Spanish colonial pueblo; predecessor to the city of Los Angeles
El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio de Porciuncula
(
English
:
The town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the River of the Porciuncula
), shortened to
Pueblo de los Angeles
, was the
Spanish civilian
pueblo
settled in 1781, which became the American
metropolis
of
Los Angeles
. The pueblo was built using labor from the adjacent village of
Yaanga
and was totally dependent on local
Indigenous
labor for its survival.
[1]
Official settlements in
Alta California
were of three types:
presidio
(military),
mission
(religious) and
pueblo
(civil). The Pueblo de los Angeles was the second pueblo (town) created during the
Spanish colonization
of California (the first was
San Jose
, in 1777).
El Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles
?'The Town of the Queen of Angels'
[2]
was founded twelve years after the first
presidio
and
mission
, the
Presidio of San Diego
and the
Mission San Diego de Alcala
(1769). The original settlement consisted of forty-four people in eleven families, recruited mostly from
Estado de Occidente
. As new settlers arrived and soldiers retired to civilian life in Los Angeles, the town became the principal urban center of southern Alta California, whose social and economic life revolved around the raising of livestock on the expansive
ranchos
.
Founding
[
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]
In 1542
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo
, with a commission from Viceroy
Antonio de Mendoza
, was the first European to sail along and explore the California coast. Although he claimed all he saw as territory of the Spanish Empire, no efforts at colonization were made for over two hundred years. Concerned about colonizing efforts by the Russians and French, Spain set plans in motion in the 1760s to establish a presence and defend its claim to the territory.
The Spanish settlement did not reach Alta California until 1769, when explorer
Gaspar de Portola
reached the San Diego area via the first land route from
Mexico
. Accompanying him were two
Franciscan
Padres
,
Junipero Serra
and
Juan Crespi
, who recorded the expedition. As they came through today's
Elysian Park
, they were awed by a river that flowed from the northwest, past their point and on southward. Crespi named the river
El Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula
, meaning, in Spanish, "the River of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula".
[3]
The name derives from
Santa Maria degli Angeli
(Italian: "St. Mary of the Angels") which is the name of the small town in Italy housing the
Porciuncula
, the church where St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, carried out his religious life. The river that was called the Porciuncula is today's
Los Angeles River
. Because the future town's name was a take on this "
Queen of Heaven
" Marian title, various versions of Crespi's formula would be used for the town, including the exceedingly long
El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles sobre el Rio Porciuncula
.
[4]
During the expedition, Father Crespi observed a location along the river that would be good for a settlement or mission. However, in 1771, Father Serra instead commissioned two missionaries to establish the
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel
-San Gabriel Mission near the present day
Whittier Narrows
section of the
San Gabriel River
. The missionaries encountered resistance from the
Tongva
to their attempts to
resettle
the Natives on the mission. The mission encountered further trouble in 1776 when a flood damaged the mission, convincing the missionaries to move and rebuild the mission on a higher and more defensible location: its present site in
San Gabriel
. The first Spanish governor of
Las Californias
,
Felipe de Neve
had, as well, recommended to
Viceroy Bucareli
Father Crespi's location on the Rio Porciuncula (
Los Angeles River
) for a mission. Instead, in 1781,
King Charles III
mandated that a pueblo be built on the site instead, which would be the second town in Alta California, after
San Jose de Guadalupe
in 1777. The monarch, disregarding the production and trade roles of the missions, saw a greater need for secular pueblos to be established as the centers of agriculture and commerce to supply the crown's ever-growing military presence in "Nueva California." The priests at the missions ignored the royal mandate and continued their ranching, trading and production of tallow, soap, hides, and beef, often in competition with new pueblo ventures.
Settlement
[
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]
Governor de Neve took his assignment seriously and had a complete set of maps and plans drawn up by May 1780 for the layout and settlement of the new pueblo, including the placement of government houses, town houses, the church, the fields, the farms, and access to the river ? the
Instruccion
and the
Reglamento para el gobierno de la Provincia de Californias
.
[5]
[6]
But gathering the
pobladores
-settlers was a little more difficult. After failing to recruit the target number of families in
Sonora
, he had to go as far as
Sinaloa
to finally end up with 11 families, that is, 11 men, 11 women, and 22 children of various
Spanish American castes
:
Criollo
,
Mulatto
and
Negro
.
