Pueblo de Los Ángeles
El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles (English: The town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels), shortened to Pueblo de los Ángeles, 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 Ángeles 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 Ángeles—'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 Alcalá (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
In 1542 Juan Rodríguez 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
During the expedition, Father Crespí 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
Settlement
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 Instrucción and the Reglamento para el gobierno de la Provincia de Californias.
As local lore tells it, on September 4, 1781 the 44 pobladores gathered at
Government
The pueblo came under the jurisdiction of the
La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles
On 18 August 1814 Father Luis Gíl y Taboada placed the cornerstone of a new
The Los Angeles parish was under the
Mexican independence and era
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,
In 1842, a sheep rancher, pausing under an oak tree, discovered gold in
Mexican–American War
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
Modern state park
Of archaeological interest is the discovery of sections of the original brick lined
See also
- Los Angeles Plaza Historic District
- Zanja Madre
- Laws of the Indies
- Spanish colonial pueblos and villas in North America
Notes
- 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.
- Roman Catholic religious order. "City of Angels' First Name Still Bedevils Historians."Los Angeles Times (March 26, 2005), Sec. A-1.
- 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 Recompilación 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. Ríos-Bustamante, Mexican Los Ángeles, 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 Recompilación 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.
- 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
public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Los Angeles". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 12–14.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the- Poole, Jean Bruce and Tevvy Ball. El Pueblo: The Historic Heart of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2002. ISBN 0-89236-662-1
- Ríos-Bustamante, Antonio. Mexican Los Ángeles: 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
- Map Of The City Of Los Angeles — Showing the Confirmed Limits Surveyed in August 1857; by Henry Hancock U.S. Dep. Survey. Plan de la Ciudad De Los Angeles. Surveyed by E.O.C. Ord, Lt. U.S.A. and Wm. R. Hutton, Assistant, August 29, 1849… — C. A. Bancroft, & J. S. Thayer, & W. H. J. Brooks; San Francisco, 1875. via RareMaps.com . accessed 11.23.2010.