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Before L.A.: Race, Space, and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1781-1894
David Torres-Rouff significantly expands borderlands history by examining the past and original urban infrastructure of one of America’s most prominent cities; its social, spatial, and racial divides and boundaries; and how it came to be the Los Angeles we know today. It is a fascinating study of how an innovative intercultural community developed along racial lines, and how immigrants from the United States engineered a profound shift in civic ideals and the physical environment, creating a social and spatial rupture that endures to this day.
- GenresHistory
361 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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About the author
David Samuel Torres-Rouff is an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Merced.
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January 16, 2019
This 268 page history book discusses the early history of Los Angeles from its founding in 1781 until its realization that it was a major city in 1894. Special emphasis is placed on noting which people held power, and how power determined class and the utilization of space.
I found this an interesting, but dense book; not a book for casual reading. It is also a discouraging book as Torres-Rouff relates a long string of power abuses through this period of history.
Los Angeles was established by the Spanish government in 1781. Eleven families (twelve men, eleven women and twenty-one children) were settled where today the Catholic Church and Plaza stand. The settlement was not far from the Tongva Indian village of Yanga, which had about 5,000 Indians.
Torres-Rouff notes that the Spanish settlers came with their own racial baggage. Spanish society consisted of a strict caste system with those born in Spain occupying the upper-class. Next in line would be those of pure Spanish blood, but not born in Spain. Next down were individuals of mixed blood; the more Spanish blood you had, the higher up in class you were. Those with no Spanish blood (Indians) occupied the lowest class.
The first settlers were of mixed blood and of no economic or social consequence; the comfortable upper-classes were not easily induced to pack up and moved to the far edge of civilization. As a consequence, they developed a society that was quite egalitarian. Think of how an early Moon colony would operate. The early frictions concerned the equal allocation of the water supply, and maintaining an upper-hand over the Indian village.
The Spanish government was far away, and the settlers were pretty much on their own to run their own affairs. It did not take long for the settlers to stratify themselves into class-lines. Those who took up cattle ranching were able to trade hides and tallow with the many Yankee ships that plowed the Pacific.
The cattle ranchers became the upper-class and called themselves Californios. The non-cattle ranchers who farmed or ran trades were called vecinos, Spanish for neighbors. Further down on the social scale were the unskilled Spanish speaking labors, or new Mexican arrivals, disparagingly called Cholos. The lowest classes were the neighboring Indians, who were called gente sin razon (people without reason).
These class lines continued into the early 1800s. Mexico threw off Spanish rule in 1820, but it meant little to this far-away village. In 1824, Mexico disbanded the Mission System, and sold of the vast mission estates. This meant that the wealthy cattle ranchers gobbled up the mission lands, and thereby became even richer.
Things might have continued this way but European-Americans began to immigrate from the east. At first, this did not present a problem. The early Americans learned Spanish, became Catholic, and married into the wealthy cattle families, and generally integrated themselves into the Californio society.
Things started to change with the Mexican-American War of 1848. The new influx of European-Americans were a rough-and-ready lot accustom to a rigid class structure based on skin color. They had a hard time accepting dark-skinned Spanish speakers as being upper-class. And they chafed at the fact that so much open land belonged to these people.
Things became even worst as American Civil War tensions arrived in Los Angeles. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, most of the European-American were from the Southern states, and they were militant racists believing the Spanish speakers had no right to claim upper-class status.
Much of this book details matters that were presented to the city council of decisions. Up until the 1870s, the Spanish speakers were able to hold their own, and the membership was split between English speakers and Spanish speakers. Minutes of the meetings were published in both English and Spanish.
But in the 1870s, servier droughts hit Southern California, and the Californios suffered economic ruin. Consequently, the Spanish speakers lost economic power, while the continued influx of the Eastern Americans changed the power structure of the city.
The new power structure took control of the future by denigrating the Spanish speaking history as primitive. The English speakers replaced the communal water system with a city owned Water Company that placed water and sewer pipes in the streets, and then paved the streets. It was not by coincidence that the first neighborhoods to get piped water and sewers were the White areas of town, while the Mexican and Chinese area were the last to receive water and sewers.
Torres-Rouff concludes his book with the large city festival of 1894. The year 1893 was a depression year in the US, and Los Angeles suffered. The merchant association decided it need some type of city fair to boost tourism and business, and it decided to put on La Fiesta, a city fair that celebrated its multi-ethic history. The Mexican, the Chinese and the Indian communities were invited to participate to show the world the charm and color of the city. But Torres-Rouff says the merchant association rewrote the history of Los Angeles to make it appear the story of Los Angeles before the White man was a sleepily Spanish town of no consequence until the arrival of the Whites. The rewritten history does not have a place of the Mexican story. The victor writes history.
