Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné

Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné (1766? – June 11, 1878) was a Californio who was mayordoma of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and grantee of Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual in the San Rafael Hills, in present-day Los Angeles County, California. She claimed to have been born in 1766, if so making her 112 years old at the time of her death in 1878, but her case has not been verified or fully proven.

Life

Early years

Eulalia Pérez was born in Loreto, the capital on the Baja California Peninsula of the Las Californias Province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (in what is today the modern Mexican state of Baja California Sur), to Diego Pérez of Salamanca, Spain and Antonia Rosalia Cotes (or Cota) thought to be mulatta. Macedonio Gonzalez, one of Eulalia's nephews, knew Antonia Cota as Lucia Valenzuela according to Eulalia's English-born son-in-law and author Michael C. White, aka: Miguel Blanco. 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.

Rancho del Rincon del San Pascual

Map of Mexico by S. Augustus Mitchell (Philadelphia, 1847) that shows "New California" with north-eastern border at meridian leading north of Rio Grande headwaters: Mexico's rule over California greatly affected Eulalia's life.

When she retired, Mexican Governor José Figueroa rewarded Pérez as the grantee of the Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual with her husband Juan Mariné. Rancho San Pascual encompasses the present day cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and San Marino. This had been part of the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieleño Native Americans for thousands of years. Within the independent Mexican territory of Alta California, as a woman Pérez was unable to have ownership of property in her own name, so she married retired Mexican artillery lieutenant Juan Mariné (d. 1836). (According to descendants, the fathers at San Gabriel Mission made her the grant under Spanish rule; when Mexico acquired Alta California, Pérez then married Juan Mariné because Mexican law did not allow women to own land.

She spent many years of her remaining life in the homes of various daughters, including that of Maria Rita de Guillén de la Ossa, wife of Jose Vicente de la Ossa, owner of Rancho de los Encinos, foundation of Encino, California. (What remains of that rancho is now Los Encinos State Historic Park. )

Death

Pérez died in the Los Angeles area on June 11, 1878. Her death certificate, located in the Santa Ana courthouse, records that she lived to be 140, but descendants for the most part agree on more conservative figures like 110 or 112 years old, Alexander Howison Murray Jr. (1907–1993), twice mayor of Placerville Patricia Murray Chambers (1936–2007) Victoria Duarte Cordova, California genealogist and historian, (1912–2005)