In the early to mid-1800s, the Pinedo family was prominent in the Santa Clara Valley, and its history is intertwined with that of Mission Santa Clara and the city itself. The family was well-placed, as is evidenced by Encarnación Pinedo’s account of attending the wedding of Juan Bautista Alvarado, the governor of Alta California, in 1839. According to Encarnación’s personal writings, her father Lorenzo Pinedo built the first family residence in Santa Clara in 1844. The house was located just outside of the Mission Santa Clara grounds on what is now the north side of Alviso Street.

In 1839, Lorenzo Pinedo married Carmen Berreyesa. The union connected the Pinedo, Berreyesa, and Peralta families, all influential Californio landowners before the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, which greatly decreased their wealth and landholdings. Lorenzo and Carmen went on to have both Dolores Pinedo (b. 1840) and Encarnación Pinedo (b. 1848). Dolores married an Anglo pioneer named William Fitts and had several daughters who are listed in the dedication of Encarnación’s book, El Cocinero Español. William Fitts worked for an electric streetcar line.

Encarnación Pinedo went on to write El Cocinero Español (1898) and became the first Latina to write a cookbook in the United States. It was written in Spanish and includes ingredients from Basque, Spanish, and Mexican cuisines. El Cocinero Español provides a firsthand account of Mexican-Californian cuisine in the United States, largely ignored at the time. The book also gives a flavorful perspective on mission life, both through the preparation of food and through Encarnación’s colorful comments on daily life sprinkled throughout its recipes. An edited edition of El Cocinero Español called Encarnación's Kitchen: Mexican Recipes from Nineteenth-Century California: Selections from Encarnación Pinedo's El Cocinero Español, was published in 2003 and has been used as a valuable resource in early Chicana studies.

In the Mission Santa Clara records, Encarnación’s godfather is listed as Diego A. Forbes, more widely known as James Alexander Forbes. Forbes was a leading figure in the establishment of a preparatory school on the grounds of Mission Santa Clara, which was established as Santa Clara College in 1851. This school was the precursor to the University of Santa Clara. Forbes served on the Board of Trustees for Santa Clara College from 1855-1856.

Bibliography Fox, Soledad. "Encarnación's Kitchen: Mexican Recipes from Nineteenth-Century California: Selections from Encarnación Pinedo's EL COCINERO ESPAÑOL." Rev. of Encarnación's Kitchen: Mexican Recipes from Nineteenth-Century California: Selections from Encarnación Pinedo's EL COCINERO ESPAÑOL. Gastronomica 2005: 104-05. JSTOR (Accessed Aug. 17, 2015)

McKevitt, Gerald. The University of Santa Clara: A History, 1851-1977. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979. Pinedo, Encarnación, and Dan Strehl. Encarnaciόn's Kitchen Mexican Recipes from Nineteenth-Century California. Berkeley: University of California, 2003. Santa Clara University Archives & Special Collections, Mission Santa Clara Baptismal Records and personal papers of Encarnación Pinedo. http://content.scu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/mission/id/934/rec/7 (Accessed Aug. 13, 2015)

Santa Clara University was founded in 1851 by the Society of Jesus as Santa Clara College and is California’s oldest operating institution of higher learning. It was established on the grounds of Mission Santa Clara de Asìs, the eighth of the original 21 California missions. The college originally operated as a preparatory school and did not offer courses of collegiate rank until 1853. The institution became known as the University of Santa Clara in 1912, when the schools of engineering and law were added. For 110 years, Santa Clara University was an all-male school. In 1961, women were accepted as undergraduates and Santa Clara University became the first coeducational Catholic university in California. The number of students and faculty tripled over the next decade and the university began the largest building program in school history with eight residence halls, a student union, and an athletic stadium. In the early 1970s, the Board of Trustees voted to limit the size of the undergraduate population, an action that was intended to preserve the character and ensure the quality of the university for generations to come. In 1985, the university adopted Santa Clara University as its official name.

Bibliography Santa Clara University. “About SCU – History.” www.scu.edu/about/history.cfm (Accessed Nov. 23, 2010)

McKevitt, Gerald, S.J. The University of Santa Clara: A History, 1851-1977. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1979.