The rain was hard. The mud was thick and glutinous. It was adobe. Notwithstanding the stout rain shelter built over the ruin by Larry Carrillo and “The Friends of the Carrillo Adobe,” the house of Maria Carrillo was little by little washing away.
That main house is the last house standing of what was once the Carrillo Rancho, granted by Gen. Vallejo, military governor of Mexican California in 1837. Mark that year. Count forward to 1849 (The Gold Rush) and 1850 (statehood). Mexican California had another 13 years left in its existence.
Maria Carrillo was Gen. Vallejo’s mother-in-law. History was intimate then. The names that became our place names (like Carrillo and Vallejo, Finch and Dutton) knew each other well, and their relationships and their mistakes largely determined our present. For Larry Carrillo, this history is family history…