Los Angeles Pobladores

Los Angeles Pobladores

The Pobladores ("townspeople") of Los Angeles refers to the 44 original settlers and 4 soldiers who founded the city of Los Angeles, California in 1781.

When the Governor of Las Californias, Felipe de Neve, was assigned to establish secular settlements in what is now the state of California (after more than a decade of missionary work among the natives), he commissioned a complete set 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. 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 castas (castes).

The castas of the 22 adult pobladores, according to the 1781 census, were:

  • 1 Peninsular (Spaniard born in Spain)
  • 1 Criollo (Spaniard born in New Spain)
  • 1 Mestizo (mixed Spanish and Indian)
  • 2 Negros (blacks of full African ancestry)
  • 8 Mulattos (mixed Spanish and black)
  • 9 Indios (American Indians)

Of the 22 children who contributed to the settlement, 16 were of African ancestry.

Read more about Los Angeles Pobladores:  Rediscovery of The Pobladores, Founding Families of El Pueblo De La Reina De Los Ángeles, The Los Angeles Census of 1790

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