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March 24, 2007
El Pueblo (de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula) Historic Monument Gets new General Manager
Yes, like Ventura's split from its original name (San Buenaventura) or San Diego's true Spanish meaning (a whale's vagina), Los Angeles comes from a much larger city name - El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the River Porciúncula).
And like other rare departments in the landscape of city government (Port of Los Angeles or Neighborhood Empowerment) and recent appointments of general managers, the city has a department dedicated to El Pueblo, where Olvera Street is located, and the mayor has appointed a new general manager. Robert L. Andrade has served as the interim GM since August 2006, has a Masters in Education and a Bachelors degree in Latin American Studies from Loyola Marymount University and is no freshie to public service at all with 29 years under his belt.
As General Manager and Chief Executive Officer, Andrade will oversee El Pueblo's budget, operations and administration. Through his efforts, he hopes to lead a revitalization of the monument, expand relationships with local businesses, emphasize the City's multicultural legacy and build a state-of-the-art interpretive center.
We hope he also gets people to realize there is much more there than just Olvera Street. El Pueblo oversees the whole historic monument, which includes the Avila Adobe (the oldest house in LA), the Pico House, the Plaza House, El Pueblo Art Gallery, Chinese American Museum and much much more. But you wouldn't know it from their website because it looks like it hasn't been updated since 1995. However, a new website is to be launched within the next month.
Photo of the Avila Adobe
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There is a difference of opinion on the original name of the town and on the name’s subsequent history.
Msgr. Francis Weber, the archivist of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles held that the original name of the town was El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles. He based this on two arguments: that this short version is the name that appears at the head of the church record book for the new town and that historical Franciscan associations with both the religious title “Nuestra Señora de los Angeles” and the place called Porciúncula never included the added title of La Reina.
According to Weber, "Los Angeles is a shortened version of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles, the City of Our Lady of the Angels. Though the term La Reina (the Queen) frequently appears in the city's title, it is a spurious insertion, not etymologically justified."
The record of the town’s name in secular (not church) sources contradicts this view. When the Commandant General of the Provincias Internas, Teodoro de Croix, wrote to Joseph de Gálvez about the establishment of a new town on the Río Porciúncula, he referred to "un Pueblo con el título de la Reyna de los Angeles" (a village named the Queen of the Angeles).
But in other documents, the name Nuestra Señora de los Angeles is used (for example, by Governor Felipe de Neve in his instructions to Pedro Fages on September 7 1782.)
Most commentators consider the addition of the Porciúncula River (de Porciúncula or del Rio Porciúncula) to the name of the town as a late addition.
Interestingly, the status of the town was changed from pueblo (more of less “village) to a villa (a town) by the Mexican Congress following independence, an element of the story that is often overlooked, perhaps because we Anglos tend to discount the history of the Mexican period in favor of the city’s Spanish past.
Accuracy, however, never wins against romance. The town will always be a pueblo to some, even though it was on the verge of being given the status of a ciudad (city) at the end of the Mexican period.
Queen or no queen . . . that depends, I suppose, on which authority you prefer.
And the proper name for those who live in the pueblo/villa/ciudad de les Angeles is Angeleño (with a tilde over the n).
D. J. Waldie