Bill Weber: I am a Descendant of Luis Maria Peralta (2 of 4)
Bill Weber talks about the history of the family of his maternal great-grandmother, whose great-grandfather was Luis Maria Peralta, a sergeant in the Spanish Empire’s army, who was granted almost 45,000 acres of land in the San Francisco East Bay.
Original art by Bill Weber: ‘Hermengildo Ygnacio Peralta: my third great-grandfather,’ oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches (2016).
EaRTh: So, was Luis Maria Peralta stationed only here in the San Francisco Bay Area for 40 years? Or was he stationed in other places?
Bill Weber: Well, he came here when he was 17 years old. He was stationed in San Jose, Mission Santa Clara. And his house is still there. It's the oldest house in San Jose. It's an old adobe house. And he was there until he died.
EaRTh: And in return for his service, he received, I think it was over 44,000 acres of land, yes?
Bill Weber: Yeah, something like that.
EaRTh: And did the land extend to the mission in San Jose?
Bill Weber: No, no, it just went from the middle of San Leandro to Albany Hill in Berkeley. From the top of the hills to the [San Francisco] bay.
EaRTh: And how old was he when he received this land?
Bill Weber: I think he was around 50.
EaRTh: Do you know what he did with all that land?
Bill Weber: He gave it to his four oldest sons, and he gave the 2,000 head of cattle to his daughters.
EaRTh: But if he was 17 when he came here, where did he get all those cattle? Did he buy the cattle later?
Bill Weber: No, they brought the cattle with them from Tubak, Arizona, when they came here.
EaRTh: He was in Arizona before he came here at the age of 17? What was his family doing in Arizona?
Bill Weber: Oh, that's where they were stationed then.
EaRTh: Ah, so was that under Spanish control as well, the state of Arizona?
Bill Weber: Yeah, that's where De Anza was stationed, and he brought the settlers up to the Bay Area. [Juan Bautista de Anza, whose family was part of the military leadership in New Spain, was the governor of the province of New Mexico; his military duties consisted of hostile forays against Native Americans when he ‘explored’ much of what became the state of Arizona in the United States] They were the first settlers.
EaRTh: The first European settlers?
Bill Weber: Correct.
EaRTh: So, it was around the time of your ancestor when the settlers were coming? When the European settlers were coming into Arizona?
Bill Weber: Actually, there's the founder of Santa Fe, New Mexico; his name is Peralta, too. After going to the University of Madrid, he came here in the late 1500s; he was the founder of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1608. I don't know if they're related or not, but it's a good possibility they could be related.
EaRTh: So, you believe that your ancestors… well, you don't know if they're related to this person, but you think they came directly from Spain back then?
Bill Weber: Yeah, I'm pretty sure they came back in the 1500s.
EaRTh: Okay, but that's 200 years earlier than when Luis Maria Peralta lived, right?
Bill Weber: Yeah. Before he came here. So, they had been in this area for some time.
EaRTh: I see. And is he from your paternal or your maternal side?
Bill Weber: From my mother. My mother's father's side.
EaRTh: And how do you know this history of your family? Who told you?
Bill Weber: My great-grandmother, who was Luis Maria Peralta's third great-granddaughter [i.e., Luis Maria Peralta was Bill Weber’s great-grandmother’s great-grandfather]. Hermengildo Ygnacio Peralta was one of the sons of Luis Maria Peralta. Jose Jesus Albino Peralta was one of the sons of Ygnacio Peralta. And my great-grandmother was the daughter of Ygnacio Peralta.
Original art by Bill Weber: ‘Jose Jesus Albino Peralta: my second great-grandfather,’ oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches (2020).
EaRTh: Did you learn your family’s history directly from your great-grandmother? Was she alive when you were a child?
Bill Weber: Yeah, she died when I was 13, so she told me stories about the family.
EaRTh: And where did your family live? Or when she was alive, where did she live, your great-grandmother?
Bill Weber: In Alameda.
EaRTh: Did the Peraltas have a house there as well?
Bill Weber: No, no. No, they didn't.
EaRTh: By the time of your great-grandmother, I take it that the family had branched out from your original ancestor who came to the San Francisco Bay Area?
Bill Weber: Yeah, and the Peraltas lost most of their land during the gold rush from squatters.
EaRTh: Can you describe which squatters?
Bill Weber: Well, during the gold rush, people came and they squatted on their land and killed [my ancestors'] cattle to eat.
EaRTh: Oh, he didn't have enough people to guard his cattle?
Bill Weber: No, there were only a few Peraltas. They couldn't police all these hundreds of people coming.
EaRTh: So, there were a few transitions after your ancestor came here. There was a Mexican-Spanish war, yes? Do you remember when that was?
Bill Weber: I don't remember. Yeah, that was right before the gold rush.
EaRTh: So, it was in the 1800s?
Bill Weber: I can't remember exactly, but that's when the United States took control of California.
Box 1: Historical Context of the Mexican War of Independence, the Mexican-American War, and Land Acquisition (provided by EaRTh)
The Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821) was a series of revolts that grew out of the mounting political turmoil in Spain and Mexico in the early 1800s. Spain became burdened with increasing war debts and a deepening economic crisis, as a result of Spain’s participation in the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. So, the Spanish empire turned to its American colonies to replenish its coffers through extracting colonial revenues. Various factions in the Spanish American colonies rebelled to further their own disparate interests. Eventually, in 1821, Spain granted Mexico independence. [1]
Emerging from three centuries of Spanish colonialism and a long war of national liberation, the new republic of Mexico was unstable and impoverished, leaving it vulnerable to the United States’ policy of imperialism. In the early 1940s, US politicians and businessmen enticed Euro-Americans to settle in the Mexican province of California, while laying the groundwork for military conquest. US expeditions illegally entered Mexican California in early 1846, just before the US declared war against Mexico. The US army occupied Mexico City until the Mexican government agreed to cede its northern territories (including Alta (upper) California), codified in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1850, California acquired US statehood.
In the United States, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 set forth a colonization procedure for annexation via military occupation, territorial status, and finally statehood. Statehood was conditional on European settlers outnumbering the Indigenous population, which in the cases of the Mexican cession area and the Louisiana Purchase territory required decimation or forced removal of Indigenous populations. Unique among European colonial models, in the US system, land was the most important exchange commodity for the accumulation of capital and establishing the national treasury. [2]
[1] J. de la Teja, Mexican War of Independence, Texas State Historical Association (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mexican-war-of-independence).
[2] R. Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Beacon Press (Boston), pp. 121-124 (2014).
Other parts of this series
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bill Weber (he) is a muralist and surrealist artist (also known as “El Gallo”), who explores multiple themes in his art, including the impact of human beings on our ecologies.
Europe | Spain, Germany
United States
Kakoli Mitra (she) is the founder of the Śramani Institute, working to realize the interconnected wellbeing of humans and ecologies. She integrates her expertise in (Euro reductionist) science and law, grassroots changemaking, and Indigenous ways of being into her work.
South Asia | Bengal
United States
Śramani Institute
