Los Angeles Pobladores
Encyclopedia
The Pobladores of Los Angeles refers to the 44 original settlers and 4 soldiers who founded city of Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 in 1781.

When the Governor of Las Californias
Las Californias
The Californias, or in — - was the name given by the Spanish to their northwestern territory of New Spain, comprising the present day states of Baja California and Baja California Sur on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico; and the present day U.S. state of California in the United States of...

, Felipe de Neve
Felipe de Neve
Felipe de Neve was a Spanish governor of Las Californias, an area that included present-day California , Baja California and Baja California Sur . His tenure as governor was from 1775 to 1782...

, was assigned to start the establishment of secular
Secularity
Secularity is the state of being separate from religion.For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them...

 settlements in what is now the state of California (after more than a decade of missionary work among the natives
Spanish missions in California
The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the Christian faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by Europeans to...

), he commissioned a complete sets of maps and plans (the Reglamento para el gobierno de la Provincia de Californias and the Instrucción) to be drawn up for the design and colonization of the new pueblo. Finding the individuals to actually do the work of building and living in the city proved to be a more daunting task. Neve finally located the new and willing dwellers in Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. But gathering the pobladores was a little more difficult. The original party of the new townsfolk consisted of eleven families, that is 11 men, 11 women, and 22 children of various Spanish casta
Casta
Casta is a Portuguese and Spanish term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period...

s
(caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...

s).

The castas of the 22 adult pobladores, according to the 1781 census, were:
  • 1 Peninsular
    Peninsulares
    In the colonial caste system of Spanish America, a peninsular was a Spanish-born Spaniard or mainland Spaniard residing in the New World, as opposed to a person of full Spanish descent born in the Americas or Philippines...

    (Spaniard born in Spain)
  • 1 Criollo
    Criollo people
    The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...

     (Spaniard born in New Spain)
  • 1 Mestizo
    Mestizo
    Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

     (mixed Spanish and Indian)
  • 2 Negros
    Black people
    The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

    (blacks of full African
    Sub-Saharan Africa
    Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...

     ancestry)
  • 8 Mulatto
    Mulatto
    Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...

    s (mixed Spanish and black)
  • 9 Indios
    Indigenous peoples of the Americas
    The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

    (American Indians)

Of the 22 children who contributed to the settlement, 16 were of African ancestry and would be considered "black" by present-day American standards of racial classification.

Rediscovery of the Pobladores

William M. Mason, historian of Los Angeles and early California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, uncovered the ethnic richness of the Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles through extensive research. Mason, one of three founders of the Los Angeles Historical Society, authored six books and several articles regarding the early history and cultures around Southern California and he is credited with helping to uncover the ethnic facts about the original families of Los Angeles.

The official foundation date of Los Angeles is September 4, 1781, when tradition has it the forty-four pobladores gathered at San Gabriel Mission
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a fully functioning Roman Catholic mission and a historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. The settlement was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary," September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become 21 Spanish...

 along with two priests from the Mission and set out with an escort of four soldiers for the site that Father Juan Crespí
Juan Crespi
Father Juan Crespí was a Majorcan missionary and explorer of Las Californias. He entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. He came to America in 1749, and accompanied explorers Francisco Palóu and Junípero Serra. In 1767 he went to the Baja Peninsula and was placed in charge of the...

 had chosen over a decade earlier. El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles sobre el Río Porciúncula
Pueblo de Los Angeles
El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles was the Spanish civilian pueblo founded in 1781, which by the 20th century became the American metropolis of Los Angeles....

, (Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 for The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels on the Porciuncula River) is the original, official long version of the name of the town founded by the Pobladores.

The earliest Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

 settlers of all of California, not just Los Angeles, were almost exclusively from the Mexican states of Sinaloa
Sinaloa
Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales....

 and Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....

. The author and historian, Dr. Antonio Ríos-Bustamante, has written that "the original settlers of Los Angeles were racially mixed persons of Indian, African, and European descent. This mixed racial composition was typical of both the settlers of Alta California and of the majority of the population of the northwest coast provinces of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 from which they were recruited." Dr. Ríos-Bustamante relates that in the century preceding the founding expedition of 1781, many Indians in this region of Mexico had been "culturally assimilated and ethnically intermixed into the Spanish-speaking, mestizo society." Other settlers from Mexico, Central and South America, Asia, Europe, and the United States would follow in the decades to come.

