Wirt (shockingly doesn't give the full answer) writes


Dave asks:

> The original name for LA was, IFAIK, Ciudad de Los Angeles (an maybe
slightly
> different before it was a real city). Today, you will still here it
referred
> to a City of the Angels.  History buffs, was there an original "Pueblo de
Los
> Angeles" or mission of similar name?

Yes. BTW, the original name was: "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de
Los
Angeles" (The Town of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels).
-----------------------------------------------------------
Actually the full name is:

EL PUEBLO DE NUESTRA SENORA LA REINA DE LOS ANGELES DE PORCIUNCULA

the following article explains all.

EL PUEBLO DE NUESTRA SENORA LA REINA DE LOS ANGELES DE PORCIUNCULA. The name
Los Angeles is Spanish for The Angels. There is much more to this name,
however. On Wednesday, August 2, 1769, Father Juan Crespi, a Franciscan
priest accompanying the first European land expedition through California,
led by Captain Fernando Rivera Y Moncado, described in his journal a
"beautiful river from the northwest" located at "34 degrees 10 minutes."
They named the river Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de la Porciúncula. In the
Franciscan calendar, August 2 was the day of the celebration of the feast of
the Perdono at the tiny Assisi chapel of St. Francis of Assisi. Early in St.
Francis' life, the Benedictines had given him this tiny chapel for his use
near Assisi. The chapel, ruined and in need of repair, was located on what
the Italians called a porziuncola or "very small parcel of land." Painted on
the wall behind the altar was a fresco of the Virgin Mary surrounded by
angels. Now contained within a Basilica, the chapel was named Saint Mary of
the Angels at the Little Portion. The newly discovered "beautiful river" was
named in honor of this celebration and this chapel. In 1781, a new
settlement was established along that river. The settlement came to be known
as El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula or The
Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Little Portion although its
official name was simply El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles [from
http://www.losangelesalmanac.com/topics/History/hi03a.htm] The full name of
Los Angeles, El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de
Porciúncula, can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A. [Stuart Kidd].

Mike Berkowitz
Guess? Inc.

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *