What's with "the Queen of the Angels"? The nickname City of Angels is not a modern invention — it is older than the United States' hold on California. The pueblo's full name was El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, the Town of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, given for a Marian feast day. Over two centuries the town outgrew the long Spanish name, but the "Angels" stayed: Los Angeles has been the City of Angels since 1781, and everything that came later simply borrowed it.
The village grew through the eras. Mexican independence reached Alta California in 1821, opening the rancho years; Los Angeles was incorporated as an American city on April 4, 1850, the year California joined the Union. Cattle gave way to vineyards, then citrus, then oil, and the small pueblo on the river spread across a coastal plain ringed by the Santa Monica, San Gabriel, and Santa Ana mountains until it became the metropolis we know — yet the Plaza, the Plaza Church, and the names of the founders are all still there at El Pueblo.
Why People Visit Los Angeles California
- Walk Olvera Street and the Old Plaza at El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the founding site and oldest section of the city.
- Step inside the Plaza Church — Our Lady Queen of the Angels, "La Placita" — and see the Avila Adobe (1818), the city's oldest standing house.
- Find the 1781 founders monument at the Plaza, which names all 44 pobladores by name, age, and origin.
- Trace the Los Angeles River, the Porciúncula the settlers built beside.
- Look up at the Santa Monica and San Gabriel ranges that ring the coastal plain — the mountains-meet-coast view that defines Southern California.
