HispanicVista Columnists

HispanicVista Columnists

225 YEARS (1781-2006)

CELEBRATING THE FOUNDING OF A MEXICAN PUEBLO: LOS ANGELES
By John P. Schmal
On Monday, September 4, 2006, at 7:a.m. Los Pobladores (the sons and daughters of the founders of Los Angeles) reconstructed the 9-mile journey from San Gabriel to Downtown Los Angeles that took place 225 years ago. They were accompanied by Mayor Villaraigosa, Councilmember José Huizar and many friends and acquaintances from around the Southland.
September 4 marks the 225th anniversary of the founding of Los Angeles in 1781. Today, Los Angeles stands out as one of the most important cultural and economic metropolitan areas in the entire world. But what do most Angelinos know about the founding of Los Angeles? Who were the founders? Where were they from?
Many Angelinos know very little about this event. Most of us have heard that El Pueblo de Los Angeles was founded as a Spanish town. It was, indeed, founded under the guidance and management of the Spanish colonial administration. But the lifeblood of the new town was supplied mainly by Mexican citizens of the extensive Spanish Empire, most of them born and bred in the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa. They were humble, poor folk who were accompanied by soldiers who escorted them on their 960-mile journey to Los Angeles.
More than a century ago, J. M. Guinn, the author of "Historical and Biographical Record of Los Angeles and Vicinity" (Chicago: Chapman Publishing Co., 1901), wrote:
“Few of the great cities of the land have had such humble founders as Los Angeles. Of the eleven pobladores who built their huts of poles and tule thatch around the plaza vieja … not one could read or write. Not one could boast of an unmixed ancestry… the conquering race that possesses the land they colonized has forgotten them. No street or landmark in the city bears the name of any one of them.”
But Gertrude Van Aken, who wrote “El Pueblo Under The Spanish Flag” (Los Angeles: Office of the Superintendent, Los Angeles city Schools, 1946), recognized the hardships that these almost-anonymous pioneers and saluted their efforts:
“These first settlers were very brave. They had traveled over many miles of desert to start the pueblo. They had many, many hardships… They were the pioneers who cleared the fields and used the water from the river to make things grow…. The jobs were done without many of the things that people now have to make their work easy… They had no railroads, airplanes, automobiles, telephones, postal service, newspapers, books, magazines, motion pictures, and radios to help them.”
Most people living in Los Angeles today have probably never heard of the Expedition of 1781. However, if this expedition had not taken place or fulfilled its objectives, Los Angeles would not be 225 years old this year. This expedition of almost a thousand miles founded a small pueblo on the outskirts of the mighty Spanish Empire. The small pueblo, now known as Los Angeles, would eventually form the nucleus of a thriving multi-ethnic, multicultural urban center with a population of almost 10 million people.
In 1774, King Carlos III of Spain had authorized the settlement of the California communities we call San Gabriel, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara. He believed that the establishment of pueblos, missions and presidios in these areas would serve as a bulwark against the looming threat of the Russian and British empires, both of which were moving closer to California. A few years later, in December 1779, Viceroy Bucareli and Commandant General de la Croix approved a proposal by California Governor Felipe de Neve to establish settlements at the sites of present-day Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Soon after, Fernando Rivera y Moncada, the Lieutenant Governor of California, was appointed to oversee the recruitment of the proposed settlements.
In December 1779, Governor de Neve sent an expedition under the command of Captain Rivera into Sinaloa and Sonora to recruit 59 soldiers and 24 families of pobladores (settlers). Of the fifty-nine recruits, thirty-four soldiers were to go to California, while the other twenty-five would fill the places of those soldiers taken from the presidios in Mexico.
Most of the soldiers selected to accompany the settlers on their northward march belonged to a unique breed of Spanish soldiers called los soldados de cuera (the leather-jacket soldiers). Recruited from the poorest classes of Sinaloa and Sonora, these young men were prepared to serve and perhaps die in the service of the Spanish Empire. However, although they served under the flag of Spain, most of them were, in fact, natives of Mexico and of modest, mixed-race origins.
These young soldiers – and the pobladores (settlers) they accompanied – were prepared to take their families with them to this strange, untamed land, uncertain of the challenges that lay ahead. However, with the challenges and uncertainty came great opportunities and we are certain that they were well aware of this.
The instructions required that the soldier recruits and the settlers should be “healthy, robust, and without known vice or defect.” Both the soldiers and settlers were to be married men – with families – and should possess “greater strength and endurance for the hardships of frontier service.” Included among the settlers would be a mason, a carpenter, and a blacksmith.
All recruits were required to bind themselves to ten years’ service. It was also hoped that the unmarried female relatives of the pobladores would be encouraged to marry bachelor soldiers already in California. Upon completion of his task, Rivera would assemble the whole company of recruits at Álamos in Sonora. From Álamos the recruits and their families would move on by sea or land. In addition to recruiting soldiers and settlers, Rivera had to purchase equipment and supplies, as well as 961 horses, mules, and donkeys. The animals would be sent north by way of the Gila and Colorado Rivers.
