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Chapter 3:
Mexican Period
Townspeople from San Diego took advantage
of their right to the water of the San Diego
River. They drew their drinking water from the
river
— or from under it when it ran upside
down — and they planted gardens in Mission
Valley using water from the river for irrigation.
THE END OF THE MEXICAN ERA
Mexico ceded California and the southwest
territory to the United States following the U.S.-
Mexican War (1846-1848), with the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo. Again, in spite of blood-
shed elsewhere, the changeover in the San
Diego region was generally peaceful. Former
Mexican citizens stayed on for the most part,
although many of them lost title to all or part
of their land.
As part of the Treaty, the city of San Diego
took clai
m to 47,323 acres of pueblo land
from Mexico — the largest tract of land
clai
med by any city in California.
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The Treaty
specifically referred to the historical land and
water rights of the pueblo. Eventually, the city
would pay great attention to that language
(Chapter 6). In the beginning, however, the
new Americans had to deal
with other more
i
mmediate water supply problems.
MILESTONES IN SAN DIEGO’S MEXICAN PERIOD
Old Town — view from Presidio Hill, 1874
The San Diego Historical
Society
1821
Mexico won independence from Spain.
1822 Town or “pueblo” (later to be called
“Old Town”)
was developed at the base
of Presidio Hill.
1824
Mexico became a republic and
distributed large land grants.
Hide traders with Boston shoemakers
were the only real contact with the U.S.
1834 The population of the town of San Diego
was 520 and 7,294 Native Americans
were counted in the region. The town
of San Diego received pueblo status.
1841 Town population dropped to 150 as
people received land grants for ranchos.
1842
Missions were secularized.
1846 U.S.-Mexican War began (U.S. fought
Mexico for control of Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona and California.)