OUR LADY THE QUEEN OF THE ANGELS OF PORCIÚNCULA

Tina Picotes in the City of Los Angeles

Tina Picotes remembers her last visit to Los Angeles, California. She has great memories of her travel and wants to talk to us about the history of this amazing city which today is  suffering one of the worst fires of its history. 

Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a U.S. Census-estimated 2016 population of 3,976,322, it is the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, and the most populous city in the state of California.

More information: Los Angeles City

The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, Gabrieleños, and Chumash Native American tribes thousands of years ago. A Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ meaning "poison oak place."

Map of Los Angeles City, 1894

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese-born explorer, claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire in 1542 while on an official military exploring expedition moving north along the Pacific coast from earlier colonizing bases of New Spain in Central and South America.  

Gaspar de Portolà, the Catalan military who became the Governor of California, and Franciscan Majorcan missionary Joan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769.

In 1771, Franciscan Majorcan friar Juníper Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. On September 4, 1781, a group of forty-four settlers known as Los Pobladores founded the pueblo they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula; in English, The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula.

The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary; indeed, the present-day city still retains an active Roman Catholic Archdiocese, and as noted below, this archdiocese of Roman Catholicism remains the largest such archdiocese in the United States. Two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820, the population had increased to about 650 residents. 

More information: Discover Los Angeles

Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles.

Tina Picotes in Venice Beach, Los Angeles

New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, and the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico. During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital.

Mexican rule ended during the Mexican–American War: Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847.

In 1910, Hollywood merged into Los Angeles, with 10 movie companies already operating in the city at the time. By 1921, more than 80 percent of the world's film industry was concentrated in L.A. The money generated by the industry kept the city insulated from much of the economic loss suffered by the rest of the country during the Great Depression. By 1930, the population surpassed one million.

More information: Los Angeles City Historical Society

The city is divided into over 80 districts and neighborhoods, many of which were incorporated places or communities that merged into the city. These neighborhoods were developed piecemeal, and are well-defined enough that the city has signage marking nearly all of them.

Tina Picotes in Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium

The city is divided into the following areas: Downtown Los Angeles, East Los Angeles and Northeast Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, the Harbor Area, Greater Hollywood, Wilshire, the Westside, and the San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys.

The city of Los Angeles and its metropolitan area are the home of ten top level professional sports teams. These teams include the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB), the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL), the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League (NHL), the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer (MLS), and the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). 

I love Los Angeles, and I love Hollywood. They're beautiful. 

Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic. 

Andy Warhol