and the Mexican Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835. He wrote the first book to be published in California. Background and governorship Figueroa was a Mestizo of Spanish a ...

José Joaquín Castro José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

. The grant on

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by a ...

extended from La Selva Beach on the north to Watsonville Slough on the south.

Rancho Aptos Rancho Aptos was a Mexican land grant in present day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to Rafael Castro. The grant on the Monterey Bay was immediately downcoast of his sister, Martina Castro's Rancho Soque ...

of his son Rafael Castro formed the north boundary of the grant.

History

José Joaquín Castro (1768–1838), the son of Joaquin Ysidro de Castro and Maria Marina Botiller, had come as a boy with his family to California from Mexico with the

De Anza Expedition 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 ...

in 1775. His brother José Mariano Castro (1765–1828) was the grantee of Rancho Las Animas; his brother Carlos Antonio Castro (b.1775) was the grantee of

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 ...

; and his brother Francisco María Castro (1775 - 1831) was the grantee of

Rancho San Pablo Rancho San Pablo was a land grant in present-day Contra Costa County, California given in 1823 by Governor Luís Antonio Argüello to Francisco María Castro (1775–1831), a former soldier at the San Francisco Presidio and one-time ''alcalde'' ...

. Jose Joaquin Castro, after serving as a soldier for 13 years, came with his wife Maria Antonia Amador (1780–1827) to settle the new community of

Villa de Branciforte Branciforte, originally named Villa de Branciforte, was the last of only three secular ''pueblos'' founded by the Spanish colonial government of Alta California. The pueblo was established in 1797 on the eastern bluff of the San Lorenzo River, fac ...

in 1798. Maria Antonia Amador died in 1827, and Castro married Maria Rosario Briones (b. 1816) in 1830. Castro received the two square league Rancho San Andrés grant in 1833. In 1838, José Joaquín Castro died of smallpox. With the

cession The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdictio ...

of California to the United States following the

Mexican-American War Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexicans, Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% ...

, the 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...

provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho San Andrés was filed with the

Public Land Commission The California Land Act of 1851 (), enacted following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the admission of California as a state in 1850, established a three-member Public Land Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican la ...

in 1853, and the grant was

patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

to Guadalupe Castro and Juan José Castro et al. (the 13 children of José Joaquín Castro) in 1876. After the patent was issued, there was a boundary dispute with José Amesti's Rancho Los Corralitos which adjoined Rancho San Andrés on the east. In 1873, a partition suit (''Briody vs. Hale'') was brought and Rancho San Andrés was subdivided.

Historic sites of the Rancho

Castro Adobe The Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe is a historically and architecturally significant house located in the Pájaro Valley, California. The two-story Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe is a historic rancho hacienda that was built between 1848-49. Hi ...

. Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe.Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rancho San Andres San Andres San Andres San And