Racial origins changed over time


Of the 44 original pobladores [colonists] who founded Los Angeles, only two were white, […] Of the other 42, 26 had some degree of African ancestry and 16 were Indians or mestizos [people of mixed Spanish and Indian blood]. — William M. Mason, 1975

Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...

, as the province was known then, marked the northern frontier of the Spanish empire in the New World. The story of California's African heritage began in 1781, when the forty-four settlers founded El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, and more than half of these original pobladores—Antonio Mesa, Manuel Camero, Luis Quintero, José Moreno, their wives, and the wives of José Antonio Navarro and Basilio Rosas—had African ancestors, as was typical in the northern provinces of New Spain
Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas
The Provincias Internas or Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North was a colonial, administrative district of the Spanish Empire, created in 1776 to provide more autonomy for the frontier provinces in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, present day northern Mexico and southwestern...

. The descendents of these early settlers eventually developed their own culture and sense of place and became the Californios. Some became owners of large landed estates, granted to them by the Crown, others became government leaders.

Some historians and people in general have emphasized a difference between "Spaniard" and a "Mexican" in terms of race. For example, "colonial Mexicans" are "persons of mixed blood." The implication is, of course, that Spaniards are persons of "unmixed blood" or racially "pure" types. This is a gross oversimplification and ignores the fact that "the population of the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

 was anything but ethnically homogeneous." As Magnus Mörner has observed, the seven centuries prior to the discovery of the New World in Spain "witnessed extraordinary acculturation and race mixture." Furthermore at one time in the history of Mexico there were more African slaves held in Mexico than in the colonial United States
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...

 north of the border. Moreover, "Mestizos" born in wedlock, at least during the sixteenth century, were accepted as "Criollos", that is, as 'American Spaniards'." In short, the definition of "Mexican" often confuses race with nationality in the modern period and with caste in the colonial period. In addition, by this definition of "Mexican," neither an Indian, nor a Criollo, nor a Black would be Mexican because they are, by social definition at least, of "unmixed blood."

Like the original settlers of other parts of California and the American Southwest in general, the Pobladores reflected varied backgrounds: Peninsular
Peninsulares
In the colonial caste system of Spanish America, a peninsular was a Spanish-born Spaniard or mainland Spaniard residing in the New World, as opposed to a person of full Spanish descent born in the Americas or Philippines...

(born in Spain), Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...

 (born in the Americas of Spanish ancestry), Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

, Black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

, Mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

 (of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry), Mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...

 (of Spanish and African
African people
African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...

 ancestry), and Zambo
Zambo
Zambo or Cafuzo are racial terms used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires and occasionally today to identify individuals in the Americas who are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry...

(of mixed Indian and African ancestry), among other combinations. Most of the colonists were of mixed racial backgrounds, and the process of mestizaje (racial mixing) continued in California, to include mixing with the various California Indian societies. Many Mestizos and Mulattos strove, sometimes successfully, to become identified as pure-blooded Spaniards, and many Indians and Black became Mestizos and Mulattos, because racial identity affected and reflected socio-economic
Socioeconomics
Socioeconomics or socio-economics or social economics is an umbrella term with different usages. 'Social economics' may refer broadly to the "use of economics in the study of society." More narrowly, contemporary practice considers behavioral interactions of individuals and groups through social...

 mobility. At least seven of the 22 original, adult settlers managed to do this in the 1790 census of Los Angeles. In general, this meant that the descendents of the original settlers came to identify themselves as either Mestizo, or among the more socially prominent, as Spaniards.

From settlers to civic leaders, alcaldes and governors

The descendants of the settlers and soldiers naturally played a prominent role in developing the Los Angeles area. As colonial soldiers retired, the government granted them vast "ranchos
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...

