Pío Pico
| Pío de Jesús Pico | |
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 16th Governor of Alta California
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In office 1832–1832 |
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| Preceded by | Manuel Victoria |
| Succeeded by |
Agustín V. Zamorano (north) & José María de Echeandía (south) |
 26th Governor of Alta California
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In office 1845–1846 |
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| Preceded by | Manuel Micheltorena |
| Succeeded by | John Drake Sloat (military governor) |
 Los Angeles Common Councilman
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In office 1853–1853 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 5, 1801 Mission San Gabriel Arcángel |
| Died | September 11, 1894 (aged 93) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Spouse(s) | María Ignacia Alvarado |
| Relations | Andrés Pico |
| Profession | Entrepreneur, politician |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Pío de Jesús Pico (May 5, 1801 – September 11, 1894) was a Californio rancher and politician, the last governor of Alta California (now the State of California) under Mexican rule. He served from 1845 to 1846. He was also elected to one term (1853) on the Los Angeles Common Council.
Pico was a first-generation Californio, born in Alta California to parents who emigrated from the part of New Spain that is now Mexico. He was born at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to José María Pico and his wife María Eustaquia Gutiérrez, with the aid of midwife Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné. His paternal grandmother, María Jacinta de la Bastida, was listed in the 1790 census as mulata, meaning mixed race with African ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Santiago de la Cruz Pico, was described as a Mestizo (Native American-Spanish) in the same census. Santiago de la Cruz Pico was one of the soldiers who accompanied Juan Bautista de Anza on the expedition that left Tubac, Arizona for California in 1775 to explore the region and colonize it. Pio Pico and his siblings were thus of Spanish, African and Native American ancestry.
After the death of his father in 1819, Pico settled in San Diego, California. He married María Ignacia Alvarado there on February 24, 1834. His younger brother was Gen. Andrés Pico.
John Bidwell, an early California settler, mentioned Pico among the people he knew:
"Los Angeles I first saw in March, 1845. It then had probably 250 people, of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple, Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill, Lemuel Carpenter, David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pio Pico (governor), Don Juan Bandini, and others."
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Wikipedia