Although he started his search in February 1780, Rivera did not enlist his first settler until May. It was difficult to enlist people for a ten-year commitment to a remote and desolate outpost surrounded by thousands of potentially hostile Indians. Most people realized that getting to California from Sonora and Sinaloa was a long, arduous and dangerous journey for harsh desert terrain and dangerous Indian territory.
By August 1, 1780, Rivera had recruited only 45 soldiers and seven settlers from Sinaloa and Culiacán. But, by August 25, he was able to recruit eleven farm families (numbering 44 people in all) and 59 soldiers. By November, Captain Rivera had recruited all of the soldiers he needed, but was still short on settlers.
Rivera’s entire expedition of settlers, soldiers, and livestock were assembled at Álamos in January. At this point, he decided to split the expedition into two groups. First, he assigned seventeen of his soldiers under the command of Alferez Ramon Laso de la Vega to accompany the eleven settlers’ families in their march up the Baja Peninsula. This party, under the overall command of Lieutenant José de Zuñiga, left Álamos on February 2, 1781, started northward, and eventually crossed the Gulf of California from Guaymas to Loreto, Baja California. An outbreak of smallpox among the settlers delayed the journey for awhile. Not until August would most of Zuñiga’s party make it to the San Gabriel Mission.
Meanwhile, Captain Rivera on the mainland, accompanied by 42 soldiers and 961 horses and mules, rode north toward the Colorado River. Rivera and his troops arrived in July at the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers. At that point, Rivera sent the troops and their families ahead to the San Gabriel Mission. With several men still under his command, Rivera camped on the eastern (Arizona) bank of the Colorado on the night of July 17, 1781 in order to rest and feed his livestock before crossing the Colorado Desert.
However, Rivera’s large herd of cattle and horses caused a great deal of damage to the Indians’ mesquite trees and melon patches. Enraged, the Yuma Indians attacked and massacred Rivera and several of his soldiers. At the same time, the Indians also attacked two nearby pueblos, killing a total of 46 people.
Fortunately, the thirty-five soldiers and thirty families of the Sonora escort had already arrived safely at the San Gabriel Mission on July 14, 1781. This massacre caused a great deal of trepidation to the Spanish frontier zone. As a result the inland route from Sonora to California was virtually closed for several years.
Rivera was 57 when he was slain. He had been a California soldier for 40 years. His widow was left destitute. She was never able to collect any part of Rivera's last five years of pay, held up as it was by disputes with missionaries and higher civil authorities.
Having traveled more than 960 miles from their starting point in Sonora, the settlers and soldiers lived at the San Gabriel Mission for several weeks as they made preparations to start their new lives in Los Angeles. At that point, the settlers were only nine miles from their destination (Los Angeles).
The Pueblo of Los Angeles was officially founded on September 4, 1781, when, it is believed, a procession of settlers and soldiers made their way to a location along the Los Angeles River. Of the fourteen pobladores that had been enlisted one thousand miles away in Álamos, Sonora, only eleven of them – with their families – actually took part in the founding of the Pueblo of Los Angeles.
A list of the first settlers of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, as indicated by the official padrón (census) taken on November 19, 1781, is shown below. This listing – which groups together people of the same surname – can also be found on the Pobladores’ plaque on the south side of Pueblo Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles. This information was originally recorded by the Spanish administrators who oversaw this venture and can be accessed in the Provincial State Papers in the Bancroft Library (Provincial State Papers, Missions and Colonization, Tome (book) 1, pp. 101-102). The people below have been grouped by surname, with their sex and age given. Each of the parents in each household is also given a racial classification:
Lara -
José Fernanco de, Español, Hombre, 50
María Antonio, India, Mujer, 23
María Juan, Niña, 6
José Julian, Niño, 4
María Faustina, Niña, 2
Navarro -
José Antonio, Mestizo, Hombre, 42
María Regina, Mulata, Mujer, 47
José Eduardo, Niño, 10
José Clemente, Niño, 9
Mariana, Niña, 4
Rosas -
Basilio, Indio, Hombre, 67
María Manuela, Mulata, Mujer, 43
José Maxímo, Niño, 15
José Carlos, Niño, 12
María Josefa, Niña, 8
Antonio Rosalino, Niño, 7
José Marcelino, Niño, 4
José Esteban, Niño, 2
Mesa -
Antonio, Negro, Hombre, 38
María Ana, Mulata, Mujer, 27
María Paula, Niña, 10
Antonio María, Niño, 8
Villavicencio -
Antonio Clemente, Español, Hombre, 30
María Seferina, India, Mujer, 26
María Antonia, Niña, 8
Vanegas -
José, Indio, Hombre, 28
María Bonifacia, India, Mujer, 20
Cosme Damien, Niño, 1
Rosas -
Alejandro, Indio, Hombre, 19
Juana María, India, Mujer, 20
Rodríguez -
Pablo, Indio, Hombre, 25
María Rosalía, India, 26
María Antonia, Niña, 1
Camero -
Manuel, Mulato, Hombre, 30
María Tomasa, Mulata, Mujer, 24
Quintero -
Luis, Negro, Hombre, 55
María Petra, Mulata, Mujer, 40
María Gertrudis, Niña, 16
María Concepcíon, Niña, 9
María Tomasa, Niña, 7
María Rafaela, Niña, 6
José Clemente, Niño, 3
Moreno -
José, Mulato, Hombre, 22
María Guadalupe, Mulata, Mujer, 19
The Spanish racial classifications used to describe the settlers were used throughout the Spanish Empire. Español usually indicated a person of Spanish descent, while the term indio/india simply implied the male and female genders for Indian. A mestizo usually indicated a person of half Spanish and half Indian blood, while a mulato or mulata indicated a person of mixed African and Spanish origins.
