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The Mission Era Born in Mexico in 1798, Doña Catalina Manzaneli’s father was a native of Genoa, her mother from one of Spain’s leading families and a direct descendant of explorer Ponce de Leon. Catalina came to Monterey when her step-father was appointed physician to California’s Spanish troops. In 1822 she married Estevan Munrás, a gifted artist and one of Monterey’s leading merchants, who found time to paint the still-vivid frescoes of the Carmel and San Miguel missions. Granted the 8,814-acre Rancho San Francisquito in 1835, Catalina became one of The Preserve’s two original owners. She was the first to put it under professional stewardship, importing vaqueros to raise cattle and horses, cultivating a vineyard, orchards, and fields of corn, barley, and wheat. |
 "The goal of the missions was a self-sustaining community bound by shared values and commitments, a vision finally realized by the creation of The Preserve."
Mark Miller, Historian
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