Apolinaria Lorenzana
Apolinaria Lorenzana (1793–1884) was a Californio woman of the 19th century who was brought to the western part of the Mexican Cession in the area of present-day California.
She was one of several girls sent from an orphanage to become a wife of presidio soldiers, but she remained single throughout her life.
[3] In 1800, she was one of 19 girls and boys that traveled to San Blas on the Pacific Coast, and then sailed on the Rey la Concepción, a frigate, to Monterey in Alta California.
[1] Lorenzana acquired the nickname la beata (the pious one[2] or sister of charity[5]) and had many skills to serve the Catholic missions.
In 1836, Rancho Jamul near San Diego was attacked by Native Americans, followed by retaliation by the Californios.
[1][d] In addition to her work as a teacher, religious leader, and nurse, she supervised the purchase of food from incoming ships and became the llavera, head housekeeper at the mission.
They subjected the natives to unaccustomed labor, unsanitary living conditions, exposure to disease, and a disruption of family ties, social relationships, and cultural values.
[3] The mission at San Diego was secularized following the deaths and movement of Indigenous people out of the area due to disease, harsh working conditions, and cultural changes.
She primarily lived and worked at the mission for the few people that were there and sometimes visited her farm and ranch that a foreman managed.
She was in San Juan Capistrano when United States troops, led by General Stephen Watts Kearny and Commadoree Robert F. Stockton, passed through the San Diego area and her ranches on their way to Los Angeles (about in December 1846).
According to Hubert Howe Bancroft, an American historian, Lorenzana lost the ranch through "some legal hocus-pocus that the old woman never understood."
[6] She received a grant to a small tract called Rancho de los Coches by Governor Manuel Micheltorena in 1843.
[3] Lorenzana died on April 11, 1884, in Santa Barbara and was buried at the Catholic Church.
