Efigenio Ruiz's Journey
California mission records show our maternal 4th Great Grandfather Efigenio Ruiz was born in approximately 1745 in the old Spanish presidial town of El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico, which is located on the River Fuerte (the city was described in old mission records as Villa del Fuerte, Sinaloa).


According to Erlinda Pertusi Ontiveros' San Ramon Chapel Pioneers and Their California Heritage, Efigenio was the son of Domingo Ruiz and Maria Josefa de Lugo.

We can surmise Efigenio had at least one sibling, Juan Maria Ruiz, who is listed in Marie E. Northrup's Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California: 1769-1850 Volume I, as having the same parents (Domingo Ruiz of El Fuerte, Mexico and Maria Josefa de Lugo of Villa Sinaloa, Mexico), although Northrup lists Juan Maria as being from Villa del El Fuerte, Sonora.

Northrup lists Efigenio separately as being from El Fuerte, Sonora, with no mention of his parents.

There are many additional Spanish soldiers named Ruiz from El Fuerte, Sinaloa who came to Alta California and are most likely related to Efigenio. We will list them when referenced reliable sources are provided.


A Brief History of El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico:



El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico was founded in 1563 by the 25-year-old Spanish conquistador Captain Francisco de Ibarra, who originally named it "San Juan Bautista de Carapoa".

Destroyed by Indians, the town was rebuilt and renamed El Fuerte in 1610 after the Spanish Fort, El Fuerte Montesclaros, which was constructed to ward off the fierce Zuaque and Tehueco Native American tribes.

El Fuerte was a major farming and commercial center and trading post on El Camino Real (the Spanish mule trail) between Guadalajara to the southeast, the mines of Alamos to the north and the Sierra Madre Occidental to the northeast.

At some point Great Grandpa Efigenio moved north to Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Alamos thrived as a mining and religious center. It was here, in about 1769, that Efigenio married Maria Rosa Lopez, who was a native of Villa de Sinaloa, Sinaloa, Mexico, according to the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society's Ancestors West.


Filling the Gap, Plans for Los Angeles and Santa Barbara:

By 1780 Alta California's western coast had three presidios, eight missions, and one pueblo, but there was still a 200 mile gap between the northern and southern missions which had no Spanish settlements.

To complete the chain of settlements, the first Spanish Governor of Alta California, Felipe de Neve, envisioned the building of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, the Royal Presidio of Santa Barbara, and three additional Santa Barbara Channel missions.

Governor Neve drew detailed plans for the establishment of the pueblo which was to be located along the Porciuncula River (later named Los Angeles River), four leagues northwest of the Mission San Gabriel.

The pueblo would reaffirm Spain’s claim over the territory, and would also help to keep Spain’s California military garrisons supplied and fed (whereas they otherwise would have to be supplied irregularly by ship).


Efigenio's Journey to Alta California
Many sources list Efigenio Ruiz as being a soldado de cuera (leather jacket soldier)* recruited for Captain Fernando de Rivera y Moncada's 1781 expedition to Alta California. *(see Verdugo to California: A Brief History of Portola's 1769 Expedition to Occupy Alta California)


A Brief History of Rivera's 1781 Expedition to Alta California:


Spanish King Carlos III approved the petition for Governor Neve's proposed new settlements, which had been sent through the king's personal representative, Viceroy Marquis de Croix, and Visitador General, Jose de Galvez.

In December 1779 Viceroy Marquis de Croix called upon the seasoned veteran, Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada, to recruit, organize, and escort the settlers and soldiers needed for Governor Neve's new Alta California settlements. Rivera traveled from Loreto, Baja California to Arispe, Sonora, Mexico to confer with Croix, whose instructions to Captain Rivera included:

     -  Recruit 24 settlers and 59 presidial soldiers, who were heads of families;
     -  Recruit robust and well behaved settlers, so that they might set a good example for the natives. The families are to accompany
        these recruits, and encourage the unmarried female relatives to come as well, with the intention of marrying bachelor soldiers;
     -  Do not to recruit in Sonora, this is an underpopulated area from which previous expeditions had drawn too many colonists;
     -  Purchase 1,000 head of livestock, including horses for the presidial companies and the settlers, and
     -  Offer incentives of money, land and livestock.


Rivera y Moncada marched from Arispe to Horcasitas to begin his recruitment of settlers in February 1780. However, even with the generous incentives offered to new colonists, he found it difficult to find promising and willing candidates.

Captain spent nine exhausting months in his search for recruits, in which he traveled to the following cities on Mexico's west coast, listed in the order visited, 1. Horcasitas, 2. Los Alamos, 3. Villa del Fuerte, 4. Villa de Sinaloa, 5. Culiacan, 6. Mazatlan, and 7. the southern Sinaloan city of Rosario.

By November 1780 Rivera was eventually able to enlist only fourteen families for Los Angeles, a little over half of the number required (with two families deserting before reaching California), and all of the soldiers with their families (according to the list of people recruited provided by the website, San Francisco Genealogy). Viceroy Croix, not wanting to delay the expedition any longer, decided to go forward with these recruits, and ordered Rivera back to the expedition's headquarters in Los Alamos to prepare to leave for Alta California.


Once everyone had assembled in Los Alamos and had been issued supplies, mounts and clothing for the trip, Rivera divided the settlers and soldiers into two groups, according to Viceroy Marquis de Croix instructions. All were to rendezvous at Mission San Gabriel in Alta California. Several researchers have studied the two groups, but there is some disagreement on the total numbers and on which group some families were in.

Unfortunately, smallpox had broken out in Mexico City and elsewhere; and in 1780 the spectre of plaque followed the expedition's footsteps as it journeyed from Rosario to Los Alamos, and eventually to Loreto; killing ten percent of Villa Sinaloa's population and decimating Baja California's Indian population.


EXPEDITION'S GROUP ONE:   Teniente (Lieutenant) Jose Zuniga and Alferez Ramon Lasso de la Vega led the first group from Rivera's Expedition, which included the Pueblo of Los Angeles pobladores (settlers) and an escort of approximately seventeen soldiers and their families.

          -  On February 2, 1781 they left Los Alamos, crossed the Gulf of California to Loreto (stayed at the Presidio 3-4 months as some
             members had contracted smallpox), and traveled up the Baja California peninsula, stopping at San Diego, and then on to
             Mission San Gabriel.

EXPEDITION'S GROUP TWO:   Rivera y Moncada led the second group from his expedition, which included the Santa Barbara Presidio and channel missions soldiers and their families, as well as the 1,000 head of livestock. Great Grandpa Efigenio (recruited as a Santa Barbara Presidial soldier), his wife, Rosa Lopez, and three children, Maria Ursula, age 10; Jose Pedro, age 7; and Jose Hilario, age 1, were among the members of this party.

          -  In April 1781 they left Los Alamos, traveled to Horcasitas, and from there followed Anza's trail to the Yuma Crossing on the
             Colorado River.