April 21 marks the 243rd anniversary of the founding of El Presidio de Santa Bárbara — the Spanish birthplace of our town in the year 1782.
There is plenty of interesting history that swirls around our Presidio. Locally, it was transformative.
After 40 years, the Presidio became part of Mexico as an independent nation in 1821. While the Hispano population of Santa Barbara was small at that time, the introduction of agriculture, horticulture, livestock in the thousands had altered the environment.
Interred in the Presidio Chapel is the son of Chumash Chief Yanonali, a reminder of the indigenous heritage of our region. Also buried in the chapel are the first immigrant citizens from Mexico, whose descendants are still among us today.
And we have our ties to Spain through the monarchy to remind us of our international connections.
Present on April 21, 1782, at the founding ceremony were Felipe de Neve, governor of the Californias; Father Junípero Serra (now a saint); Presidio Comandante José Francisco Ortega; soldiers and their families; and Chumash Indians.
Father Serra celebrated a mass and sang the Alabado, an ancient song of devotional praise.
The Santa Barbara Presidio was the last in a series of military fortifications established by the Spanish in North America, marking the culmination of Spain’s northward expansion from Mexico into Alta California.
Beginning in the 16th century, a cordon of presidios was established from California, across Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and even up the Mississippi River.
Presidios were the primary institutions for the Hispano migration from Mexico into our region, an immigration that continues, to our day.
The soldiers and their families were a diverse people. In Santa Barbara’s case, only one of the soldiers was actually born in Spain, with the remaining being a mix of Spanish, Indian and African DNA.
At the time of the founding, Carlos III was the king of Spain, and his is a history that connects to Santa Barbara and California in very interesting ways.
Carlos is considered the best of the 18th century “Enlightened Despots” who promoted the Enlightenment in his country.
The Enlightenment period, with its emphasis on reason and science, had its origins in England and France in the 16th and 17th centuries.
This movement even had an impact on Santa Barbara, which under royal orders carried out by de Neve and the second Presidio comandante, Felipe Goicoechea, required that Chumash Indians remain in their villages rather than being brought to the missions in an attempt to reduce church control over the indigenous population.
In fact, there was no mission in Santa Barbara until 1786, albeit Chumash Indians did end up at Missions Santa Bárbara, La Purísima and Santa Inés. This happened primarily after 1800 when changes in policy and leadership came into play.
Carlos III was descended from the Bourbon line. His father, Felipe V, was the grandson of the French Sun King, Louis XIV, and his mother was Elisabeth Farnese of Parma, Italy, who was Felipe’s second wife.
Born in Madrid, Carlos would turn out to be very loyal to his Spain but first he spent his early years in Italy as the king of Naples and Sicily, where he reigned for more than two decades.
His tenure there is notable for bringing his Enlightenment ideas into practice, not least of which was to have an impact centuries later in California.
It was Carlos who commenced major archaeological investigations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. One of the sites partially uncovered at Herculaneum was Villa dei Papiri, which was to become the model for the Getty Villa Museum in Pacific Palisades.
Modern archaeology was born at these classical sites in Italy as they were carefully mapped and the provenance of artifacts recorded.
This made possible a reasonable recreation of the Getty Villa, even to the point of having statues uncovered at the Villa dei Papiri copied and then placed in the same location at the Getty Villa.
An interesting aside is art historian Norman Neuerburg, who was hired by J. Paul Getty to help design his villa in the 1970s. Ten years later, in 1984, I was involved with hiring him to design the interior of the rebuilt Santa Barbara Presidio Chapel.
The talented Neuerburg was an expert in both Classical and Spanish Colonial art and architecture.
Upon the 1759 death of his brother, Ferdinand VI, Carlos the Bourbon King of Naples and Sicily became Spanish King Carlos III.
With his two most successful ministers, Floridablanca and Campomanes, he proceeded to introduce economic changes based on Enlightenment ideas that led to what has been called a “mini-industrial revolution.”
He also opened free trade from various Spanish ports with Mexico and used tariffs to raise funds to support his upgrading of the infrastructure of the country.
But he also put his country into debt coming out on the short end of the Seven Years’ War that included the loss of Florida and Cuba to Great Britain.
Interestingly, he overcome this problem by sending a talented young minister named José de Gálvez to the New Spain (Mexico) as visitor general with orders to implement needed changes in the administration of the empire.
Gálvez was highly successful, one might say the Elon Musk of his day, as income from New Spain nearly tripled during his seven years there.
These funds enabled Carlos to support the American Revolution with supplies and weaponry, not to mention financing his nephew, Bernardo de Gálvez, who defeated the British in key battles in Florida during this time period.
Unfortunately, Spain after Carlos III went into steep decline, engaging in a financially draining Peninsular War against Napoleon, then losing most of its empire to independence movements in Latin America in the 1820s, a disastrous war with the United States in 1898, a civil war that cost the lives of a million Spaniards in the 1930s, and ending with the 25-year Franco dictatorship.
With Franco’s death in 1975, however, Spain became a democracy with the Bourbon King restored in Juan Carlos.
That also brings our story back to Santa Barbara and the 1980s. Thanks to a group of volunteers and community leaders, the Santa Barbara Presidio had the quixotic dream in the 1960s of restoring the complex.
Led by Pearl Chase and in partnership with California State Parks, the dream was actually becoming a reality.
Aware that the 200th anniversary of the Presidio was about to happen in 1982, efforts were put forth to involve Spanish officials and maybe even have King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía come to Santa Barbara to celebrate that event.
Paul Mills, the director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, proposed extending that invitation on the king’s visit to Washington, D.C.
The 1980 meeting was scheduled at Blair House there and Mills was joined by Presidio descendant Russell Clay Ruiz, who was then serving in the Navy on a nuclear submarine based in Norfolk, Virginia.
What followed was a commitment to visit Santa Barbara and to unveil a statue donated by Juan Carlos of his ancestor, Carlos III.
A military coup threatened Spain’s democracy in 1981, but the king stood tall in support the democratic forces and the coup failed.
Following the coup attempt, there was some trepidation on the part of the Spanish government about the visit, thus the king and queen’s 1982 trip to the United States was shortened and the Santa Barbara stop canceled.
But the statue of Carlos III arrived! It was placed in the placita between State Street and De la Guerra Plaza, where it was received with a mixed response and various unwelcome hats and adornments.
Mills, working with the City of Santa Barbara, had the statue relocated to the Presidio on the site of the cemetery next to the chapel, where it stands to this day.
Fast forward to 1995, Spanish Prince Felipe of Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne, paid a visit to Santa Barbara and the Presidio.
Mills, with an audience of Presidio descendants, explained to the prince how the statue got to Santa Barbara.
In 2013, the prince returned to Santa Barbara and held a reception for members of the community involved with the Presidio restoration. Five months later he was crowned King Felipe VI following his father’s abdication.
Next year will be the 250th anniversary of our American Declaration of Independence and it would be a good time for us — on April 21, 2026 — to remind ourselves of the role Spain played in helping create a new nation.
Looking even further forward, 2032 will be the 250th anniversary of the Santa Barbara Presidio’s founding — a time to commemorate the Hispano contributions to the making of, not only our community, but that of the United States of America.
History Matters!
