El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, shortened to thePueblo de los Ángeles, was theSpanish civilianpueblo settled in 1781 which became the Americanmetropolis ofLos Angeles. The pueblo was built using labor from the adjacent village ofYaanga and was totally dependent on localIndigenous labor for its survival.[1]
Official settlements inAlta California were of three types:presidio (military),mission (religious) andpueblo (civil). The Pueblo de los Ángeles was the second pueblo (town) created during theSpanish colonization of California (the first wasSan 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 firstpresidio andmission, thePresidio of San Diego andMission San Diego de Alcalá (1769). The original settlement consisted of forty-four people in eleven families, recruited mostly fromEstado 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 expansiveranchos.
In 1542Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, with a commission from ViceroyAntonio 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 explorerGaspar de Portolà reached the San Diego area via the first land route fromMexico. Accompanying him were twoFranciscanPadres,Junípero Serra andJuan Crespí, who recorded the expedition. As they came through today'sElysian Park, they were awed by a river that flowed from the northwest, past their point and on southward. Crespí named the riverEl Río de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula, meaning, in Spanish, "the River of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula".[3] The name derives fromSanta Maria degli Angeli (Italian: "St. Mary of the Angels") which is the name of the small town in Italy housing thePorciuncula, 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'sLos Angeles River. Because the future town's name was a take on this "Queen of Heaven" Marian title, various versions of Crespí's formula would be used for the town, includingEl Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles sobre el Río Porciúncula.[4]
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 theMission San Gabriel Arcángel-San Gabriel Mission near the present dayWhittier Narrows section of theSan Gabriel River. The missionaries encountered resistance from theTongva to their attempts toresettle 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 inSan Gabriel. The first Spanish governor ofLas Californias,Felipe de Neve had, as well, recommended toViceroy Bucareli Father Crespí's location on the Río Porciúncula (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, afterSan José 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.
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 – theInstrucción and theReglamento para el gobierno de la Provincia de Californias.[5][6] But gathering thepobladores-settlers was a little more difficult. After failing to recruit the target number of families inSonora, he had to go as far asSinaloa to finally end up with 11 families, that is, 11 men, 11 women, and 22 children of variousSpanish American castes:Criollo,Mulatto andNegro.[7]
As local lore tells it, on September 4, 1781 the 44pobladores gathered atSan Gabriel Mission and, escorted by a military detachment and two priests from the Mission, set out for the site that Crespí 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 nameEl Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles-The Town of the Queen of the Angels. In accordance with theLaws of the Indies andReglamento the new towns in Alta California were to have four squareleagues of land; that is a distance marked by one league in eachcardinal 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 inDowntown Los Angeles.[10] The old town limits are still marked by Hoover and Indiana Streets in the west and east respectively. In 1784 anasistencia or sub-mission of the San Gabriel Mission was established on the centralplaza, to provide religious services to the settlers.
The pueblo came under the jurisdiction of theCommandancy General of the Internal Provinces in theViceroyalty of New Spain. As a pueblo, Los Angeles was granted acabildo (town council). The first municipal officers, theregidores (council members) andalcalde (municipal magistrate), were appointed by Governor de Neve. Subsequent ones were elected annually by the settlers, thevecinos pobladores. Since the government of Las Californias had a strong military orientation in this early phase of colonization, the civiliancabildo was originally supervised by acommisionado (commissioner) appointed by thecomandante (commander) of thePresidio of Santa Barbara, who was charged with making sure thealcalde andregidores carried out their duties correctly. The firstcommisionado wasJosé Vicente Feliz, one of the soldiers who accompanied the original 44 settlers to the pueblo.[11] The first recordedalcalde was José Vanegas, who served in 1786 and 1796. Vanegas was first listed as anIndian in the original 1781padrón (register) but then as aMestizo in the 1790 census.[12] The next fewalcaldes reflected the mixed population of the small settlement: José Sinova, aCriollo, 1789;Mariano de la Luz Verdugo, a Criollo, 1790; and Juan Francisco Reyes, aMulatto, 1793. Among the firstregidores were Felipe Santiago García (a Criollo) and Manuel Camero (a Mulatto in the 1781padrón, and a Mestizo in 1790 census). In judicial affairs, both military and civil cases were appealed to theAudiencia of Guadalajara.[13]
On 18 August 1814 Father Luis Gíl y Taboada placed the cornerstone of a newFranciscan church amidst the ruins of theoriginalasistencia. The completed structure was dedicated on 8 December 1822.[14] A replacement chapel, namedLa Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (The Church of Our Lady of the Angels) was rebuilt utilizing materials of the original church in 1861. The termReina (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 totalCalifornio and immigrant Roman Catholic community as the only church in the vicinity of the City of Los Angeles until the 1876 construction of theCathedral of Saint Vibiana. Saint Vibiana Cathedral became the English-speaking parish andLa Placita became the Spanish-speaking parish.[16] "The Plaza Church" still stands today, exhibitingSpanish Colonial andCarpenter Gothic architectural styles.