" as partial or full payment, or in gratitude, for their services. Other settlers also acquired ranches. Compared to the size of the pueblo, these land grants were massive in size and rivaled the land holdings of the missions. They were instrumental in developing a local economy based on cattle ranching and their owners, later referred to as "rancho dons," became the predominant figures in Southern California's society. Among those exercising considerable political and economic power were Andrés Pico
Andrés Pico
Andrés Pico was a Californio who became a successful rancher, served as a military commander during the Mexican-American War; and was elected to the state assembly and senate after California became a state, when he was also commissioned as a brigadier general in the state militia.-Early...

, and Alcalde
Alcalde
Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

s
Francisco Reyes
Juan Francisco Reyes (soldier)
Juan Francisco Reyes , soldado de cuero on the 1769 Portola expedition, alcalde of the Pueblo de Los Angeles for three terms, and recipient of the Spanish land grant for Los Encino and later Lompoc.-Juan Francisco Reyes:In 1769 Francisco Reyes, left his home in Mexico to join the Spanish army...

 and Tiburcio Tapia. Pío Pico
Pío Pico
Pío de Jesús Pico was the last Governor of Alta California under Mexican rule.-Origins:...

, the last governor of California under Mexican rule and the builder of the Pico House
Pico House
The Pico House is a historic building in Los Angeles, California, dating from its days as a small town in Southern California. Located on 430 North Main Street, it sits across the old Los Angeles Plaza from Olvera Street and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument...

, was a large landowner and businessman. Grandchildren of Luis Quintero included Eugene Biscailuz, who served as sheriff of Los Angeles
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is a local county law enforcement agency that serves Los Angeles County, California. It is the fourth largest local policing agency in the United States, with the New York City Police Department being the first. The second largest is the Chicago Police...

, and María Rita Valdes Villa, whose 1838 land grant is now Beverly Hills. Throughout the nineteenth century, the "rancho dons" and their families would intermarry with each other and with immigrant, Anglo-American merchants from New England, who arrived to trade in hides, creating strong family alliances.

Historic Walk of Los Pobladores

"Los Pobladores Historic Walk to Los Angeles" occurs each year over the Labor Day Weekend, which coincides with the September 4 anniversary of the city's founding. It is organized by the Los Pobladores 200, an association of the descendants of the original forty-four settlers and soldiers that accompanied them. The cities of San Gabriel
San Gabriel, California
San Gabriel is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is named after the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, founded by Junipero Serra. The city grew outward from the mission and in 1852 became the original township of Los Angeles County. San Gabriel was incorporated in 1913...

 and Los Angeles join to celebrate Los Pobladores' last nine-mile trek to the city center. Claremont
Claremont, California
Claremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...

 columnist and administrator T. Willard Hunter and the descendants of the original founders of the city, began the tradition of the walk in 1981.

Olvera Street Monument

The original plaque at Olvera Street
Los Angeles Plaza Historic District
The Los Angeles Plaza Historic District, also known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park, is a historic district located at the oldest section of Los Angeles, known for many years as "El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles"...

 commemorating Los Pobladores had for many years omitted any reference to the African heritage of the Pobladores. Eventually, scholars from the Los Angeles area, including professors from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 and California State University at Dominguez Hills
California State University, Dominguez Hills
California State University, Dominguez Hills is a public university located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County and was founded in 1960...

, were part of a subcomittee formed during a citywide effort to commemorate the Los Angeles' 200th anniversary and they helped to erect the current plaque which accurately depicts the multiracial makeup of the founders.


Telling the history of the original families, known as Los Pobladores (the settlers), turned out to be “a political hot potato,” according to Doyce Nunis, the USC professor of history who asked his former student Hata to chair the subcommittee.



“The descendants of Los Pobladores were very sensitive to the prospect of being revealed as having African roots,” Nunis says. “But history is history, you can’t change it. And the subcommittee found the evidence.”



Also serving with Hata on the subcommittee was Miriam Matthews, the first African American to earn a degree in library science at USC, and who went on to have an illustrious career as a librarian and archivist of African American history in Los Angeles. The group also included David Almada, a Los Angeles Unified School District administrator serving at a time when few Latinos served in such positions, and Leonard Pitt, an emeritus professor of history at California State University, Northridge and author of Decline of the Californios: A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890. […]



The multiracial ethnicity of Los Pobladores had been rejected as rumors by the scholarly establishment, according to Hata, and never accepted until explicit census information was found in an archive in Seville
Archivo General de Indias
The Archivo General de Indias , housed in Seville, Spain, in the ancient merchants' exchange, the Casa Lonja de Mercaderes, is the document repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Philippines...

