PD Editorial: An overdue honor for General Mariano Vallejo

No one is more deserving of a statue in Sonoma’s Plaza than Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo.

Vallejo, whose life spanned the Spanish, Mexican and American eras of California, laid out the historic plaza in 1835 and lived nearby for the rest of his life.

His influence on California’s history spread far beyond Sonoma.

Vallejo’s father escorted Spanish missionary Junipero Serra to San Francisco in 1776. Vallejo was born in 1807 in Monterey and studied under the supervision of the last Spanish colonial governor, with tutoring in English, French and Latin. In his book “Americans and the California Dream,” historian Kevin Starr describes him as “an anomaly in Old California, a native-born citizen with an education.”

As with many leaders of his era, Vallejo was a soldier. He also was a rancher, a philanthropist, a politician and, for a time, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in California. Ultimately, he was a tragic character, losing his fortune and living out his days in relative obscurity. In contemporary California, his surname is better known than his role in shaping the state.

But in the mid-19th century, Vallejo and his adopted home shared the spotlight.

“Sonoma was the prominent place. San Francisco didn’t exist. At the time, it was still Yerba Buena,” said Martha Vallejo McGettigan, an independent historian and the general’s great-great granddaughter. “All the important things that happened pretty much happened in Sonoma.”

Vallejo arrived in 1834 when Mission Saint Francis Solano was secularized by the Mexican government. He established a military garrison, paying troops out of his own pocket for 10 years. As director of colonization, he was solely empowered to grant land in Northern California, where his responsibilities included checking any Russian ambitions for a presence beyond Fort Ross.

Vallejo’s influence, and Sonoma’s prominence, waned after the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846.

Even though he had broken with the Mexican government and welcomed American pioneers, Vallejo was arrested at his home and confined for two months at Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento.

He lost much of his livestock during his confinement, and squatters soon claimed most of his property despite the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which guaranteed protection for landholdings when California was transferred from Mexico to the United States in 1848.

While he unsuccessfully tried to regain his land, eventually losing in the U.S. Supreme Court, Vallejo helped draft California’s first constitution. He served one term in the state Senate, and he offered money for public buildings and a university. In a final setback, Sacramento became the permanent state capital rather than Vallejo or Benicia, a town named for the general’s wife.

This past week, the Sonoma City Council unanimously voted to place a statue of Vallejo in the plaza he established 180 years. It’s a fitting tribute for one of California’s founders, but it shouldn’t be the last one. Gov. Jerry Brown should include Vallejo among this year’s inductees to the California Hall of Fame. That honor is long overdue.