Pueblo de Los Angeles

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See also History of Los Angeles, California

The "Old Plaza Church" facing the Plaza, 1869. The brick reservoir in the middle of the Plaza was the original terminus of the Zanja Madre.

The Spanish conquest of Mexico did not reach Alta (upper) California until 1769, when explorer Gaspar de Portolà reached this part of California. Accompanying him were two Franciscan Padres, Junipero Serra and Juan Crespi, who were recording 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. Portola named the river El Rio de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula, meaning, in Spanish, "The River of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula". The name derives from Santa Maria degli Angeli (Italian: "St. Mary of the Angels") 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.

Father Crespi spotted a location along the river that would be perfect for a settlement, possibly a mission. But in 1771, it was Father Serra who unwittingly commissioned two padres to build the San Gabriel Mission near the Whittier Narrows. A flood in 1776 caused them to move the mission to its present location in San Gabriel.

1 Founding
2 Mexican independence
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Founding

Men and women gather around the "Old Plaza Church" sometime between 1890 and 1900. Faint impressions of paintings on the exterior of the building are evident. Signs on nearby commercial buildings read: "Saloon and Restaurant, Home Brewery" and "F.W. Braun and Co., Druggist".

The new governor of California, Felipe de Neve (the first Spanish governor of Las Californias) had recommended Father Crespi's location on the Porciuncula for a mission to the Mexican viceroy; however, in 1781, King Charles III of Spain ordered that a pueblo be built on the site instead. He recognized more of a need for secular centers of agriculture and commerce to be established to supply his ever-growing military in Alta California, while downplaying the commercial roles of the missions. The padres at the missions ignored the King's wishes and went on with their ranching, trading and production of tallow and soap, being somewhat in competition with the pueblos.

Governor de Neve took his assignment seriously and had a complete set of maps and plans drawn up 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. It is recognized as possibly the first and only time a town has ever been planned before a settler set foot on it. But gathering the pobladores (settlers) was a little more difficult. He had to go as far as Sonora, Mexico to finally end up with 11 families, that is, 11 men, 11 women, and 22 children of various Mexican classes: Spanish, Mulato and Negro.

On September 4, 1781 the 44 pobladores gathered at San Gabriel Mission and, escorted by a military detachment and two padres from the Mission, set out for the site that Father Crespi had chosen. The small town received the name El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles sobre El Rio Porciuncula, The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels on the Porciuncula River. The parish church, now known as La Placita still stands today.

So located on the Los Angeles River, the town became a cattle ranching center. In the years to come, the development of metropolitan Los Angeles moved the center of town away from the Pueblo site and by the turn of the 20th century it had fallen derelict. A 1920s restoration drive headed up by one Christine Sterling revived the historic area, and today the Pueblo's original outline is preserved by the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, or Olvera Street. Among its edifices stands the oldest residence in Los Angeles, the Avila Adobe built in 1818 by Don Francisco de Avila, owner of Rancho La Brea and one of the more successful cattle ranchers of the time. Across the street stands the Eloisa Martinez de Sepulveda House of 1887 that serves as the ELP visitors center. Of archaeological interest is the discovery of the Zanja Madre, literally Mother Ditch, it is the original brick laid underground aqueduct that brought water in from the Porciuncula River to the Pueblo.

The oldest house in Los Angeles County was built, in 1795, on what became the Rancho San Antonio. It is now known as the Henry Gage Mansion and is in Bell Gardens.

[edit] Mexican independence

Mexico's independence from Spain, in 1821, did not change life in Los Angeles, other than to allow the secularization of the missions: land grants distributed the mission properties to rancheros.

Beginning about 1827, Los Angeles, being 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 as a sailor. His book, Two Years Before the Mast, includes a brief depiction of the 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 C.A. Cartillo, 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 shepherd discovered gold in Placerita Canyon, just outside current city limits, and sparked a minor gold rush. In subsequent decades, mining became an important industry, employing hard rock and placer techniques. The local mountains are still riddled with abandoned mines, and hopeful prospectors still pan for gold in the San Gabriel River.

Manifest Destiny reached California at the time of the Mexican-American War (1846 - 1848). On 18 June 1846 a small group of Yankees raised the California Bear Flag and declared independence from Mexico. United States troops quickly took control of the presidios at Monterey and San Francisco and proclaimed the Conquest complete. In Southern California, the Mexicans, for a time, repelled American troops, but Los Angeles eventually fell to American forces under Commodore Robert F. Stockton, General Stephen Watts Kearny, and Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Fremont.

The city was rent by factional quarrels when war broke out between Mexico and the United States, but the appearance of United States troops under Commodore Robert F. Stockton and Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Fremont at Los Angeles caused both factions to attempt to unite against a common foe. However, the defenders of Los Angeles fled at the approach of Stockton's troops, and on the 13 August 1846 the American flag was raised over the city. A US garrison of 50 men under Archibald Gillespie, left in control, was compelled in October to withdraw on account of a revolt of the inhabitants. Los Angeles was not retaken until Commodore Stockton again captured the city on 10 January 1847, after the battles at Rio San Gabriel and La Mesa. These represented the only important overt resistance to the establishment of the American regime in California. The United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Capitulation at Cahuenga Pass on January 13, 1847.