John Arvizu did not learn about his Spanish/Mexican ancestors in
school; he had to write the book himself.
Gilroy – John Arvizu did not learn about his Spanish/Mexican ancestors in school; he had to write the book himself.
More than 200 years ago, Arvizu’s ancestors came to America and established a land route from Culiacan, Mexico to San Francisco and founded the pueblo of San Jose. Now his family’s history is documented in a book and captured with old photos that took a lifetime to compile.
“This book is the fulfillment of a dream which sprang from seeds planted by my father’s early stories,” the Gilroy resident and local optometrist said. “He wanted to put our family history into writing and in a form which would be interesting for others to read.”
The history of the Arvizu family parallels the story of many other Latino families that helped settle the west before the vast area became what is now part of the United States.
The book is the history of the Arvizu family from the mid-1700s when it first settled in the region. Some citations start as early as 1621. It is a genealogical study and covers up to the mid-1940s. There are many old maps, prints and historical Arvizu photos starting around 1830 and ending in the 1940s. The book is also a recognition of what the Arvizu family and other Latino families did to help build California into the state that it is today. That is why Arvizu titled the book “Building California – 200 years of Arvizu History.”
Arvizu, 61, was born in Los Angeles and was raised in Balton Park. He received his doctorate degree in optometry from the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Optometry, and then began his professional career in 1970 by founding the Optometry Department at the Alviso Family Health Center in Alviso. Private practice beckoned in 1974, and he left to join Kaiser Permanente in 1989. All four of his children graduated from Gilroy High School, and he has one granddaughter.
He is licensed in diagnostic and therapeutic drugs and also provides emergency eye care.
“At the time I moved here I didn’t realize I was coming home,” said Arvizu who came to Gilroy in 1970. “… Gilroy is very near the De Anza trail, which goes up the Cañada to Coyote Creek. This is the trail which was followed by De Anza on his way to what was to become the Pueblo De San Jose in 1776,” Arvizu said.
For years he compiled information, interviews and photos of his family. He read books, researched names and sought information from the records of the Catholic church, such as baptisms and births, dating back to the 1500s.
He discovered that the famed expedition of Captain Juan Bautista de Anza to establish a north-south land route across the American continent to the Pacific in 1774 accomplished many things Arvizu wrote about. His expedition, with 235 colonists and soldiers, established what the longest international trail in the world is today, extending from Culiacan, Mexico to San Francisco. Along the way, the party founded the Presidio de San Francisco and the Pueblo de San Jose. The families of the surviving soldiers were rewarded with huge land grants from the King of Spain, for their accomplishments. Captain Juan Bautista de Anza was made the Governor of New Mexico as his reward.
The legacy of this achievement lives today in the names of the soldiers and their ranchos. Names such Benal, Berryessa, Pacheco, Castro, Moraga, Pico and of course the names Arvizu/Albizu/Alviso have become well known and were in the company of soldiers.
The book soon will be in several libraries and historical collections around the state. Two of them are in the Gilroy Historic Museum and “Los Fundadores” Historic Museum House in Santa Clara. Arvizu hopes to donate a copy to the Cultural Center of Hispanic America, and will sell the book on borderlines, amazon.com, and lulu.
“My passion is to learn as much as I can about Early California History and to pass it along to others,” Arvizu said.