I found this an interesting, but dense book; not a book for casual reading. It is also a discouraging book as Torres-Rouff relates a long string of power abuses through this period of history.
Los Angeles was established by the Spanish government in 1781. Eleven families (twelve men, eleven women and twenty-one children) were settled where today the Catholic Church and Plaza stand. The settlement was not far from the Tongva Indian village of Yanga, which had about 5,000 Indians.
Torres-Rouff notes that the Spanish settlers came with their own racial baggage. Spanish society consisted of a strict caste system with those born in Spain occupying the upper-class. Next in line would be those of pure Spanish blood, but not born in Spain. Next down were individuals of mixed blood; the more Spanish blood you had, the higher up in class you were. Those with no Spanish blood (Indians) occupied the lowest class.
The first settlers were of mixed blood and of no economic or social consequence; the comfortable upper-classes were not easily induced to pack up and moved to the far edge of civilization. As a consequence, they developed a society that was quite egalitarian. Think of how an early Moon colony would operate. The early frictions concerned the equal allocation of the water supply, and maintaining an upper-hand over the Indian village.
The Spanish government was far away, and the settlers were pretty much on their own to run their own affairs. It did not take long for the settlers to stratify themselves into class-lines. Those who took up cattle ranching were able to trade hides and tallow with the many Yankee ships that plowed the Pacific.
The cattle ranchers became the upper-class and called themselves Californios. The non-cattle ranchers who farmed or ran trades were called vecinos, Spanish for neighbors. Further down on the social scale were the unskilled Spanish speaking labors, or new Mexican arrivals, disparagingly called Cholos. The lowest classes were the neighboring Indians, who were called gente sin razon (people without reason).
These class lines continued into the early 1800s. Mexico threw off Spanish rule in 1820, but it meant little to this far-away village. In 1824, Mexico disbanded the Mission System, and sold of the vast mission estates. This meant that the wealthy cattle ranchers gobbled up the mission lands, and thereby became even richer.
Things might have continued this way but European-Americans began to immigrate from the east. At first, this did not present a problem. The early Americans learned Spanish, became Catholic, and married into the wealthy cattle families, and generally integrated themselves into the Californio society.
Things started to change with the Mexican-American War of 1848. The new influx of European-Americans were a rough-and-ready lot accustom to a rigid class structure based on skin color. They had a hard time accepting dark-skinned Spanish speakers as being upper-class. And they chafed at the fact that so much open land belonged to these people.
Things became even worst as American Civil War tensions arrived in Los Angeles. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, most of the European-American were from the Southern states, and they were militant racists believing the Spanish speakers had no right to claim upper-class status.
Much of this book details matters that were presented to the city council of decisions. Up until the 1870s, the Spanish speakers were able to hold their own, and the membership was split between English speakers and Spanish speakers. Minutes of the meetings were published in both English and Spanish.
But in the 1870s, servier droughts hit Southern California, and the Californios suffered economic ruin. Consequently, the Spanish speakers lost economic power, while the continued influx of the Eastern Americans changed the power structure of the city.
The new power structure took control of the future by denigrating the Spanish speaking history as primitive. The English speakers replaced the communal water system with a city owned Water Company that placed water and sewer pipes in the streets, and then paved the streets. It was not by coincidence that the first neighborhoods to get piped water and sewers were the White areas of town, while the Mexican and Chinese area were the last to receive water and sewers.
Torres-Rouff concludes his book with the large city festival of 1894. The year 1893 was a depression year in the US, and Los Angeles suffered. The merchant association decided it need some type of city fair to boost tourism and business, and it decided to put on La Fiesta, a city fair that celebrated its multi-ethic history. The Mexican, the Chinese and the Indian communities were invited to participate to show the world the charm and color of the city. But Torres-Rouff says the merchant association rewrote the history of Los Angeles to make it appear the story of Los Angeles before the White man was a sleepily Spanish town of no consequence until the arrival of the Whites. The rewritten history does not have a place of the Mexican story. The victor writes history.
May 6, 2019
Before L.A.: Race, Space, and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1781-1894 is the subaltern history of the early years of Los Angeles history. While some historians paint an uncomplicated picture of history, this book looks at Los Angeles through its various identities from its inception as a city to its adulthood as a soon to be power player. The author uses racial identities to demonstrate how some individuals became elites became powerful through land ownership, and, thereby subjugated others based on class differentiation. One realizes that not much has changed in Los Angeles, a city based on land ownership and elite excessive displays of wealth.
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