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1 - The literature of the Californios

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2010

Kevin R. McNamara
Affiliation:
University of Houston-Clear Lake
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Summary

The Pueblo of la Reina de Los Angeles was founded on what the Spanish named the Porciúncula, or Los Angeles River, by eleven families in September 1781, ten years after the establishment of the San Gabriel Mission. A village composed of about forty-four individuals, mostly mulatto, mestizo, and Indian settlers from northwestern Mexico (Sonora and Sinaloa), Los Angeles was established in an area inhabited by several hundred Shoshana Indians, who after Spanish colonization were known as the Gabrielinos and Fernandinos, according to whether they served at the San Gabriel or San Fernando Mission. The total population of the pueblo varied according to the comings and goings of presidio soldiers and their families, some of whom had come with the earlier colonists in 1769. By 1790 there were 140 Spanish-speaking settlers, the Californios, or gente de razón (rational people), as they called themselves, who, with this term, distinguished themselves from the local Indians. The growth of the pueblo of Los Angeles, like that of Alta California, was limited during the second period of settlement under Mexican rule (1822-46); it attracted a few colonists from Mexico, and some foreigners, especially traders, sailors, and trappers. The US invasion of Alta California in 1846 brought hundreds of soldiers to the area, some of whom remained after the war's end.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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