Los Angeles Plaza Historic District

Los Angeles was founded on September 4, 1781 by 44 Spanish pioneers under the official name of El Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles, a name that would be amplified in the popular imagination and the history of The Town of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Portiuncula. Its foundation was organized by the Governor of the Province of California, Felipe de Neve, under the orders of Carlos the Third of Spain. The settler families were recruited in the provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa. The eleven families represented the society's racial differences of the new northern Spain. They were of various races, mostly mestizos, mulattoes, and Indians.