Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné

Infobox Person
name = Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné

---

image_size = 230px
birth_date = 1766
birth_place = Loreto, Baja California
death_date = 1878 (age 112)
death_place = Los Angeles, California
occupation = Mayordoma
spouse = Miguel Antonio de Guillén
Juan Mariné (1833-1836)
parents = Diego Pérez
Antonia Rosalía Cota
children = Rita de la Osa

Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné (1766 – 1878) was a supercentenarian Californio who was "mayordoma" of Missión San Gabriel Arcángel and owner of Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual, in present day Los Angeles area of Southern California.

Biography

Pérez was born in Loreto, Baja California (then capital of Las Californias), to Diego Pérez of Spain and Antonia Rosalía Cota (but named as Lucía Valenzuela by Miguel Blanco).Fact|date=February 2008 Diego Pérez was a ship captain, thought to come from Salamanca—family members have been unable to trace records of his commission through the Archivo General de Indias or in Loreto, which has been ravaged by hurricanes over the centuries. Her siblings were Teresa, Petra, Juana, Josefa, Bernardo, and León. According to family lore, Capitan Pérez taught his daughter how to read and write, a fact later important to her survival and eventual prominence. She married a sergeant named Miguel Antonio Guillén in the Spanish army and moved with him—on foot, in those days—to Alta California with her children Petra, Isidoro, and Domingo after his return from San Diego where he had earlier helped found the Presidio of San Diego. Miguel died while serving in the garrison at San Diego, leaving Pérez with several children.

Missión San Gabriel

Pérez managed to obtain employment at Missión San Gabriel, initially as cook and midwife for those such as Governor Pío Pico.cite book | last=White | first=Michael C. | coauthors=Savage, Thomas | title=California all the way back to 1828 |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk080)) | location=Los Angeles | publisher=G. Dawson | year=1956 | oclc=1883045] She was eventually made "keeper of the keys" of the missión itself. When she retired, the fathers at San Gabriel rewarded Pérez with Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual, [cite book | last=Kielbasa | first=John R | url=http://www.laokay.com/halac/FloresAdobe.htm | title=Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County | location=Pittsburgh, PA | publisher=Dorrance Pub. | year=1997 | isbn=080594172X] now the cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and San Marino, California. [cite web | url=http://www.californiaweekly.com/ca_ranchos.htm | title=California Ranchos by County | publisher=California Weekly Explorer | accessdate=2007-05-25] This land had belonged to Tongva-speaking Native Americans, often referred to as "Gabrieleños". With the Mexican conquest of California, as a woman, Pérez was unable to keep ownership of property in her own name, so she married a retired Mexican army lieutenant Juan Mariné (d. 1836). [cite web | url=http://www.cagenweb.com/re/losangeles/langetim.htm | title=Los Angeles Area Timeline | publisher=CaGenWeb | author=Aileen Fish Underwood | date=2006-04-25 | accessdate=2007-05-25] According to her descendants, Mariné and his sons lost all the land in a short time by gambling.

Pérez spent many years of her remaining life in the homes of various daughters, including that of Rita de Guillén de la Ossa, wife of Vicente de la Ossa, owner of Rancho de los Encinos, foundation of Encino, California. What remains of that 100-acre rancho is now Los Encinos State Historic Park. [cite web | url=http://los-encinos.org/ | title=Los Encinos State Historic Park | publisher=State of California | author=Los Encinos Docents Association | accessdate=2007-05-25] [cite web | url=http://www.kcet.org/lifeandtimes/archives/200710/20071010.php | title=Life and Times, episode on Los Encinos, first aired October 10, 2007 | publisher=KCET | author=KCET | accessdate=2007-10-12]

Pérez died in the Los Angeles area in 1878. Her death certificate, located in the Los Angeles County courthouse in Santa Ana records that she lived to be 140, but descendants for the most part agree on a more conservative 112 years, making her a "famous centenarian of the early California and of U.S. history. She is buried with the priests in the Mission San Gabriel, a highly unusual honor at that time for a woman: a marble bench inscribed with her name marks the spot. [cite web | url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Perez&GSfn=Eulalia+&GSiman=1&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSdy=1878&GSdyrel=all&GSst=6&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=7889032& | title=Eulalia Perez Guillen | publisher=Find A Grave | accessdate=2007-05-25] Her numerous descendants married into the Californios or founding Spanish families of old Southern California, including son-in-law Michael C. White who is also known as Miguel Blanco.