. Documents confirmed that 11 families recruited by Felipe de Neve, the first Spanish governor of California, arrived from the Mexican provinces of Sinaloa and Sonora.

Founding Families of El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles

From the original, November 19, 1781 Padrón of the Pueblo
No. Settler Head of Household Age Casta
Casta
Casta is a Portuguese and Spanish term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period...

Birthplace Wife and children
1 Manuel Camero 30 Mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...

 
Nayarit
Nayarit
Nayarit officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.It is located in Western Mexico...

 
María Tomasa García, 24, Mulata
2 Antonio Mesa 38 Black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

 
Sinaloa
Sinaloa
Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales....

 
María Ana Gertrudis López, 27, Mulata
María Paula, girl, 10
Antonio María, boy, 8
3 José Cesario Moreno 22 Mulatto Sinaloa María Guadalupe Gertrudis Pérez, 19, Mulata
4 José Antonio Navarro 42 Mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

 
Sinaloa María Regina Dorotea Glorea de Soto, 47, Mulata
José Eduardo, boy, 10
José Clemente, boy, 9
Mariana, girl, 4
5 Luis Manuel Quintero 55 Black Jalisco
Jalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...

 
María Petra Rubio, 40, Mulata
María Gertrudis, 16
María Concepcíon, girl, 9
María Tomasa, girl, 7
María Rafaela, girl, 6
José Clemente, boy, 3
6 Pablo Rodríguez 25 Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 
Sinaloa María Rosalia Noriega, 26, Indian,
María Antonia, girl, 1
7 José Alejandro Rojas
(son of José Antonio Basilio Rosas)
19 Indian Sinaloa Juana María Rodríguez, 20, Indian
8 José Antonio Basilio Rosas 67 Indian Durango
Durango
Durango officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is located in Northwest Mexico. With a population of 1,632,934, it has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja...

 
María Manuela Calixtra Hernández, 43, Mulata
José Máximo, boy, 15
José Carlos, boy, 12
María Josefa, girl, 8
Antonio Rosalino, boy, 7
José Marcelino, boy, 4
José Esteban, boy, 2
9 Jose María Vanegas 28 Indian Jalisco María Bonifacia Máxima Aguilar, 20, Indian
Cosme Damien, boy, 1
10 José Fernando de Velasco y Lara 50 Spaniard
Peninsulares
In the colonial caste system of Spanish America, a peninsular was a Spanish-born Spaniard or mainland Spaniard residing in the New World, as opposed to a person of full Spanish descent born in the Americas or Philippines...

 
Cádiz
Cádiz (province)
Cádiz is a province of southern Spain, in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia, the southernmost part of continental Western Europe....

 
María Antonia Campos, 23, Indian
María Juan, girl, 6
José Julian, boy, 4
María Faustina, girl, 2
11 Antonio Clemente Félix Villavicencio 30 Spaniard
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...

 
Chihuahua  María de los Santos Flores Serafina [or Soberina], 26, Indian
María Antonia, girl, 8



Escoltas

The four Soldiers (Escoltas), accompanied by their families, who escorted the Pobladores to El Pueblo de Los Angeles.

1. Corporal Jose Vicente Feliz, born about 1741, at Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, where he married Maria Ygnacia Manuela Pinuelas in 1758, and where their six children were born. He came to Alta California with the Anza Expedition in 1775. On the way to Ca. near Tubac, Mexico,on the Anza Trail, their son, Jose Antonio was born, but his wife, Maria Ygnacia died in childbirth. She was buried in Nov.1775 at San Xavier del Bac Mission, Sonora Mexico. The child, Jose Antonio arrived safely along with his brothers and sisters with the Expedition at the San Gabriel Mission on January 4,1776, but he died nine months later. Another son, Jose de Jesus Feliz, born about 1764, at Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, married Maria Celia Bonifacia de Cota,(daughter of Roque Jacinto de Cota and Juana Maria Verdugo) born about1759, at the Royal Presidio of Loreto, Baja California.

