History + Migration

The Influence of History and Migration on Social Housing in Los Angeles

Carla Callejas, Evan DeaKyne, Cole Hunger, Samah Safiullah, Ruiming Zeng

Tongva

The Tongva territory extended from Palos Verdes to San Bernardino, from Saddleback Mountain to the San Fernando Valley. It comprised 5,000 people in nearly 100 villages. Each village was independent and interconnected. Baptismal records from the Spanish missions collected by the Early California Cultural Atlas project suggest the size of each village, represented in orange.

The village Povuu'nga in east Long Beach was the “place of emergence,” where the Tongva believed their world and their lives began. It is considered a sacred site.

The village Shevaanga was north of Whittier Narrows, close to the second location of Mission San Gabriel (the original site was abandoned after flooding). The Spanish were the first to encounter the Tongva, whom they called Gabrieliños.

The village Yaanga near downtown Los Angeles is believed to have been the largest of the Tongva villages. Just west of the Los Angeles River, Yaanga now lies beneath the 101 Freeway.

On the western edge of Tovaangar, the Valley was at the crossroads of cultures and languages, including Tongva, Fernandeño and Chumash.

Chumash

A maritime culture, known as hunters and gatherers, the Chumash had boats - canoes, called tomols - enabled abundant fishing and trade, traveling up and down the coast to other villages. Tomols were usually constructed from redwood or pine logs. Chumash people were not dependent upon farming, as were other Native American tribes. Acorns, seeds, bulbs, roots and nuts were seasonal staples, as was wild game, including bears, seals, otters, shellfish, deer and rabbits.

Chumash homes called 'ap 'ap, were constructed of local plant materials. Baskets and mats are woven, and bones and plants were and still are used for tools and clothing. The Chumash learned to be extremely innovative and resourceful and found uses for everything that was available, including each part of almost every plant.

The Chumash also developed a variety of games, which were designed to teach the young about sportsmanship and skills useful for hunting and making crafts. Stories are told to teach the children about their relationship with nature, and their cultural and religious beliefs.

First settlement in 1777

California's first settlement in San Jose was in 1777. The primary purpose for these settlements was to reaffirm Spanish claims over the territory of upper California in the face of encroachments by Russia from the north and Britain from the sea.

The first party of settlers set out from Sinaloa on February 2, 1781. By the following August, all settler parties had rendezvoused at the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel.

A few weeks later, Neve, all settlers (11 families - one family never made it to Los Angeles), four soldiers and their families, mission priests and a few Indians, set out for the final eight miles of the journey to arrive at the site of the new pueblo. Neve recorded September 4, 1781, as the official date of the establishment of El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles, The Town of the Queen of the Angels.

Colonization

The project of Spanish colonizers in the years following its conquest of Mexico's territory encompassed further conquest, this time of the spirit of the people. In addition to the colonial project of resource extraction, economic exploitation, and slavery; the conquistadors had brought with them representatives of the Catholic church, who embarked on a program of civilizing and converting the local populace to be loyal Christian subjects. The California Missions, established along the El Camino Real trail, were positioned about one day’s ride by horseback from each other and fortified by the presence of presidios, or “royal forts”.

With compulsory Christianization, missionaries noted that the locals were adopting the Spanish language, customs, and were beginning to recognize the Christian God among their pantheons. However, the missionaries were dismayed to note that the Native populations were reluctant to completely relinquish their Mesoamerican cultures. To hasten their conversion, Spanish missionaries engaged in regular projects of cultural erasure and genocide which encompassed the destruction of artifacts and temples, persecution of community leaders, and the prohibition of customs deemed incongruous with Christianity. Strict work schedules were imposed upon them to keep them productive and occupied. This arrangement was predicated upon the imposition of horrific living conditions for the Natives, with European diseases regularly decimating their numbers. By the time of the Mexican Secularization of Alta in 1833, there were about 20,000 Mission Natives producing a variety of commodities for export around the world.

The province of Alta, California, of which Pueblo de Los Ángeles was a part, was sparsely populated and far removed from greater Mexican society. Upon winning independence from Spain, the Mexican government regarded Alta as a “territory” of Mexico and the little political influence it commanded in the region was further challenged by a relative lack of knowledge of the local context.

Hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico began to ramp up in part due to territorial disputes between Mexico and the Republic of Texas, and later by the American annexation of Texas in 1845. The minor armed resistance in California ceased when the Californios signed the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. The next few years encompassed US efforts to fortify the region militarily, with the US government sending numerous contingents of armed settlers to California, installing a military government until California became a state a few years later.

Economic Opportunity

Between 1848 and 1853, a quarter of a million people rushed to California in search of gold. This epic event created an instant state and established the 'Gold Rush' as California's official founding myth.

"A small oligarchy... put together press, transit, water, and politics in the service of real estate speculation. Los Angeles grew

...and they prospered." - Historian Kevin Starr

In the first three decades of the twentieth century, the Los Angeles metropolitan area emerged as the fastest-growing urban–industrial economy on the Pacific Coast. The social and economic organization that was necessary to make Los Angeles the Gold and Oil capital of the world was facilitated by massive influxes of investment from East Coast capital, most notably through the avatars of Henry E. Huntington, William Mulholland, and Harrison Gray Otis. A handful of men would decide the urban fabric that would inform the layout of Los Angeles for the next 150 years. There are a number of reasons for this, most notably would be major infrastructure development.

Major Works

Los Angeles Aqueduct

By 1908 Los Angeles’ population was already too large for the available water sources to adequately serve, so this immense 233-mile long public works project was initiated and took the carrying capacity of the valley from a couple hundred thousand to millions.

Deepwater Harbor

In contrast with San Diego and San Francisco, Los Angeles has no natural harbor and it was located 20 miles inland from a coast where deep-water anchorage was not possible. The eventual site of Los Angeles Harbor, the south-facing San Pedro Bay, was originally a mudflat too shallow to support a wharf. Starting in the 1870's, enormous efforts were put into dredging the bay and then constructing a wharf, a process that took several decades. Once the harbor was finished, the ability of Los Angeles to import and export resources and people grew exponentially.

Streetcar System

In order to adquately move this rapidly growing labor population, local capitalists constructed the Los Angeles streetcar system in order to ensure workers could get from their homes to the factories, refineries and mills. This connected the city and allowed a previously impossible level of expansion at the city margins.

Ethnic Enclaves

The waves of immigration that followed were largely motivated by economic opportunity - people traveled to California to make their fortunes. Once they arrived in the city, they naturally gravitated toward people of common cultural and linguistic backgrounds, so certain sections of the city began to develop distinct characters, resembling the countries or communities of origin that most of the residents hailed from. For many, the dream of striking it rich was not possible; even with exploding industry, there were people unable to find legitimate work. Distinctly racial organized crime groups began to emerge consisting of these disenfranchised individuals, seeking to capitalize on rapidly growing black markets.

Over time tensions began to rise between these disorganized immigrant clusters, as competition for resources, jobs, and housing was particularly fierce and often differentially allocated. Oftentimes, following a new wave of immigration to the city, riots would kick off as one racial group swarmed into the neighborhood of another, committing property damage, looting, attacking, and lynching people. Los Angeles was becoming a pressure cooker, and racial violence was popping off at an accelerating rate.

Migrations and Segregation

Housing Demographics: Constants and Transitions

Throughout the 20^th century and into the 21^st century the demographic breakdown in terms of geographical location within the city has remained relatively constant over time. Evidence of different racial and ethnic groups clustering together and forming their own communities and neighborhoods within Los Angeles during the heavy migration period still remains today. While some of the reason behind this can be attributed to those living around people with similar language, culture, race, or ideals, policies such as redlining are also a cause for this modern-day residential segregation.

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