Over the last several hundred years, Los Angeles, has been a community filled with people from different nations and walks of life, including the indigenous Native American population, the Spanish and Mexican populations, as well as others. It has been the heritage of the Mexican and Spanish cultures, however, that has continued to make its presence and influence known up through to the 21st Century.
The city of Los Angeles has a long history that dates back to the 18th century. In 1769, the Franciscan priest of a Spanish exploration team, Father Juan Crespi, named the river, ôNuestra Se±ora de los Angeles de la Porci·nculaö or ôSaint Mary of the Angels at the Little Portion.ö This name was later used in 1781, when a new settlement was established along that river. The settlement came to be known as ôEl Pueblo de Nuestra Se±ora la Reina de los Angeles de Porci·nculaö or ôThe Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Little Portion.ö However, its official name was ôEl Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angelesö or ôThe Town of the Queen of Angels.ö Now it is known as Los Angeles, and sometimes referred to as The City of Angels, and still has its Mexican heritage in more than just its name.
Since that first settlement in 1781, ôEl Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angelesö has gone through many changes, while continuing to be influenced by its Mexican heritage. When Los Angeles was first established, it was to be a pueblo that would reaffirm SpainÆs claim over the territory that was being encroached upon by Russia from the north and Britain from the ocean. ôEl Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angelesö then became part of Mexican Alta California, or a part of Mexico, until January 1847, when Los Angeles and California were surrendered and ceded to the United States. By 1943, less than a hundred years later, the United States was deep into World War II. In Los Angeles, however, other conflicts, in the form of racial and ethnic ...