The reason why I became such a Hollywood history nerd (to the point where I’ve been writing this blog for nearly a decade now) is because I grew up on Hollywood films. And my love for American cinema and my fascination for the process that led to their creation was only fostered by behind-the-scenes documentaries, DVD bonus features and the countless number of books I’ve borrowed from the library about Hollywood history. For this reason Los Angeles is my favorite city in the world. I’ve only visited the place once in my life when I went on vacation there, but everything about this city speaks to me and who I am on a deep level. And seeing as how Hollywood films are the most popular type of films globally, Los Angeles is seen by many as the entertainment capital of the world. In this article I explore the history of this region to explain how a small town called Pueblo de Los Ángeles became so culturally and economically rich, as well as L.A.’s personal importance to me as a film fan.
The earliest known people to populate this region of Southern California were the indigenous tribe of the Tongva, but the Spanish Empire began eyeing this land for colonization in the 1500s, and by 1542 they would successfully conquer it, thanks to Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claiming it on Spain’s behalf.
Today the megacity of Greater Los Angeles is divided by five counties (Los Angeles County, Ventura County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Orange County), but it started out as a small Spanish settlement. However the actual mass of land that Los Angeles currently occupies would not be officially claimed until 1769 when the Spanish Army travelled there with Franciscan missionaries who established the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, a Catholic church which would be built in 1771 and become the area’s first mission for spreading Christian gospel, with religious conversion of course being chapter one of the colonization handbook.
Around 1781 when Spanish settlers were deep into the process of colonizing both Mexico and California, the first two major civilizations they built were the Town of Saint Joseph of Guadalupe (San Jose) and the Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels (Los Angeles). Los Angeles was the one that became the principal urban center of Alta California’s southern region and the Spanish province’s capital city, with much of the region’s economic life dependent on the raising of livestock at Spanish and Mexican ranchos.
By the 1800s, the population grew and the settlement of small ranch towns expanded, becoming a melting pot of Mexicans, Europeans, Africans and indigenous people, with the Hispanic and Latino population making up the majority (which it still does to this day)…