Manuel Micheltorena (1802-7 September 1853) was the Mexican Governor of California from 1842 to 1845, succeeding Juan Bautista Alvarado and preceding Pio Pico.
Biography[]
Manuel Micheltorena was born in Oaxaca, New Spain in 1802 to a family of Basque descent, and he became a Brigadier-General and Adjutant-General of the Mexican Army under Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. In 1842, he was appointed Governor of California, and he gave rancho land grants out to landowners and privatized the territory. Because of Micheltorena's staunch loyalty to the central government in Mexico City, he was despised by the local Californios, who rose in rebellion against him in 1845. He was deposed after a battle at Providencia, and Californio leader Pio Pico succeeded him as governor.