Rancho Los Tularcitos was a
Spanish land concession in present day
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...
given in 1821 to José Loreto Higuera by the last Spanish governor of Alta California,
Pablo Vicente de Solá. The land grant was confirmed by Mexican Governor
Juan Alvarado in 1839. The name means "place of the little
Tule thickets". The rancho, in what is today central and northern
Milpitas, extended from the confluence of Calera and
Penitencia Creeks in the northwest to a large live oak tree that marked its southeastern corner. South of Rancho Los Tularcitos was the land of the
Pueblo of San José.
History
Ygnacio Anastacio Higuera (1753–1805) came to California with the
De Anza Expedition
Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was a Novohispanic/Mexican expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as on ...
of 1776. Along the way, Ygnacio Higuera married Maria Micaela Bojorquez (1762–1794). Ygnacio Higuera was a soldier at the
Presidio of San Francisco
The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part ...
. He moved to the Pueblo of San José, and was killed in 1805. Ygnacio's son, Jose Loreto Higuera (1778–1845), married Maria Pilar Sanchez (1778–1811) in 1794. After she died, José Higuera married Ramona Bernal (1794–1831) in 1813.
Between 1817 and 1822, Spanish Governor Sola made several land grants, and José Loreto Higuera was awarded Rancho Los Tularcitos in 1821. José Higuera married Ramona Garcia (1812 - ) in 1832. In 1836 José Loreto Higuera's son, Fulgencio Higuera, was the grantee of
Rancho Agua Caliente. In 1843, his son Valentin Higuera was the grantee of
Rancho Pescadero. The Rancho Los Tularcitos land grant to Jose Higuera was confirmed by Mexican Governor Alvarado in 1839.
With the
cession of California to the United States following the
Mexican-American War
Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...
, the 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo.
After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...
provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Los Tularcitos was filed with the
Public Land Commission
The California Land Act of 1851 (), enacted following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the admission of California as a state in 1850, established the California State Lands Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican l ...
in 1852, and the grant
patented
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
to Antonia Higuera et al., the heirs of Jose Higuera in 1870.
The beginning of the break-up of the rancho is said to have begun with the land given to José Loreto Higuera's grand daughter, daughter of Valentin Higuera, Maria Margarita Higuera, when she married Nicolas Chavarria. Henry Curtner (1830–1917) purchased Rancho Tularcitos in 1868.
Historic sites of the Rancho
*José Higuera Adobe. Soon after being given the land, José Higuera built a one story adobe for what would be, his fourteen children from three marriages.
Higuera Adobe
/ref>
References
{{California history
Los Tularcitos
Buildings and structures in Milpitas, California
Los
Los