Santa Monica Beach

Ernest Marquez grew up in Santa Monica Canyon on what remained of Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, the Mexican land grant given to his great-grandfathers in 1839. He graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1942, served in the United States Navy during World War II, and eventually became a successful freelance cartoonist in New York during the 1950s. When he returned to California as a commercial artist in the aerospace industry, he grew concerned about the many inaccurate and conflicting stories of his family’s role in early California history. Thus began his study of primary sources rather than published accounts of his family’s involvement in early California, which began in 1771 when his great-great grandfather Francisco Reyes came to California as a Spanish soldier, serving in the Monterey Garrison with Father Junipero Serra. In addition to exhaustively researching written records, Ernest Marquez began collecting original photographs and stereoviews which have since become respected as the Ernest Marquez Collection. He and his children continue to protect and preserve the Pascual Marquez Family Cemetery in Santa Monica Canyon, where family members were buried from 1848 to 1916. It is now registered as a cultural-historic landmark. Ernest Marquez resides in the San Fernando Valley, separated from his birthplace only by the magnificent Santa Monica Mountains.