2. Private Pablo Antonio de Cota, born about 1744, at the Presidio of El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico, the son of Andres Cota and Angela de Leon. He married Rosa Maria de Lugo on 30th November, 1776, at the San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Mission, Alta California. Pablo Antonio de Cota served as a Soldado(soldier) de Cuera of the 1769 Portola Expedition to the Bay of Monterey, Alta California, accompanying Sargeant Jose Francisco de Ortega and Father Junipero Serra. He served as a corporal at the San Antonio Mission from 1778 to 1779. Escort for the Pobladores on Sept.4th 1781 to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, and sergeant of the escolta at San Buenaventura Mission from 1782 to 1787.
In 1788, he was promoted to alferez (sub-lieutenant/teniente), and retired to Santa Barbara where he died on December 30, 1800. Rosa Maria de Lugo died January 9, 1797 and was buried at the Santa Barbara Mission. They had nine children with their first born at the San Antonio Mission, the others born at Missions and Presidio’s of Monterey, San Gabriel, and Santa Barbara in Alta California.

3. Private Roque Jacinto de Cota, born about 1724, at El Fuerte, Sinaloa, Mexico, the eldest son of Andres de Cota and Angela de Leon. He married Juana Maria Verdugo, born about 1740, at the Loreto Mission a small fishing port in Baja, Ca.He died on Sep.29, 1798, in San Fernando, Alta California, she died May 13, 1835, in Los Angeles, California.
Roque Jacinto de Cota served as an escort for the Pobladores from the San Gabriel Mission to El Pueblo de La Reina de los Angeles on Sept. 4, 1781. He is the founder of the older Cota family in Alta California.

4. Private Francisco Salvador de Lugo, born about 1740, at Villa de Sinaloa, Sinaloa, Mexico. He married Juana Maria Rita Martinez, born about 1745, at Villa de Sinaloa, Sinaloa Mexico. She was the daughter of Jose Maria Martinez and Maria Josefa Vianazul. He died on May 16, 1805 in Santa Barbara, she died on March 23,1790, in Santa Barbara. His daughter, Rosa Maria de Lugo, born about 1760, at Villa de Sinaloa, Sinaloa, Mexico, married Pablo Antonio de Cota on November 30,1776, at the Mission San Luis Obispo, Alta California.
He was recruited by Captain Rivera in 1774 and arrived at the San Gabriel Mission in 1775. He was stationed in San Luis Obispo and the Royal Presidio of Santa Barbara until 1781, when he served as an escort from the San Gabriel Mission to El Pueblo de Los Angeles on September 4, 1781.

The Los Angeles Census of 1790

Carried out as part of the Revillagigedo
Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo
Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo was a Spanish military officer and viceroy of New Spain from October 17, 1789 to July 11, 1794...

 Census of 1793
No. Head of Household Occupation
or Civil Status
Marital status
A person's marital status indicates whether the person is married. Questions about marital status appear on many polls and forms, including censuses and credit card applications.In the simplest sense, the only possible answers are "single" or "married"...

 
Casta
Casta
Casta is a Portuguese and Spanish term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period...

Birthplace Age Family
1 María Ignacia Alvarado Widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...

 
Spaniard
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...

 
Loreto
Loreto, Baja California Sur
Loreto was the first Spanish settlement on the Baja California Peninsula. It served as the capital of Las Californias from 1697 to 1777, and is the current seat of the municipality of Loreto in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur...

 
28 Four children, Spaniards: José María Osuna, 12; Francisca Osuna, 7; Juan María Osuna, 6; Juan Nepomuceno Osuna, 3.
2 Juan Alvarez Cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

 
Coyote
Cholo
Cholo is an ethnic slur created by Hispanic criollos in the 16th century, and it has been applied to individuals of mixed or pure American Indian ancestry, or other racially mixed origin. The precise usage of "cholo" has varied widely in different times and places...

 
Yaqui River
Yaqui River
The Yaqui River is a river in the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. Being the largest river system in the state of Sonora, the Yaqui river is used for irrigation....

