Luis Manuel Quintero

Family Quintero's wife María Petra Rubio was born near 1741 and came from Álamos, Sonora. The Quintero family traveled from Sonora to Alta California to be one of the founding families of the new Spanish pueblo in 1781 being escorted along with other settlers and soldiers by Fernando Rivera y Moncada. When Captain Rivera assembled his crew of soldiers and settlers in Álamos in January 1781, Luis Quintero's destiny was already tied to the historic expedition about to take place. assertedIt might be well to add that the pobladores Lara and Quintero both were released from the pueblo of Los Angeles after they had made “repeated requests,” as Neve had put it. They were not thrown out of the pueblo, as implied by most secondary sources. Mesa, too, was included in the request at his own instigation. Whether he left voluntarily or not, he choose to live out his life as a tailor in Santa Barbara. It is also to be noted the two families expelled were the only ones of African descent.

Three of Luis’ daughters had married soldiers who were attached to the Expedition of 1781. All three of these soldiers (José Rosalino Fernández, Joaquin Rodríguez, and Eugenio Valdés) were destined to be stationed at the Santa Barbara Presidio in the Spring of 1782. It is possible that the Quintero family hoped to be closer to those daughters. Luis Quintero lived out the remaining 28 years of his life as a member of the budding Santa Barbara community, serving as the maestro sastre (master tailor) for the soldiers at the presidio.