Episode 1: Transcript

The Pueblo, the Rancheros, and the Americans

Los Angeles: the City of Angels. Seated in the Largest county in the United States, with history that predates colonial Jamestown, from the flatlands and valleys, the deserts to the mountains, Los Angeles has incredible stories to tell.

From indigenous settlement to early Mexican rule through the explosion of film and freeways and the city we know today, we’ll explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of LA’s storied past. 

Introduction

The year was 1542: The Spanish had just conquered the Aztecs in what is today Mexico and Jamestown would not be founded by the English for another 65 years. The promise of the New World was slowly being exploited and colonized for the benefit of the Kings and Queens of Europe.

With their recent victory over the Aztecs, the Spanish King and his Viceroy, appointed leader Antonio de Mendoza, were eager to explore the newly conquered territory which included a region known as Alta California - a vast area just north of present day Mexico. They sent their lead explorer, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo on a mission up the Pacific Coast to claim the land in the name of Spain and what he found laid the foundation for what would become one of the largest economic powerhouses and population centers in the world

Part 1: The Natives

Searching for suitable inlets to develop a port, explorer Juan Cabrillo first discovered a beautiful protected bay he called San Miguel - we know it as San Diego. He stayed just 6 days before continuing up the coast of what is now Southern California. When he arrived at present day San Pedro he was astonished. There was, as he discovered in San Diego, another perfect location for a protected sea port, but as he peered past the bay across the vast basin of Los Angeles, huge fragrant plumes of smoke billowed and blew across the landscape. A curious but incredible site, Cabrillo named it “Bahia de los Fumos” or “Bay of Smokes”. What Cabrillo was witnessing was the result of an estimated 2 dozen Native American fires burning in the distance, some of them small campfires, some that had become large wild brushfires sweeping the plains.

On that day in 1542, Cabrillo laid claim to the region for New Spain and the Spanish King. While the land was claimed, no one told the natives for almost 227 years.

During that time, the native people who called themselves the Tongva, thrived as a primitive and simple tribe sustained by fishing, hunting small game, and acorn flour with rich rituals celebrating the cycles of life and their God, Chinigchinich. Their largest settlement, named Yang-na, sits on the site of today’s Los Angeles City Hall.

It wasn’t that the Tongva people didn’t see the Spanish who now laid claim to their land, in Two centuries Spain did little to nothing to colonize and develop the region. The Tongva didn’t even know Spain existed or that the land had been claimed out from under them.

That is until 1781. At that time, the Spanish King and Viceroy were growing increasingly nervous about rumors of Russian fur trappers encroaching from the North. Without any outposts or claim to the land the possibility of a Russian foothold in the New World was becoming an untenable reality.

Spain felt that Alta California was at risk of being colonized by foreign powers and appointed the first Governor, Gaspar de Portolá, charging him with developing a means to protect their claim to the land.

But Portolá did not envision a military presence for this vast region. He felt it would be too difficult to maintain. Instead, he installed a spiritual army of Franciscan Friars along an Indian Path spanning 500 miles from San Diego up to present day San Francisco - Spain called it the Camino Real or Royal Road. Along that road, 21 missions would be constructed spreading religion, agriculture, and flexing Spain’s strength to those it encountered. Though it took 42 years to complete, the Spanish met no resistance from local inhabitants while building their missions and instead found a compliant and willing population of natives throughout the land.

The closest mission to the Tongvas primary settlement called was the San Gabriel mission, just six miles Northeast from the Yang-nas main settlement and just south of present day Pasadena. The Friar’s influence and eventual dominance over the natives was all but inevitable.

During the early years, Governor Portolá christened the local river “El Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles” or the River of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels. Quite a mouthful but overtime, the settlement would eventually be referred to as as “Pueblo de los Angeles”

As the new Governor Felipe de Neve took over Portolás duties in 1779, he worked to recruit Mexican Pobladores (or settlers) to move to the Yang-na settlement rebuilding it into a traditional style Pueblo centered around a central Plaza - and on September 4, 1781 El Pueblo Los Angeles was officially born.

The Influence of the Friars and Pobladores on the native Tongva’s started as a seemingly benevolent exchange between cultures and languages with the Friars introducing new plants and crops, agriculture, animal and husbandry, and providing shelter to the Tongva’s. 

In exchange, the Tongva provided labor but at a high cost of losing their religion, their land, and their culture. A visiting French Sea Captain once lamented “the moment the Indian allowed himself to be baptized he relinquished every particle of [... his] body, and soul to tyranny from which there was no escape.”

The Franciscans baptized the Tongva in the name of their Christian God and erased every aspect of Tongva culture while enslaving them to build the early foundations of the Pueblo and the Mission. Tongvas who ran away were hunted down by the Presidio, (a military encampment attached to the mission) and returned for brutal lashings and punishment. In addition, the Spaniards brought European diseases which ravaged the Tongva population killing an estimated 6000.