[7]
As local lore tells it, on September 4, 1781 the 44
pobladores
gathered at
San Gabriel Mission
and, escorted by a military detachment and two priests from the Mission, set out for the site that Crespi had chosen. In reality, several of the families were probably already working on their plots of land as early as late July.
[8]
Governor de Neve gave the new town the name
El Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles
-The Town of the Queen of the Angels. In accordance with the
Laws of the Indies
and
Reglamento
the new towns in Alta California were to have four square
leagues
of land; that is a distance marked by one league in each
cardinal direction
from the town center.
[9]
The streets, however, were laid out at forty-five degrees from the cardinal directions, a plan which is still preserved in
Downtown Los Angeles
.
[10]
The old town limits are still marked by Hoover and Indiana Streets in the west and east respectively. In 1784 an
asistencia
or sub-mission
of the San Gabriel Mission was established on the central
plaza
, to provide religious services to the settlers.
Government
[
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]
The pueblo came under the jurisdiction of the
Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces
in the
Viceroyalty of New Spain
. As a pueblo, Los Angeles was granted a
cabildo
(town council). The first municipal officers, the
regidores
(council members) and
alcalde
(municipal magistrate), were appointed by Governor de Neve. Subsequent ones were elected annually by the settlers, the
vecinos pobladores
. Since the government of Las Californias had a strong military orientation in this early phase of colonization, the civilian
cabildo
was originally supervised by a
commisionado
(commissioner) appointed by the
comandante
(commander) of the
Presidio of Santa Barbara
, who was charged with making sure the
alcalde
and
regidores
carried out their duties correctly. The first
commisionado
was
Jose Vicente Feliz
, one of the soldiers who accompanied the original 44 settlers to the pueblo.
[11]
The first recorded
alcalde
was Jose Vanegas, who served in 1786 and 1796. Vanegas was first listed as an
Indian
in the original 1781
padron
(register) but then as a
Mestizo
in the 1790 census.
[12]
The next few
alcaldes
reflected the mixed population of the small settlement: Jose Sinova, a
Criollo
, 1789;
Mariano de la Luz Verdugo
, a Criollo, 1790; and Juan Francisco Reyes, a
Mulatto
, 1793. Among the first
regidores
were Felipe Santiago Garcia (a Criollo) and Manuel Camero (a Mulatto in the 1781
padron
, and a Mestizo in 1790 census). In judicial affairs, both military and civil cases were appealed to the
Audiencia of Guadalajara
.
[13]
La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles
[
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]
On 18 August 1814 Father Luis Gil y Taboada placed the cornerstone of a new
Franciscan
church amidst the ruins of the
original
asistencia
. The completed structure was dedicated on 8 December 1822.
[14]
A replacement chapel, named
La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles
(The Church of Our Lady of the Angels) was rebuilt utilizing materials of the original church in 1861. The term
Reina
(queen) was added later to reconcile the church's name with that of the town.
[15]
The small chapel, also called "
La Placita
" and "the Plaza Church," served the total
Californio
and immigrant Roman Catholic community as the only church in the vicinity of the City of Los Angeles until the 1876 construction of the
Cathedral of Saint Vibiana
. Saint Vibiana Cathedral became the English-speaking parish and
La Placita
became the Spanish-speaking parish.
[16]
"The Plaza Church" still stands today, exhibiting
Spanish Colonial
and
Carpenter Gothic
architectural styles.
The Los Angeles parish was under the
Diocese of Sonora
until 1840, when a new
Diocese of the Two Californias
was established to serve the
Baja California Peninsula
and Alta California. Both the dioceses of Sonora and the Two Californias were suffragan of the
Archdiocese of Mexico
.
Mexican independence and era
[
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]
After Mexico's
War of Independence
(1810?1821) from Spain, life began to change in Los Angeles and
Alta California
. With the
secularization of the missions
, their land was distributed for the establishment of many more
ranchos
. The Native population was displaced or absorbed into the
Hispanic
population.