 
49 Wife Bernarda Silvas, Spaniard, (Villa Sinaloa
Sinaloa de Leyva
Sinaloa de Leyva is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.Its geographical location is .Sinaloa de Leyva serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of Sinaloa, Sinaloa. The municipality reported 85,100 inhabitants in the 2000 census. It is the former capital of the Pacific...

) 17.
One child from his first wife, Mestiza
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

, Gertrudis, 3.
One child from his present wife, Mestiza, María Rufina, two months.
3 Manuel Ramírez de Arellano Weaver
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...

 
Spaniard Puebla
Puebla, Puebla
The city and municipality of Puebla is the capital of the state of Puebla, and one of the five most important colonial cities in Mexico. Being a planned city, it is located to the east of Mexico City and west of Mexico's main port, Veracruz, on the main route between the two.The city was founded...

 
46 Wife María Agreda López de Haro, Spaniard, (Álamos
Álamos
The town and municipality of Álamos in the Mexican state of Sonora was founded in the late 17th century following discoveries of silver in the region. It was named by the conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, and became the capital of the surrounding region...

), 30.
Four children, Spaniards: Teodoro, 7; Rosalía, 5; Martina, 3; Rafaela, seven months.
4 Joaquín de Armenta Farm worker
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

 
Spaniard Villa Sinaloa 55 Wife María Loreta de Vega, Coyota, (Culiacán
Culiacán
Culiacán is a city in northwestern Mexico, the largest city in the state of Sinaloa as well as its capital and capital of the municipality of Culiacán. With 675,773 inhabitants in the city , and 858,638 in the municipality, it is the largest city in the state of Sinaloa...

), 40.
One orphan child, Spaniard: María Manuela Lisalde, 12.
5 Domingo Aruz Farm worker Spaniard
Peninsulares
In the colonial caste system of Spanish America, a peninsular was a Spanish-born Spaniard or mainland Spaniard residing in the New World, as opposed to a person of full Spanish descent born in the Americas or Philippines...

 
Girona
Girona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...

 
43 Wife Gertrudis Quintero, Mulata
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...

, (Álamos), 26.
Mestizo sons from his first marriage: José, 14; Domingo, 12.
Son from his present wife: Martín, 7.
6 Manuel Camero Farm worker Mestizo Chametla
Rosario, Sinaloa
Rosario is a city and its surrounding municipality in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. It stands at.The municipality reported 47,934 inhabitants in the 2000 census.-Overview:...

 (Sinaloa)
38 Wife Tomasa García, Coyota, Rosario
Rosario, Sinaloa
Rosario is a city and its surrounding municipality in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. It stands at.The municipality reported 47,934 inhabitants in the 2000 census.-Overview:...

, (Sinaloa), 32.
7 María Ignacia Carrillo Widow Spaniard Loreto 65 Her adult
Age of majority
The age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as it is conceptualized in law. It is the chronological moment when minors cease to legally be considered children and assume control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thereby terminating the legal control and legal responsibilities of...

 son, Leonardo Verdugo, Spaniard, farm worker, Loreto, 29; her grandson: José Antonio Góngora, Spaniard, 12.
8 Roque de Cota Farm worker Spaniard El Fuerte  66 Wife Juana María Verdugo, Spaniard, (Loreto), 47.
Four children, Spaniards: Guillermo, 22; Loreta, 18; María Ignacia, 11; Dolores, 7.
9 Juan José Domínguez Cowboy Spaniard Villa Sinaloa 53 Single.
10 Manuel Figueroa Cowboy Spaniard Villa Sinaloa 35 Single.
11 Felipe Santiago García Muleteer
Animal-powered transport
Animal-powered transport is a broad category of the human use of non-human working animals for the movement of people and goods....