References

*cite book | last=White | first=Michael C. | coauthors=Savage, Thomas | title=California all the way back to 1828 | url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk080)) | location=Los Angeles | publisher=G. Dawson | year=1956 | oclc=1883045
*cite book | last=Vargas | first=Zaragosa | coauthors= | title=Major problems in Mexican American history | location=Boston | publisher=Houghton Mifflin Co. | year=1999 | isbn=0395845556
*cite book | last=Mintz | first=Steven | coauthors= | title=Mexican American Voices | location=St. James, NY | publisher=Brandywine Press | year=2000 | isbn=1881089444
*cite book | last=Híjar, Carlos; Pérez, E.; Escobar, A.;Savage, T. | title=Three memoirs of Mexican California | url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/mexican_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=28 | location=Berkeley, CA | publisher=University of California, Berkeley| year=1988 | oclc=18444155
*cite book | last=Lindley | first=Walter | coauthors=Joseph Pomery Widney | title=California of the South: Its Geography, Climate, Resources, Routes of Travel, and Health-Resorts being a complete guide-book to Southern California | location=New York | publisher=D. Appleton and Company | year=1888 | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=a_0dAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PPA154,M1

External links

* "The Reminiscences of Eulalia Pérez" in "The Californians", The Magazine of California History (Grizzly Publications)
* [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/03/29_californiawomen.shtml UC Berkeley News "California women's "Collective Voice" exhibit"] ( [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/multimedia/2005/04/slideshow_pt1.swf slideshow] )
* [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2005/03/31_women.shtml Exploration, research, activism, and other women’s work]
* [http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.com/publications/index/subject/p.html Pérez de Guillén, Eulalia] California History Quarterly 52:71-75; 53:141
* [http://www.biblio.com/browse_books/catalog/87495/7875.html California's Centenarian: Eulalia Pérez de Guillén] National Genealogical Society Quarterly June 1962, Volume 50 Number 2 (Washington, DC: National Genealogical Society, 1962)
* [http://www.kcet.org/lifeandtimes/archives/200710/20071010.php Life and Times] episode on Los Encinos, first aired October 10, 2007
* [http://orion.ramapo.edu/~kfowler/wwf04assignments.html Dr. Kathleen Fowler]
* [http://www.ca-missions.org/bouvier.html California Mission Studies Association]
* [http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~nmirabal/raza376.htm Professor Nancy Raquel Mirabal]
* [http://history.acusd.edu/gen/projects/women/5aft.html University of San Diego] Department of History
* [http://www.wam.umd.edu/~aprodrig/span223.html Dr. Ana Patricia Rodríguez]
* [http://www.cagenweb.com/cpl/ndgwda.htm DeGuillén, Eulalia Pérez (Doña)] Native Daughters of the Golden West - California Pioneer Project
* [http://www.saintelizabethchurch.org/default.cfm/PID=10.11.1.3 St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church] of Altadena CA
* [http://historicparks.org/imagegallery/delaosa/pages/eulalia_jpg.htm Eulalia Pérez, Mother of Rita De La Ossa] The De La Ossa Family Photograph Collection
* [http://www.azcentral.com/culturesaz/families/ossaletter.html Article] on the history of Eulalia's grandson Antonio De La Ossa (1838-1902)
* Obituary of [http://www.sfgenealogy.com/spanish/obitsg.htm Florestina de la Ossa Gilbert] , also cited [http://www.somosprimos.com/sp2004/spapr04/spapr04.htm here] , (186?-1955), granddaughter
* Obituary of [http://www.boulevardsentinel.com/02-2004.htm Joe Northrop] (1918-2003), great-grandson of Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné and former president of the Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society
* Obituary for [http://www.patmchambers.org/ Patricia Murray Chambers] (1936-2007), great-great-great granddaughter: [http://obits.cleveland.com/WashingtonPost/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=91126441 Washington Post] , [http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/local/obit_detail.htm?obitID=22139 Frederick News Post] , [http://www.mtdemocrat.com/articles/2007/07/23/obituaries/670_chambers.txt Mountain Democrat] (Placerville, CA)
* [http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/History/default.asp City of Pasadena]
* " [http://books.google.com/books?id=djEgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=bench+%22san+gabriel%22+eulalia&source=web&ots=9pmhIP0BlD&sig=7tMVQz-sl84dSyhf8fS8_Y74jNU Tales of California Yesterday] " by Rose L. Ellerbe (Los Angeles: Warren T. Potter, 1916), "Three Cooks of San Gabriel," pp. 11-17
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=mtm90kfdNeMC&pg=PA86&ots=EEtvCa-CjX&dq=bench+%22san+gabriel%22+eulalia&sig=ECjoenUiwj-hOPJt-SbxaLDMxuo Hometown Pasadena: The Insider's Guide] by Colleen Dunn Bates (Pasadena: Prospect Park Books, 2006) p. 86