HispanicVista Columnists

Taking Part in History: The Founding of Los Angeles

May 30, 2005

By Jennifer Vo and John P. Schmal

 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.[from J. M. Guinn, Historical and Biographical Record of Los Angeles and Vicinity (Chicago: Chapman Publishing Co., 1901)]

 Not too many people can claim that they have had a ringside seat at significant historic events.  And those who did have a ringside seat usually did not fully comprehend the significance of the events they took part in.  This appears to have been the case for my ancestor, Luis Quintero, a poor middle-aged African-Mexican tailor from Sonora, Mexico.  In September 1781, Luis and his family joined ten other families in the founding of El Pueblo de Nuestra la Reina de Los Angeles (The Pueblo of Our Lady Queen of the Angels), with no clear vision of what would happen.

 My name is Jennifer Vo, and I am a senior editor for a major publishing firm in the Los Angeles area.  I am one of millions of Angelinos who live in one of the largest cities in the world. But I am one of only a few thousand who is actually descended from the original 44 founders of Los Angeles.

 The founding of Los Angeles, California, was not a random event. It was the result of a well-planned strategic move by Spain to secure the northwestern border regions of its extensive American empire in the last half of the Eighteenth Century.  With this goal in mind, the Spanish authorities in Mexico organized the Expedition of 1781 for the specific purpose of founding of the Pueblo.

 My ancestors, Luis Quintero and his wife María Petra Rubio, represent one of the eleven original couples to settle with their families at El Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1781.  They are also my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents (also referred to as eighth-generation grandparents).  Luis is said to have been born in Guadalajara, as the son of a Black slave and Indian woman, although we have not yet verified this through our own research.

 When Captain Rivera assembled his crew of soldiers and settlers in Álamos in January of 1781, Luis Quintero’s destiny was already tied to the historic expedition about to take place.  On January 21, his 16-year-old daughter Catharina was married at Purísima Concepción Church in Álamos to one of Rivera’s soldiers, Joaquin Rodríquez.  His 15-year-old daughter, Fabiana Sebastiana, was married to another soldier of the expedition, Eugenio Valdés, on the same day. And, on the following day, Luis’s eldest daughter, 18-year-old María Juana Josefa, was united in marriage with still another soldado de cuera, José Rosalino Fernández. 

 The prospect of never seeing his daughters again may have played a role in the decision-making process, for it is believed that Luis Quintero was the last poblador to sign on the dotted line. When the settlers left Álamos on February 2, 1781, Luis, María Petra, and their eight children were among them.  In addition to the three married daughters, María Concepcíon (9 years old), María Tomasa (7), María Rafaela (6), and José Clemente (3) made the 950-mile journey.  Sixteen-year-old María Gertrudis Castelo came along as an adopted daughter. 

 On August 18, 1781, Luis Quintero and the other pobladores arrived at the San Gabriel Mission after a journey of six-and-a-half months and 960 miles. Several weeks later on the morning of September 4, 1781, according to legend, forty-four persons set out westward from the San Gabriel Mission with an escort of soldiers and priests.  It is said that Governor de Neve led the people in a parade, followed first by the soldiers and padres, who were then followed by the settlers. The travelers carried their belongings on their backs or upon their mules as they crossed the Los Angeles River. 

 By late afternoon, the party arrived at the site of their new home.  Ceremonies were concluded by prayers and blessings from the padres, shortly after which, the flag of Our Lady of the Angels was raised over El Pueblo de Nuestra la Reina de Los Angeles. In The Land Known as Alta California, the author Regina V. Phelan described the first night at the new pueblo:

 That evening the women fetched water from the river and cooked supper for their families.  The older boys took care of the livestock.  The girls quieted their baby brothers and sisters.  The men set about marking off their small parcels of land, then started building earthen-roofed huts of willow branches interlaced with tules gathered from the river.

 Some researchers have suggested that the founding of the Pueblo may have been a more gradual process and that this grand procession on September 4^th may not have taken place as dramatized by some historians.  The one thing that is certain is that there is very little documentation about the first years of the pueblo and the events that took place there.

 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, as indicated by a 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:

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

 None of these settlers 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 have predicted the evolution of Los Angeles into one of the largest metropolitan regions in the world.

 But these settlers did indeed become the nucleus of what would someday become one of the largest urban areas in the country.  The Spanish racial classifications used to describe the settlers were used throughout the Spanish Empire.  Español 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 use of these racial terms was very imprecise and was frequently based on the degree of darkness not on actual lineage. 

