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