The Los Angeles parish was under theDiocese of Sonora until 1840, when a newDiocese of the Two Californias was established to serve theBaja California Peninsula and Alta California. Both the dioceses of Sonora and the Two Californias were suffragan of theArchdiocese of Mexico.
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(September 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
After Mexico'sWar of Independence (1810–1821) from Spain, life began to change in Los Angeles andAlta California. With thesecularization of the missions, their land was distributed for the establishment of many moreranchos. The Native population was displaced or absorbed into theHispanic population.
Beginning about 1827, Los Angeles, now the largest pueblo of the territory, became a rival ofMonterey 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 1835,Richard Henry Dana Jr. visitedSan 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 cattlehides andtallow. 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 ofCarlos Antonio Carrillo, a legally named but neverde 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 inPlacerita Canyon inRancho San Francisco, just north of the city sparking a minorgold rush. In subsequent decades local mining employedhard rock andplacer techniques. Land however turned out to be the more "profitable gold", as ranching and development expanded as the town and region grew.
Manifest Destiny reached California at the time of theMexican–American War (1846–1848). On June 18, 1846 a small group ofYankees raised the CaliforniaBear Flag and declared independence from Mexico in theBear Flag Revolt on the Plaza in Sonoma,Northern California. United States troops then took control of thepresidios atMonterey and San Francisco, and proclaimed the invading "conquest" complete. InSouthern California, the Mexican citizens repelled American troops for five months, utilizing about 160vaqueros, 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 underArchibald Gillespie was left in control. The city's population had been rent by factional quarrels when war broke out betweenMexico 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 theSiege of Los Angeles,Battle of Dominguez Rancho,Battle of San Pasqual,Battle of Rio San Gabriel and theBattle of La Mesa. These battles, in which theCalifornios were greatly outmanned and outgunned, represented the important overt resistance to the establishment of the American regime in theLos Angeles Basin. Lieutenant-ColonelFrémont andGovernor of Alta CaliforniaAndrés Pico signed theTreaty of Cahuenga, an informal agreement to cease fighting in California at theCampo de Cahuenga in theSan Fernando Valley in January 1847. Under the later comprehensive 1848Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico formally ceded nearly half its nation's total territory, including Alta California, to the United States.
A 1920s restoration drive led by Christine Sterling began a restoration of the historic area, starting withOlvera Street. Today the Pueblo's original outline is preserved by theEl Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. Among its saved and restored buildings is the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles City, the 1818Avila Adobe built byFrancisco Avila who ownedRancho Las Cienegas -"mid Wilshire area" and a successful cattle enterprise.[17] Across Olvera Street stands the 1887Eloisa Martinez de Sepulveda House, that now is theLos Angeles Plaza Historic District Visitors Center. The 1939 construction of the significant transit hub and architectural landmark, the Los AngelesUnion 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 linedZanja Madre-theMother Ditch, which was a "surface and underground" gravity fedcanal andaqueduct, that brought water from theRio Porciuncula-Los Angeles River near theArroyo Seco confluence, to the colonial pueblo and later the American city into the latter 19th century.
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.'
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Los Angeles".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 12–14.
