Claudio López (1767 – 1 January 1833) was a

Californio Californios (singular Californio) are Californians of Spaniards, Spanish descent, especially those descended from settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish language in C ...

politician who served as mayordomo of

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel Mission San Gabriel Arcángel () is a Californian mission and historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. It was founded by the Spanish Empire on the Nativity of Mary September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one Spanish mi ...

and Alcalde of Los Angeles.

Biography

Claudio López was born in 1767 in

San José del Cabo San José del Cabo (, ''Saint Joseph of the Cape'') is a coastal city located on the Gulf of California coast, near the southern tip of Baja California Sur (state), México. San José del Cabo is situated on the edge of a shallow bay, some northea ...

. His parents, Ignacio López and María Facunda López, were members of the prominent and wealthy López family, descended from Castilian aristocracy. He had four siblings: Juan, Juan Francisco, María Francisca, and María de la Encarnación. López was the Mayordomo of San Gabriel for more than thirty years, serving under Frs. José María de Zalvidea and José Bernardo Sánchez. As Mayordomo, he was responsible for managing the affairs of the mission, including its orchards, vineyards, and warehouses, and overseeing the native laborers. He also supervised the various ranchos subordinate to the mission, such as

San Bernardino San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

, Ucaipe, El Chino, San Jose, Cucamonga, Santa Anita, Rosa de Castilla, and San Pasqual. His success at this made him a locally popular figure, with contemporary writer Hugo Reid remarking that, unlike most mission officials, López achieved his successes "without flogging". For his work as Mayordomo, López was granted the use of a rancho, which he named Santa Anita in honor of Anita Cota, whom he hoped to marry. After Anita's death, López instead married her cousin María Luisa Cota on 20 April 1789. The couple had two children: Estevan López and Maria Ygnecia Valenzuela. In 1826, López became

Alcalde ''Alcalde'' (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...

-Mayor of the

Pueblo de Los Ángeles El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, shortened to the Pueblo de los Ángeles, was the Spanish colonial pueblos and villas in North America, Spanish civilian ''pueblo'' settled in 1781, which became the ...

. He served a single term, and afterwards continued as Mayordomo of San Gabriel until his death in 1833.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Claudio 1767 births 1833 deaths People of Alta California Mayors of Los Angeles People from San José del Cabo