José María de Jesus Alviso (November 19, 1798 – June 18, 1853) was a

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

ranchero, soldier, and politician. He served as

Alcalde of San José This is a list of pre-statehood alcaldes and mayors of San Jose, from 1777 to 1850, during the Spanish, Mexican, and early American periods, prior to California's admission to statehood. Spanish era Mexican era American era See also *Ma ...

(mayor) in 1836 and was the rancho grantee for Rancho Milpitas. Alviso is considered the founder of the city of

Milpitas Milpitas (Spanish for "little milpas") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in Silicon Valley. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 80,273. The city's origins lie in Rancho Milpitas, granted to Californio ranchero José Mar ...

Biography

Alviso was born in 1798 and baptized at

Mission Santa Clara Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

. He was the son of Francisco Xavier Alviso and Maria Bojorquez, both of whom arrived in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

as children with their parents from

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the ...

on the Spanish

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 1776. His uncle was

Ignacio Alviso Juan Ignacio Alviso (1772–1848) was a Californio ranchero and soldier. He is the namesake of Alviso, a neighborhood of the city of San Jose, California. Biography Born in San Miguel de Horcasitas in what is now the Mexican state of Sonora, thr ...

. José María Alviso served as a soldier in the Spanish- and later Mexican military from 1819 to 1827. In 1826 he married Juana Galindo, daughter of Crisostomo Galindo. Governor

José Castro José Antonio Castro (1808 – February 1860) was a Californio politician, statesman, and general who served as interim Governor of Alta California and later Governor of Baja California. During the Bear Flag Revolt and the American Conquest ...

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 ...

granted a large tract of land in what is now

Milpitas, California Milpitas ( Spanish for "little milpas") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in Silicon Valley. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 80,273. The city's origins lie in Rancho Milpitas, granted to Californio ranchero José ...

on September 23, 1835 to Alviso. Alviso served as the alcalde of San José in 1836.

Identity

Confusingly, Alviso had a cousin named José María Alviso who was born in 1807 to

and Margarita Bernal and baptized at Mission Santa Clara. However, as Alviso descendant Bart Sepulveda pointed out, since the grantee of Rancho Milpitas had served as a soldier starting in 1819, a 12-year-old would be too young to be the person in question. Further clarification comes from the Supreme Court appeal ''United States v. Jose Antonio Alviso'' (1859). Ignacio's son Jose Maria was granted another rancho,

Rancho Cañada de Verde y Arroyo de la Purisima Rancho Cañada de Verde y Arroyo de la Purísima was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Mateo County, California given in 1838 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to José María Alviso. The name roughly translates to ''ranch of the green glen and ...

, in 1838. Jose Antonio Alviso was known to be Ignacio's eldest son. The appeal mentions that Jose Maria Alviso who made petition in 1838 for the rancho was his brother.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alviso, Jose Maria de Jesus 1798 births 1854 deaths Californios Land owners from California Mayors of San Jose, California People of Alta California People of Mexican California 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American businesspeople