Beginning about 1827, Los Angeles, now the largest pueblo of the territory, became a rival of
Monterey
for the honor of being the capital of California; was the seat of conspiracies to overthrow the Mexican authority; and the stronghold of the South California party in the bickering and struggles that lasted down to the American occupation.
In about 1834,
Richard Henry Dana Jr.
visited
San Pedro Harbor
as a sailor. His book,
Two Years Before the Mast
, includes a brief depiction of the pueblo and area, then dependent on the export of cattle
hides
and
tallow
. In 1835 it was made a city by the Mexican Congress, and declared the capital, but the last provision was not enforced and was soon recalled. In 1836?1838, it was the headquarters of
Carlos Antonio Carrillo
, a legally named but never
de facto
governor of California, whose jurisdiction was never recognized in the north; and, in 1845?1847, it was the actual capital.
In 1842, a sheep rancher, pausing under an oak tree, discovered gold in
Placerita Canyon
in
Rancho San Francisco
, just north of the city sparking a minor
gold rush
. In subsequent decades local mining employed
hard rock
and
placer
techniques. Land however turned out to be the more "profitable gold", as ranching and development expanded as the town and region grew.
Mexican?American War
[
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]
Manifest Destiny
reached California at the time of the
Mexican?American War
(1846?1848). On June 18, 1846 a small group of
Yankees
raised the California
Bear Flag
and declared independence from Mexico in the
Bear Flag Revolt
on the Plaza in Sonoma,
Northern California
. United States troops then took control of the
presidios
at
Monterey
and San Francisco, and proclaimed the invading "conquest" complete. In
Southern California
, the Mexican citizens repelled American troops for five months, utilizing about 160
vaqueros
, or cowboys, against about 700 American forces.
Los Angeles initially surrendered to the surprise invasion by United States forces. The small Mexican forces of Los Angeles fled at the approach of US troops, and August 13, 1846 the American flag was raised over the city. A garrison of fifty US Marines under
Archibald Gillespie
was left in control. The city's population had been rent by factional quarrels when war broke out between
Mexico
and the United States, but the occupation caused both factions to unite against the invading Americans. Gillespie's garrison was compelled to withdraw in October when the residents, Californio Lancers, vaqueros on horseback without firearms, only lances, revolted and chased the US occupying force back to the San Pedro Harbor. Los Angeles was not retaken until Commodore Stockton again captured the city on January 10, 1847, after the battles at the
Siege of Los Angeles
,
Battle of Dominguez Rancho
,
Battle of San Pasqual
,
Battle of Rio San Gabriel
and the
Battle of La Mesa
. These battles, in which the
Californios
were greatly outmanned and outgunned, represented the important overt resistance to the establishment of the American regime in the
Los Angeles Basin
. Lieutenant-Colonel
Fremont
and
Governor of Alta California
Andres Pico
signed the
Treaty of Cahuenga
, an informal agreement to cease fighting in California at the
Campo de Cahuenga
in the
San Fernando Valley
in January 1847. Under the later comprehensive 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
, Mexico formally ceded nearly half its nation's total territory, including Alta California, to the United States.
Modern state park
[
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]
A 1920s restoration drive led by Christine Sterling began a restoration of the historic area, starting with
Olvera Street
. Today the Pueblo's original outline is preserved by the
El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument
. Among its saved and restored buildings is the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles City, the 1818
Avila Adobe
built by
Francisco Avila
who owned
Rancho Las Cienegas
-
"mid Wishire area"
and a successful cattle enterprise.
[17]
Across Olvera Street stands the 1887
Eloisa Martinez de Sepulveda House
, that now is the
Los Angeles Plaza Historic District Visitors Center
. The 1939 construction of the significant transit hub and architectural landmark, the Los Angeles
Union Station
east of the old Plaza, added to the Pueblo area's reinvigoration.
Of archaeological interest is the discovery of sections of the original brick lined
Zanja Madre
-the
Mother Ditch
, which was a "surface and underground" gravity fed
canal
and
aqueduct
, that brought water from the
Rio Porciuncula-Los Angeles River
near the
Arroyo Seco
confluence, to the colonial pueblo and later the American city into the latter 19th century.
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
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]
- ^
Estrada, William David (2009).
The Los Angeles Plaza: Sacred and Contested Space
. University of Texas Press. pp. 17, 35.
