Vallejo, Mariano Guadalupe, 1807–90, Mexican-American political and military leader, b. Monterey, Calif. He entered the Mexican military in 1824 and was appointed to the territorial legislature in 1829. Vallejo became commander of the Presidio of San Francisco in 1833, founded Sonoma, and was granted Rancho Petaluma in 1834. Vallejo was put in charge of colonizing and defending N California (1835), oversaw the building of the Presidio of Sonoma, and was promoted to colonel and named military governor of Alta California (1836–42). In 1846 he was taken prisoner during the Bear Flag republic revolted engineered by John C. Frémont. After the Mexican War, Vallejo served in California's constitutional convention and was elected (1850) to the state senate. He donated land for the state capital at Vallejo, but it was later moved to Sacramento. Vallejo, like many Mexican-Americans, ultimately was cheated out of much of his land by Anglo-Americans.
See biographies by M. Emparan (1968) and A. Rosenus (1999).
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