 
Spaniard Villa Sinaloa 40 Wife Petra Alcántara de Lugo, Spaniard, (Villa Sinaloa), 34.
Ten children, Spaniards: Juan José, 16; Carlos María, 14; José Julián, 11; María de Jesús, 9; Felipe Santiago, 8; María Antonia, 7; Pascual Antonio, 6; Gerónima Antonia, 4; José Antonio, 2; Pedro Antonio, 1.
12 Joaquín Higuera Farm worker Mestizo Villa Sinaloa 35 Wife María Teresa Cota, Spaniard, (Loreto), 24.
Two children, Spaniards: Juan José, 3; Ignacio, 2.
13 Juan José Lobo Muleteer Spaniard Villa Sinaloa 47 Wife María Nicolasa Beltrán, Spaniard, (Horcasitas
San Miguel de Horcasitas
San Miguel de Horcasitas is a town, and the surrounding municipality of the same name, in the Mexican state of Sonora. San Miguel is located in the center of the state at an elevation of 518 meters. The municipal area is 1,768.45 km2. and the population was 5,626 in 2000.The settlement was...

), 33.
Seven children, Spaniards: María Rita, 14; María Antonia, 12; Pedro José, 9; Timoteo, 6; José Cecilio, 4; María Dionisia, 2; José Marcial, two months.
14 María Pascuala de Lugo Widow Mestiza Villa Sinaloa 40 Three children surnamed Silvas, Spaniards: Gertrudis, 11; Teodoro, 10; Rafael, 6.
15 José Moreno Farm worker Mestizo Rosario
Rosario, Sinaloa
Rosario is a city and its surrounding municipality in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. It stands at.The municipality reported 47,934 inhabitants in the 2000 census.-Overview:...

, (Sinaloa)
34 Wife María Guadalupe Pérez, Coyota, (Rosario, Sinaloa), 27.
Four children, Mestizos: María Gertrudis, 7; María Marta, 5; Juan, 3; María Lorenza, one week old
16 José Antonio Navarro Tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...

 and
Widower (absent)
Spaniard Rosario, (Sinaloa) 53 Three children, Mestizos: José María, 19; José Clemente, 18; María Mariana, 11.
17 José Ontiveros Cobbler
Shoemaking
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...

 
Mestizo Rosario, (Sinaloa) 43 Wife Ana María Carrasco, Mulata, (Rosario, Sinaloa), 36.
One child: María Encarnación, Mulata, 7.
18 Santiago de la Cruz Pico Cowboy Mestizo San Javier de Cabazán
San Ignacio, Sinaloa
San Ignacio is a city and seat of the surrounding San Ignacio Municipality in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. It stands at.In this town actress Ofelia Cano was born.The municipality reported 26,762 inhabitants in the 2000 census....

 
60 Wife Jacinta de la Bastida, Mulata, (Tepic
Tepic
Tepic is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Nayarit.It is located in the central part of the state, at.It stands at an altitude above sea level of some 915 meters, on the banks of the Río Mololoa and the Río Tepic, approximately 225 kilometers north-west of Guadalajara, Jalisco....

), 53.
Two children, Mulattos: Xavier, 23; Patricio, 21.
19 Francisco Reyes Farm worker Mulatto Zapotlán el Grande
Zapotlán el Grande
Zapotlán el Grande is a municipality in the Mexican state of Jalisco. There are several meaninings given to the root name of the "Zapotlán el Grande" "TzapoTl is the name given to all the round fruits from the general region...

 
43 Wife María del Carmen Domínguez, Mestiza, (Villa Sinaloa), 23.
Three children, Mulattos; Antonio Faustín, 4; Juana Inocencia, 3; José Jacinto, 2.
20 Martín Reyes Muleteer Mestizo Villa Sinaloa 58 Single.
21 María Simona Rodríguez Widow Mestiza Cosalá  33 Three children, Mestizos: Francisca López, 7, José Antonio López, 3; José María López, 2.
22 Pablo Rodríguez Farm worker Coyote Real de Santa Rosa
Amatitan
Amatitán is the head of a municipality in the Mexican state of Jalisco, and is home to one of the world's largest tequila distilleries....

 
40 Wife María Rosalía Noriega, India, (Rosario
Rosario de Tesopaco
Rosario de Tesopaco is a small town surrounded by its municipal area in the southeast of the Mexican state of Sonora.-Area and Population:...

), 33.
Four children, Indias: María Antonia, 10; María de Jesús, 8; María Patricia, 4; María Margarita, 2.
23 Pedro José Romero Farm worker Coyote Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...