 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 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.

 Very little is known about Luis Quintero’s activities in the first half year at the pueblo. But, on March 22 and 25, 1782, Luis served as padrino (godfather) for the Indians confirmed by Father Serra at the San Gabriel Mission.  (In the early years of the Pueblo, the settlers attended church services in San Gabriel, nine miles away.)

However, a day later, on March 26, 1782, Luis and two other settlers were expelled from Los Angeles by order of Governor de Neve and "sent away as useless to the pueblo and themselves.” Their properties confiscated by the authorities, Luis and his family joined the Santa Barbara Company on their journey to the northwest.

In analyzing the causes of Luis Quintero’s expulsion from Los Angeles in 1782, it should be noted that the tailor Luis Quintero was probably not well suited for the rigors of frontier life.  He was not a farmer and, at the age of 55, it was not likely that he could have adjusted effortlessly to the profession of farmer. 

 It should also be noted that three of Luis’ daughters had married soldiers who were attached to the Expedition of 1781.  All three of these soldiers (José Rosalino Fernández, Joaquin Rodríguez, and Eugenio Valdés) were destined to be stationed at the Santa Barbara Presidio in the Spring of 1782, and it is possible that the Quintero family hoped to be closer to those daughters.  Whatever the case may be, it is known that Luis Quintero lived out the remaining 28 years of his life as a respectable member of the budding Santa Barbara community, serving as the maestro sastre (master tailor) for the soldiers at the presidio.

 Although Luis Quintero never returned to Los Angeles, many of his descendants did make their home in the small pueblo.  His daughter, Sebastiana Quintero and her husband Eugenio Valdés, had nine children between 1782 and 1799, during which time, Eugenio had served at the Santa Barbara Presidio and in the escolta at San Buenaventura.  After Eugenio retired from the military in 1800, he moved with his wife and family to Los Angeles where he was given lands, which he cultivated until his death.  The couple had one more child in 1801 and were registered in the 1804 census at Los Angeles with three of their children: Antonio María, Basilio, and María.

 Eugenio and Sebastiana’s fifth child, María Rita Quiteria Valdés, was married on February 16, 1808 in Los Angeles to a soldier named Vicente Ferrer Villa. This granddaughter of Luis Quintero was eventually widowed with a large family to support.  In 1852, María Rita Valdés de Villa petitioned for confirmation of patent granted in 1838 for the 4,539-acre ranch, Rodeo de las Aguas (Meeting of the Waters). 

 The house María built stood near the present corner of Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive. In 1854, María Rita decided to sell Rancho de las Aguas for about $4,000 to Major Henry Hancock, a New Hampshire attorney, and Benjamin Wilson, a native of Nashville, Tennessee.  This property eventually became what we now call Beverly Hills.

 My ancestor, Luis Quintero, had a ringside seat at a significant historical event. Ironically, his role in the founding of Los Angeles was cut short by bureaucratic meddling.  Thus, he left the Los Angeles area and became involved the founding and building of Santa Barbara, California.  Upon his death in 1810, Luis Quintero had lived a long and accomplished life, having served as the first official tailor of the young settlement at Santa Barbara.

 Sources:

 Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., The Founding Documents of Los Angeles: A Bilingual Edition.  Los Angeles: Historical Society of Southern California, 2004.

Regina Phelan, The Land Known as Alta California. Spokane: Prosperity Press, 1997.

Meredith Stevens, The House of Olivas. Ventura, California: Chadron Press.

 Jennifer Vo and John P. Schmal, A Mexican-American Family of California: In the Service of Three Flags. Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2004.

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John Schmal was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.  He attended Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles and St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he studied Geography, History and Earth Sciences and received two BA degrees.  Mr. Schmal has been a life-long history buff and is also a skilled genealogist. His genealogical specialties including tracing lineages in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Southwestern U.S.A.  He is the coauthor of "Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico" (Heritage Books, 2002).  He has also coauthored three other books on Mexican-American themes, all of them published by Heritage Books in Maryland. He is an Associate Editor of www.somosprimos.com and a board member of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR). Presently, in addition to writing weekly columns for HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com),  he is writing a book on the indigenous peoples of Mexico and on the ports of entry along the Mexican-US border.  Mr. Schmal has a passionate love of Mexican history and has been writing short histories of each state, which are being compiled at the following link:
http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/states.html