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Early days Los Angeles was founded in 1781 on a site southeast of Olvera Street near the Los Angeles River by a group of Spanish pobladeros (settlers), consisting of 11 families — 44 men, women and children, led by Don Fernando Rivera y Moncada, Lt. Governor of the Californias and accompanied by a contingent of soldiers — who had set out from the nearby Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to establish an asistencia ("sub-mission") along the banks of the Porciúncula River at the Indian village of Yang-na. The initial settlement was dubbed Mission Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles, known today as the "Old Plaza Church." Unpredictable flooding forced settlers to move the town to higher ground. The town, complete with a church and rectangular plaza surrounded by house lots and planting fields, was placed in its current location in the early 1800s. Spanish colonial rule lasted until 1820. This period saw the first streets and adobe buildings of the town constructed. The town came under the control of newly independent Mexico in 1821. During this time of Mexican rule, which lasted until 1848, the Plaza area was the heart of Mexican community life in Los Angeles and center of an economy based upon cattle ranching and agriculture. Hard times For a time after the Mexican-American War and Gold Rush the Plaza remained the center of a diverse town. The central street of the Plaza, Vine or Wine Street, was extented and had its name changed by City Council ordinance in 1877 to Olvera Street to honor Augustín Olvera, the first Superior Court Judge of Los Angeles County and long time Olvera Street resident. In the 1880s Los Angeles began quick expansion through a massive influx of Anglo and European settlers who arraived via the railroad. The old Plaza area became a forgotten remnant of the city's roots and the remaining adobe and brick buildings within the Plaza area fell into disrepair as the civic center of the city shifted to present-day Temple and Main Streets. A few of the street's buildings that were put up during this era, like the Sepulveda House (1880s) and Italian Hall (1907) actually had their backs facing Olvera while the front doors were on Main Street, furthering the character of the street as a mere alley. A good view of the street during this period is to be found in Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, which featured a number of scenes in it, mostly on the west side a few doors north of the Pelanconi House. At the time of the film, years before its makeover by Christine Sterling, it was hardly considered to be a proper street, but rather just a dingy, dirty alley. Its decline as the center of civic life led to its reclamation by diverse sectors of the city's poor and disenfranchised. The Plaza served as a gateway for newly arrived immigrants, especially Mexicans and Italians. During the 1920s the pace of Mexican immigration into the United States increase to about 500,000 per year. California became the prime destination for Mexican immigrants, with Los Angeles receiving the largest number of any city in the Southwest. As a result of this dramatic demographic increase, a resurgence of Mexican culture occurred in Los Angeles. It was within this social and political climate that Christine Sterling began her public campaign to save the old Francisco Avila Adobe from demolition and build up Olvera Street as a center of Mexican romance and tourism. Preservation and restoration
Present The Plaza-Olvera Street site was designated at a California State Historic Landmark in 1953. In the midst of Downtown industrialization, Olvera Street is a quaint, colorized, and non-confrontational environment. Olvera Street is successful in depicting the quaintness of Mexican culture. As a tourist attraction, Olvera Street is a living museum paying homage to a romantic vision of old Mexico. The exterior facades of the brick buildings enclosing Olvera Street and on the small vendor stands lining its center are colorful piñatas, hanging puppets in white peasant garb, Mexican pottery, serapes, mounted bull horns, oversized sombreros, and life-size stuffed donkey. Perhaps the single most widespread image of this version of old Mexico is the painting or ceramic statue of the Mexican campesino reclining against a giant saguaro cactus. Olvera Street attracts almost two million visitors per year. See also Sources | ||||||||||||
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