Most came from Sinaloa, Mexico, where two-thirds of the residents were people of mixed African and Spanish heritage.
The number of blacks was eclipsed by new immigrants in the early American years. Only about a dozen of the 1, county residents listed in the census were black. During the next 80 years the influx of blacks grew, and by Los Angeles was home to the largest black community on the Pacific Coast.
The first Chinese-Americans in the city were laborers recruited in China by Chinese contractors and unknowingly brought to Los Angeles in By their numbers grew to more than 4, The Chinese dominated the agricultural business as growers, vendors and market proprietors. Others worked swinging picks and shovels laying the tracks for the Southern Pacific railroad, including carving out the San Fernando railroad tunnel through the mountains.
During this time the Chinese endured racial hatred due in part to intense economic rivalries with whites, which resulted in the Chinese Exclusionary Acts in the s. Mexican-Americans—people largely of mixed Spanish and Indian descent—came to Southern California under the flag of Spain, having been recruited from Sonora and Sinaloa in New Spain Mexico beginning in Although their numbers were small, their language and culture prevailed over those of the local Indian inhabitants.
Mexico ruled California from , when Mexican rebels overthrew Spanish rule, until the end of the Mexican-American War in The Mexicans remained in the majority after the war but lost political and social dominance. Their numbers increased markedly after the Mexican revolution in The coming of the railroads changed everything. With a huge investment in their new coast-to-coast rail lines and large Los Angeles land holdings, the railroads set forth a long-term plan for growth.
Southern California citrus farming was born. Tourism and the building of towns were promoted to attract investors, to raise land values, and to increase the value of railroad shipments. Thousands of tourists and land speculators hurried to Los Angeles County.
The boom proved to be a speculative frenzy that collapsed abruptly in Many landowners went broke. People in vast numbers abandoned the Los Angeles area, sometimes as many as 3, a day. This flight prompted the creation of the chamber of commerce, which began a worldwide advertising campaign to attract new citizens. The county as a whole, however, benefited.
The build-up had created several local irrigation districts and numerous civic improvements. In addition, the Los Angeles population had increased from about 11, in to about 60, in In the first salable petroleum in California was the oil found at Pico Canyon near San Fernando. But the real boom began in the s, when Edward L. Los Angeles became a center of oil production in the early 20th Century. By the area had derricks, and in the area near Santa Monica Boulevard and Vermont Avenue was an unruly oil shantytown.
Drilling activity in the county reached new heights in the s when major finds were made in Whittier, Montebello, Compton, Torrance, and Inglewood. These three huge fields upset national oil prices and glutted existing storage facilities.
By the turn of the century almost 1, oil wells operated throughout Los Angeles. Oil production has continued down to the present throughout the Los Angeles Basin; between and some 1, wells pumped million barrels of oil from these pumps.
In the early s, agriculture became an important part of the economy. We matched their demographics with images of similar contemporary Mexicans. Here, there are 22 adults and 22 children. Two are white and two are black. Eleven are indigenous to Mexico.
The rest are multiracial combinations of white, black and indigenous. Half are of African descent. We cannot help but point out that many, living in Los Angeles today, look much like the founders of the city.
The faces pictured above represent L. Some of the settlers later added more children. Villavicencio was Criollo - Spaniard born in Americas.
A 12th settler, a Filipino, was meant to help found Los Angeles in She died in , having lived almost years. This prevented Catalina from acting as heir to Pico's estate. She was, however, later buried with him. Four colonial soldiers escoltas , with their families, escorted the original settlers for the final leg of their journey from the Mission San Gabriel to Los Angeles.
This sparked a flurry of land speculation, and civic boosters were soon tempting winter-weary Easterners with promises of lush orange groves and boundless sunshine. But oranges and people need water, and L. Take it. Griffith was among the first directors to film in the Los Angeles area, attracted by the mild weather and low-wage, non-union workers.
By , Cecil B. Soon, the small town known as Hollywood was annexed by Los Angeles, making the city the center of the entertainment industry. The city is also a center of the oil industry: Edward Doheny—notorious for his involvement in the Teapot Dome Scandal —hit a gusher near downtown Los Angeles in , and within a few years more than oil wells were pumping across the L.
But the rapid growth of the multiethnic metropolis brought considerable tensions: During the Zoot Suit Riots , violent mobs of U. Racial unrest exploded again in the Watts Riots , and was at the center of the Rodney King beating and the Los Angeles Riots that followed. In , O. Simpson was arrested for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, only to be acquitted one year later.
Other disasters, such as the Long Beach earthquake, the Sylmar earthquake and the Woolsey wildfire, have ravaged the city. As of , the population of the City of Los Angeles was more than 4 million and the entire metropolitan area was home to over 12 million people.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
0コメント