Today descendents of the Tongva continue to play an important role in the Southern California community. But the legacy of their contributions paved the way for the building of one of the world’s largest and most successful cities. The foundation of a future megalopolis had been born: Pueblo Los Angeles - a small inland agrarian community - built on the banks of the river and on the backs of the Tongva people.

Part 2: the early Pueblo

In its early days, the Pueblo was possibly one of the “ ” according to historian James Miller Guinn”. At its founding it had a mere 44 occupants and in 40 years grew only to 650 on average adding a meager 16 new citizens per year.

During this time, the head families of the Pueblo established rudimentary homes around a main Plaza near present day City Hall. But in 1818, torrential rains caused the Los Angeles River to flood - forcing the Pueblo to be rebuilt on higher ground. This second plaza can still be visited near today’s Union Station. The early settlement was an agrarian society with locals tending to fields and herds of cattle and horses. Only minor public improvements had been built including a guard house, “the mother ditch”, and the Plaza (an irrigation canal connected to today’s Los Angeles River). In addition, the Friars built the “Old Plaza Church” - a satellite to the mission which further cemented the Missions prominent footing in the new pueblo.

During these early days, each Mexican Settler or Pobladore, was rewarded with a small plot facing the plaza for a home, an expansive tract of land for farming and livestock, and a branding iron. These massive for farming were known as Ranchos and development throughout the centuries saw them grow into many of the familiar cities and townships we know today: Rancho San Pedro, Rancho Santa Anita, Rancho Los Cerritos, Rancho Tujunga, and Rancho La Brea just to name a few.

With their massive tracts of land the Rancheros raised roaming herds of cattle and horses, identifying their livestock with branding irons. They also built their own self-contained communities employing everything from housekeepers and seamstresses to craftsmen and leatherworkers. But importantly, they also utilized free labor provided by enslaved or indentured natives. With so much land, free labor, and endless opportunity the Rancheros lived exuberant lifestyles with fine clothing, jewelry, and a routine centered around fiestas and celebrations called Fandangos.

By 1821 Mexico had declared its independence from Spain and ordered all the Spanish-born Franciscan Friars out of California abandoning 3000 Native workers, 20,000 Horses, and 100,000 Cattle as well as 8 million acres of land. While half of the acreage was supposed to go back to the native Tongva, the Governor instead divided the land and awarded grants to 800 families now able to build their own Ranchos.

As the Ranchos continued to grow and expand, so did the Pueblo with its first store by John Temple (at Present day Temple & Main streets), gambling houses, and saloons, but no buildings for public governance. The judge of the day (Judge Olvera) held court in his own living room. Despite the nascent qualities of the Pueblo, the Governor declared Los Angeles a city and it became the new capital of Alta California in 1835.

Part 3: the war

While the city began to thrive and Anglos from the United States trickled in, a storm was brewing between Mexico (now free from Spanish rule) and its northern neighbor. Since the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 the US-Mexico border had been murky and a constant point of contention between the two countries. With pressure growing to grow US crop exports to industrialized Europe, Presidential Candidate James Polk looked westward, campaigning on a platform that promised to expand the Country from coast to coast.

The term Manifest destiny was often used by Journalists and intellectuals proclaiming that the United States had a God-Given “right” to expand endlessly across the continent in order to advance the economic prosperity of the country. Polk won the presidential election and first attempted to purchase the Northern Mexican territories north of the Rio Grande, but the Mexican government refused.

But pressure was not growing from the United States alone. The Mexican territories of Texas and California were growing increasingly dissatisfied with what they perceived as a weak central Mexican Government, fueling desires to secede from Mexico altogether. 

In California, the citizens were angry with what they saw as overreach by the federal government in Mexico. The government removed the popular Governor Juan Alvarado replacing him with their own loyal henchman, Manuel Micheltorena. When Micheltorena arrived with his army made up of mostly former convicts, californios were livid. The citizens of abhorred his policies and resented the fact that he was not a local.

In response, former Governor Alvarado organized a revolt and in 1845 with the help of the Rancheros, they fought Micheltorena in the Battle of Providencia at the Cahuenga pass. There Alvarado and the Rancheros successfully defeated Micheltorena and installed their own leader Governor Pio Pico. Pico (yes, as in Pico blvd), was in favor of secession and hoped to create an independent state more closely aligned with the developed economies in England and France but he failed to garner enough support and his efforts failed.

But instead of secession invasion was on the horizon. Skirmishes between the United States and Mexico resulted in the US congress declaring war and invading parts of Texas and Alta California. While Polk was criticized for the loss of life, just 90 days from the start of the war Los Angeles was captured by American Troops. Despite a handful of skirmishes, the city leaders surrendered without a single shot fired on the condition that property and people were respected. Led by Commodore Robert Stockton and Captain John Fremont, instead of waging battle with Angelenos the army won over the people with promises of economic prosperity. They even provided a public concert in the plaza with their military band. 

The Mexican-American war ended in 1848 with the United States prevailing and Stockton and Fremont went on to be the states second and third Governors under US rule.

Now as a territory of the United States, California and Los Angeles were poised for growth and development by the industrialists building up the countries eastern cities … statehood was on the horizon.