 
32 Wife María García, Spaniard, (Alta California), 13.
24 Basilio Rosas Mason
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...

 
Coyote Nombre de Dios
Nombre de Dios, Durango
Nombre de Dios, Durango is a city and seat of the municipality of Nombre de Dios, in the state of Durango, north-western Mexico....

 
72 Wife María Manuela (Hernández), Mulata, (Rosario, Sinaloa), 47.
Six children, Mulattos: José Máximo (a widower), 23; Antonio Rosalino, 12; José Marcelino, 11; Juan Estevan, 10; Diana María, 7; Gil Antonio, 4; orphan grandchildren, Mulattos: José Antonio, 3; María de la Ascensión, 7.
25 Efigenio Ruiz Cowboy Spaniard El Fuerte 43 Wife María Rosa López, Spaniard, (El Fuerte), 37.
Five children, Spaniards: José Pedro, 16; Hilario, 10; María Dolores, 7; María Cirilda, 5; José María, 1.
26 José Sinova Blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

 
Spaniard Mexico
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 
40 Wife María Gertrudis Bojórquez, Mestiza, (Villa Sinaloa), 28.
Four children, Spaniards: Josefa Dolores, 12; Casilda de la Cruz, 9; María Julia, 4; María Seferina, 1.
27 José Vanegas Shoemaker Mestizo Real de Bolaños
Bolaños
The municipality of Bolaños is located in the north of the Mexican state of Jalisco.The municipality shares its border on the north with the municipalities of Mezquitic and Villa Guerrero and to the southeast with the municipality of Chimaltitán...

 
47 Wife María Máxima Aguilar, India, (Rosario, Sinaloa), 28.
One child, Coyote: Cosme Damien, 9.
28 Mariano Verdugo
Mariano Verdugo
Mariano de la Luz Verdugo was a Spanish soldier and later Mayor of the Pueblo of Los Angeles.Mariano de la Luz Verdugo was born at San Javier, Baja California, to Juan Diego Verdugo and María Ignacia de la Concepción Carrillo...

 
Farm worker and
Interim Alcalde
Alcalde
Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

 
Spaniard San Javier
San Javier, Baja California Sur
San Javier is a village in Loreto Municipality in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. It is approximately 36 km southwest of Loreto on an unfinished road...

 
44 Wife Gregoria Espinosa, Spaniard, (Villa Sinaloa) 28.
Four children: (daughter from his first wife) María Concepción Verdugo, Spaniard, 12.
(Three children from her first husband), Mestizos: José Salazar, 8; María Marta Salazar, 5; María Teodora Salazar, 2.
29 José Villa Farm worker Spaniard Pitic
Hermosillo
Hermosillo is a city and municipality located centrally in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the capital and main economic center for the state and region. It contains almost all of the state's manufacturing and has thirty percent of its population...

 
43 Wife María Paula Martínez, (Horcasitas), Mestiza, 30.
Four children, Mestizos: Vicente Ferrer, 19; María Estéfana, 8; María Antonia, 6; José Francisco Antonio, 2.
30 Félix Antonio Villavicencio Cowboy Spaniard Chihuahua
Chihuahua, Chihuahua
The city of Chihuahua is the state capital of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It has a population of about 825,327. The predominant activity is industry, including domestic heavy, light industries, consumer goods production, and to a smaller extent maquiladoras.-History:It has been said that the...

 
50 Wife María de los Santos, India, (Batopilas
Batopilas, Chihuahua
Batopilas is a small town, and seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, located along the Batopilas River at the bottom of one of the canyons that make up the Copper Canyon. It has a population of fewer than 2,000 people.- History :Batopilas was...

), 37.
31 Faustino José de la Cruz (Zúñiga) Employee Mulato San Blas
San Blas, Nayarit
San Blas is both a municipality and municipal seat located on the Pacific coast of Mexico in the state of Nayarit.-City:San Blas is a port and a popular tourist destination, located about 100 miles north of Puerto Vallarta, and 40 miles west of the state capital Tepic. The town has a population of...

18 Single

Sources

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