ISBN
9780292782099
.
pg. 17 'Hence, the location of Yaanga near El Rio de la Porciuncula (Los Angeles River) was an essential prerequisite to the survival of Los Angeles.' pg. 35 'After Los Angeles was founded, the adjacent village of Yaanga served as the main source of labor for the pueblo and surrounding ranchos... In fact, as the demand for Indian labor grew, the Yaanga village began to look more like a refugee camp than a traditional community.'
- ^
"Settlement of Los Angeles"
.
laalmanac.com
. Retrieved
January 23,
2023
.
- ^
"Origin of the Name Los Angeles"
.
laalmanac.com
. Retrieved
January 23,
2023
.
- ^
Historian Doyce B. Nunis Jr., has traced the longer name to the histories written by the Franciscan missionaries, especially
Francisco Palou
, who wished to play up the region's connections to their
Roman Catholic religious order
.
"City of Angels' First Name Still Bedevils Historians."
Los Angeles Times
(March 26, 2005), Sec. A-1.
- ^
Nunis, Doyce B. Jr.
The Founding Documents of Los Angeles: A Bilingual Edition
. (Los Angeles: Historical Society of Southern California; Pasadena: Zamorano Club of Los Angeles, 2004), 117?129 and 73?109.
ISBN
978-0-914421-31-3
.
- ^
Regulations for the Government of the Province of the Californias (
Reglamento para el gobierno de la provincia de Californias
) Spanish reprint plus English translation in
Land of Sunshine
magazine, volume 6, January 1897.
Available online at Internet Archive (retrieved July 2018)
- ^
The California
Reglamento
here was following Book 4, Title 5, Law X of the
Recompilacion de las
Leyes de Indias
and the 101st Ordinance of Philip II's Ordinances Concerning Discoveries.
- ^
The families arrived at San Gabriel Mission in two groups. The first in early June and the second in mid August. The second group had to be quarantined for a few days due to an outbreak of
smallpox
among it. The September 4 date seems to reflect the day the formal foundation documents were drawn up. Rios-Bustamante,
Mexican Los Angeles
, 50?53.
- ^
Guinn, J. M.
A History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs
, Vol. 1. (Los Angeles: Historic Record Company, 1915), 74. Book 4, Title 5, Law VI of the
Recompilacion de Leyes de Indias
and Ordinances 88 and 89 of the Ordinances Concerning Discoveries.
- ^
See
Map Of The City Of Los Angeles Showing the Confirmed Limits…
below in External_Links.
- ^
"Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Recommendation Report"
(PDF)
. City of Los Angeles. August 21, 2008
. Retrieved
March 9,
2016
.
- ^
Unfortunately the records of the Spanish-era
cabildo
were lost and the relevant parts of the Provincial archives were burned in the
1906 San Francisco earthquake
, so the surviving list of
alcaldes
is incomplete. Caughey, John and LaRee Caughey.
Los Angeles: Biography of a City
. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 74?75.
ISBN
0-520-03410-4
.
- ^
Bancroft, Hubert Howe
.
The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. XVIII (The History of California, vol. 1, 1542?1800)
(San Francisco: The History Company Publishers, 1886), 337 and 461?462.
- ^
Ruscin, p. 49.
- ^
Ruscin, p. 50.
- ^
Poole and Ball.
El Pueblo: The Historic Heart of Los Angeles
, 111.
- ^
Note: The oldest house in
Los Angeles
County
is the Henry Gage Mansion, built in 1795 on the
Rancho San Antonio
site, presently
Bell Gardens
.
References
[
edit
]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911). "
Los Angeles
".
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 12?14.
- Poole, Jean Bruce and Tevvy Ball.
El Pueblo: The Historic Heart of Los Angeles
. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2002.
ISBN
0-89236-662-1
- Rios-Bustamante, Antonio.
Mexican Los Angeles: A Narrative and Pictorial History
. Nuestra Historia Series, Monograph No. 1. Encino: Floricanto Press, 1992.
OCLC
27672256
- Ruscin, Terry.
Mission Memoirs
. San Diego: Sunbelt Publications, 1999.
ISBN
0-932653-30-8
External links
[
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]