Rancho Milpitas was a 4458 acres (18 km²) Mexican land grant

Ranchos of California

The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...

 in Santa Clara County, California

Santa Clara County, California

Santa Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...

. The name comes from the Nahuatl

Nahuatl

Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...

 word for maize

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 and could be translated "little cornfields". The grant included what is now the city of Milpitas.

History

The land was originally granted to Nicolás Tolantino Antonio Berreyesa (1789–1863) by the alcalde

Alcalde

Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

of San José, Pedro Chaboya, on May 6, 1834. A neighboring parcel was granted to José María Alviso

José María Alviso

José María de Jesus Alviso was an early settler of the Silicon Valley in California, alcalde of San José, and grantee of Rancho Milpitas. Alviso's house, the Jose Maria Alviso Adobe, is listed on National Register of Historic Places.-Biography:Alviso was born in 1798 and baptized at Mission Santa...

(1798–1853) by the governor of Alta California

Alta California

Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...

, José Castro on September 23, 1835. Alviso built the first story of the ranch house on the north east corner of the property and moved his family there.

With the cession

Mexican Cession

The Mexican Cession of 1848 is a historical name in the United States for the region of the present day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S...

 of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...

 provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, Berreyesa filed a claim for Rancho Milpitas with the Public Land Commission

Public Land Commission

The Public Land Commission, a former agency of the United States government, was created following the admission of California as a state in 1850 . The Commission's purpose was to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican land grants in California.California Senator William M...

 in 1853, but was rejected. Some members of the Berreyesa family went mad defending their land: one son ran into the hills, another died in an asylum. The family was evicted from the rancho.

Alviso hired an American lawyer (previously a butcher) to survey his land, and the new borders of the rancho included much of Berreyesa's claim. Alviso filed a claim for the grant with the Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented

Land patent

A land patent is a land grant made patent by the sovereign lord over the land in question. To make a such a grant “patent”, such a sovereign lord must document the land grant, securely sign and seal the document and openly publish the same to the public for all to see...

 to Alviso in 1871.

Both Californio

Californio

Californio is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848...

-held parcels were subject to a rush of American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 squatters

Squatting

Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....

 in 1852. Berreyesa and his three sons were tricked by Anglo settler James Jakes who told them they could cement the Berreyesa claim by building four new homes on outlying areas of the property and occupying them in a similar manner to the new squatters. Jakes seized the vacated Berreyesa adobe and claimed the whole grant for himself.

After Alviso died on 1853, his widow, Juana Galindo Alviso, rented a home to two of the Berreyesa sons. When she married the rancho manager, Jose Urridias, a native of Sonora

Sonora

Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....

, he made them leave. Eventually the Alviso family had to sell off most of the land to pay court fees to fight off American squatters.

Historic sites of the Rancho

• Jose Maria Alviso Adobe
  Jose Maria Alviso Adobe
  The Jose Maria Alviso Adobe, located in Milpitas, California, United States, was the home of José María Alviso, an early alcalde of neighboring Pueblo de San Jose. It was built in 1837 and enlarged in the early 1850s, and stands as an excellent example of the Monterey Colonial style of...
  
  . An 1835 ranch house, once owned by the Alviso family to whom the rancho was granted, still stands to the south east of the intersection of Piedmont Road and Calaveras Road at the edge of the city.