A Pueblo by the Porciuncula, 1781–1840

This chapter describes the founding of Los Angeles. The physical setting of Los Angeles played an important part in shaping the first pueblo residents's civic ideas, economy, and society. Because of the nature of how Los Angeles was created, Spanish officials drew it into existence not on a blank canvas but instead upon a complex social and spatial landscape that bore the scars and cleavages of historical and contemporary indigenous–colonial exchanges. The chapter finishes by looking at three essential lessons regarding race, space, and municipal power which emerge from studying the Spanish and early Mexican period in Los Angeles.