The application of these racial labels on subjects of the Spanish Crown was usually based entirely on sight and subject to the perception and prejudices of the administrator. In fact, most racial classifications in this part of the Spanish Empire were usually based on the degree of darkness or lightness and not on actual lineage. But one thing is clear: the first citizens of the Pueblo of Los Angeles were Mexican: they were African-Mexican, Indian-Mexican, Spanish-Mexican, and Mestizo-Mexican. The expedition that brought these people to Los Angeles was organized and arranged by the Spanish authorities. But the people who broke the ground in Los Angeles were, in fact, Mexican people.
None of the Pobladores ever became famous on an individual basis. Beloved and revered by their respective families, these settlers carried on with their mission, living life one day at a time and contributing their efforts to the formative years of the young pueblo. If they had been able to see the future, it is not likely that they would predicted the evolution of Los Angeles into one of the largest metropolitan regions in the world. But these settlers did, in fact, become the nucleus of what would someday become one of the largest urban areas in the country.
The new pueblo was six miles square with a plaza near its center. Each family was given a small piece of land, in addition to receiving two mares, two cows, one calf, two sheep, two goats, two mules, and two oxen, as well as implements with which to work the land. They had five years to pay for these items. All of the settlers also had access to an anvil, a forge, six crowbars, six iron spades, tools for carpentry and cast work, some carts, and wagons.
After the initial settlement of the pueblo, there was a great deal of work yet to be done. For that reason it is possible that some of the soldiers – many of whom were destined for service at the proposed Santa Barbara Presidio – had new responsibilities. According to the historian, Meredith Stevens, “The soldiers remained there to help the settlers get established. They built pole and mud huts with earthen roofs, and made corrals of willow poles laced with rawhide. They dug wells, cleared land for planting and set up an irrigation system fed from the river by zanja madre (mother ditch). After eight months of exhausting labor, in April 1782, the little village was crudely completed and most of the soldiers were sent north to build the new presidio at Santa Barbara.”
The primary purpose for building the zanja madre was agricultural. From this main ditch, smaller ditches branched off to be used for irrigation of crops in different sectors. However, the smaller ditches were also used for drinking water and laundering. People in town went to the nearest ditch to fill their ollas (clay water jugs). A man called a zanjero was paid to watch the ditch and make sure that the cattle, sheep, and horses were kept out of the open ditches.
In the years to follow, the small pueblo grew steadily over the decades. The Sinaloans and Sonorans who had contributed so greatly to the establishment and the life of the pueblo continued to play an important role in the growth of Los Angeles. Many of the Sinaloan and Sonoran soldiers serving at the Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura Missions retired to a quiet life at the Pueblo, tilling small plots of land and watching their grandchildren come of age.
At the following website, one can see the names of the inhabitants of Los Angeles in 1790:
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/ca1790.htm#losangeles
Scanning this list of names, one can easily see that Sinaloans and Sonorans were, by and large, the life-blood of the young pueblo. The passing of two centuries has greatly diminished the influence of Sinaloa and Sonora on the city’s direction, but the Angelinos of today can still appreciate the efforts of these pioneers and the fact that Sinaloa and Sonora represent the ancestral homeland of L.A.’s founders.
Sources:
Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., “The Founding Documents of Los Angeles: A Bilingual Edition.” Los Angeles: Historical Society of Southern California, 2004.
Marion Parks, “Instructions for the Recruital of Soldiers and Settlers for California – Expedition of 1781,” Southern California Quarterly, Vol. XV, Part II (1931), pp. 189-203.
Regina Phelan, “The Land Known as Alta California.” Spokane: Prosperity Press, 1997.
Meredith Stevens, “The House of Olivas.” Ventura, California: Chadron Press.
Thomas Workman Temple II, “Soldiers and Settlers of the Expedition of 1781,” Southern California Quarterly, Vol. XV, Part 1 (November 1931).
Jennifer Vo and John P. Schmal, “A Mexican-American Family of California: In the Service of Three Flags.” Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2004.