Honoring His Family’s Past

Cemeteries afford the living with both solace and hope, sentiments often reflected in the gray or marbled gravestones and the patches of green grass sprinkled around them. Visiting a loved one’s final resting place often provides comfort to a grieving heart—the gravesite a place where the physical and spiritual worlds meet to acknowledge days remembered, times best forgotten, and the uncertainty of life to come.
For one Hollister resident, gravesite visits to the San Juan Bautista Cemetery District occur almost daily and usually last for hours. It’s here that Bob Picha has contemplated his family’s rich history and the importance of its legacy to San Benito County. Amid the centuries-old tombstones etched with names from the mission town’s early days, Mr. Picha (pronounced Pa-shay) has discovered his newfound purpose in life—honoring his family’s past by renovating, maintaining, and preserving the Larios Family Plot.
In 1997, Mr. Picha, a retired tile setter, made the first of thousands of trips from Hollister to the Larios Plot, as it’s often referred to. Neglected for years and nearly smothered by the hands of time, the plot’s condition shocked Mr. Picha into action, explaining in a recent interview that the plot’s “cosmetics…its appearance…” lacked justification.
A descendant of Don Manuel Larios, the plot’s namesake, Mr. Picha began the arduous task of renovating the area, a project that has expended countless waking hours, thousands of dollars, and on occasion all of his patience.
Through the cemetery’s Monterey Street entrance and left of its main driveway, the Larios Plot now stands behind a concrete wall fortified by a wrought iron gate and arch, the latter of which contains three crosses depicting the biblical scene on Mount Calvary. Various small plants, cacti, and palms trees accentuate the plot’s façade. On the opposite side of the wall is a small graveyard reserved for descendants of Mr. Larios, a man whose life is inextricably tied to our local history and character.
Manuel Larios was born in the nascent community of San Jose, California in 1798. A scion of California’s earliest Spanish settlers—his father was a member of Juan Bautista de Anza’s 1775-1776 Expedition—the young Larios completed his required years of military service for the Spanish crown as an officer at the Presidio of Monterey.
Soon after Mr. Larios (pronounced La-ree-os) left the military, Spain’s colonial empire in the Americas collapsed with California becoming an extension of a free, independent Mexico. Once the benefactors of the Spanish government, the California missions soon became a liability, for maintaining a mission was an expensive endeavor. In the eyes of Mexican officials, evidence of solvency in a ledger trumped the accounting of souls kept in the baptismal record.
Through secularization, missions were downsized and their massive land holdings sold or given away. Seizing the real estate opportunity of a lifetime, Mr. Larios acquired two land grants formerly belonging to the San Juan Bautista Mission. Almost overnight, Mr. Larios’s property line stretched across nearly 55,000 acres of San Benito County.
Rancho Santa Ana y Quien Sabe, which Mr. Larios co-owned with Don Juan Anzar, comprised the majority of the acreage, while Rancho San Antonio, which Mr. Larios owned outright, constituted the rest.
Affectionately referred to as El Ranchito—a reference to its diminutive size when compared to Mr. Larios’s other ranch—Rancho San Antonio encompassed a sizable portion of San Juan Bautista. A 40-room adobe was built on the property to accommodate an ever-growing Larios clan—Mr. Larios’s three marriages produced nearly 20 biological children and stepchildren—and Mr. Larios’s vast network of friends and business associates.
From El Ranchito, Mr. Larios oversaw the hide and tallow trade that permeated his lands and from which he made his fortune. As his wealth and influence grew, Mr. Larios was bestowed with the prefix Don (pronounced Dōn), a title that confirmed upon an individual a level of importance and respect within his Spanish-speaking community.
Mr. Larios’ s dignified air and generosity, as well as the idyllic life at El Ranchito, were immortalized in Ralph LeRoy Milliken’s book, California Dons. A work of historical fiction, the book is based on the author’s interviews with Estolano Larios, the youngest of the Larios brood.
Religion, family, hard work, the lariat, bull and bear fights, and fiestas epitomized Californio culture—a way of life defined by those who were either born or raised under the Spanish or Mexican flags flying over the length and width of California—and Mr. Larios and El Ranchito were at the center of it all.
The U.S.-Mexican War soon interrupted life at El Ranchito. Don Manuel Larios answered the call of duty for Mexico, but his efforts were futile. A spoil of war, California again changed hands.
Soon, the sound of gold miners’ camps echoed from the Sierras, altering the state’s geography, its demographics, and ultimately its future. Heralding the beginning of a new era, the screeching sound of metal against metal muffled the sound of languid ox carts carrying the wares to and from El Ranchito.
The drums of war once again resonated through the Golden State, marking the start of the American Civil War. This time Mr. Larios remained on the sidelines.
In his waning days, Mr. Larios deeded to the city of San Juan Bautista 10 acres of El Ranchito to be used as cemetery space. His only request—that a small section be designated for he and his family.
The end of America’s bloodiest conflict coincided with Mr. Larios’ death in 1865. As Reconstruction sought to rebuild the nation’s trust and heal the devastation caused by war, Mr. Larios’s properties were beginning to fray, pieces sold to individuals who ushered San Benito County into the 20^th century.
When Mr. Picha arrived at the Larios Family Plot sixteen years ago, a dilapidated fence and an area infested weeds greeted him. 
With the skill and vision of a tile setter, he began clearing the area, square foot by square foot. In the process, Mr. Picha came to know Mr. Larios—a man whose name was never mentioned in the Mr. Picha’s boyhood home in New Idria—through others of Mr. Larios’s bloodline and organizations, like Los Californianos, a historical society dedicated to preserving “the Hispanic heritage of Alta California…and to help other descendants compile their Hispanic genealogy,” according to its website.
Mr. Picha’s passion and ambitions for the project intensified as older members of his family passed away. As he explained, his “heart…got involved.”
Moved by Mr. Picha’s efforts, the late Paul Larios, the grandson of Mr. Larios, wrote a letter to Mr. Picha in July of 2002, stating that because of “your devotion of restoring the Larios” plot “we [the Larios family] wish to give you full control of the original” burial site. With that mandate, Mr. Picha never looked back.
Along the way, Mr. Picha has received words of encouragement and assistance from family and friends, especially David Grimsley, the owner of Allstar Ready Mix in Hollister, whose support and expertise has been a blessing throughout.
Mr. Picha’s work has coincided with the forging of new relationships, too—something that he feels enriched by.
The renovation of the Larios plot is not lost on those of San Juan Bautista Cemetery District. Manuel Gutierrez, the cemetery’s sole employee, has assisted in a myriad of ways. And speaking by phone recently, Tony Boch, one of the district’s three board members, marveled over what had been done so far and expressed words of appreciation to Mr. Picha. Now whenever Mr. Boch (pronounced Bak) receives a call requesting burial at the Larios plot, Mr. Picha quickly receives a call from Mr. Boch, who relies on Mr. Picha to verify the deceased person’s ancestry on the Larios family tree.
Today, Mr. Larios’s gravesite overlooks the land that he once called home. A marble headstone bears his name and dates of birth and death. Atop the concrete slab, sits a granite slate that reads, “Don Manuel Larios…King of the Dons.”
Nearly 150 years after his death, Mr. Larios has finally received a resting place fit for a king of our county’s early days.
And as Mr. Picha stated of the Larios Family Plot’s transformation, it now stands as tribute for the late Don, celebrating “him and his generosity.”