What happened during the Rancho Period?
Upon Mexican independence in 1821 many of the new nation’s people looked to California to satisfy their thirst for private land. By the mid-1830s the missions had been secularized, with a series of governors doling out hundreds of free land grants. This process gave birth to the rancho system. The new landowners were called rancheros or Califomios; they prospered quickly and became the social, cultural and political fulcrums of California. The average rancho was 16,000 acres in size and largely given over to live stock to supply the trade in hide and tallow. Enterprising rancheros often sold 75,000 or more hides a year, for an average price of $2 each. Although some made fortunes they paid no taxes and footed the bill for no public works projects – they were largely it literate and usually lived in nonpermanent dwellings without wooden floors, window or running water. Schools were nonexistent too. Most of the work was done by mestizo born of European and Indian parents, and the Indians
