A small group of ranchero families, mostly California-born,
emerged as the new elite of Mexican California. Their wealth and
power was based on the enormous ranchos they acquired from the Mexican
government. Each rancho grant was accompanied by a diseño
or map. The maximum legal limit for a private rancho grant was 11
square leagues--about 50,000 acres. Not even this generous limit
was always applied; some individuals received multiple grants.
Typical of the new elite was Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo,
grantee of several ranchos in present-day Solano and Sonoma counties.
Born in Monterey, Vallejo became the most prominent land-owner in
northern California. From his casa grande in the new pueblo of Sonoma,
Vallejo ruled over a feudal barony of vast lands, herds of cattle,
and a large retinue of Indian laborers.
The ranchero oligarchy was divided by personal, factional,
and sectional disputes. Rivalries between norteños and sureños
foreshadowed later disagreements between northern and southern Californians
in the twentieth century.
