Editing Los Angeles (section)

===Spanish rule===
Maritime explorer [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo]] claimed the area of southern California for the [[Spanish Empire]] in 1542, while on an official military exploring expedition, as he was moving northward along the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast from earlier colonizing bases of [[New Spain]] in [[Central America|Central]] and South America.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o0cOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA21|title=The Herald's History of Los Angeles|last=Willard|first=Charles Dwight|publisher=Kingsley-Barnes & Neuner|year=1901|location=Los Angeles|pages=21–24|oclc=2058819|access-date=September 29, 2011|archive-date=November 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106163847/https://books.google.com/books?id=o0cOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA21#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Gaspar de Portolà]] and [[Franciscan]] missionary [[Juan Crespí]] reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pacificahistory.wikispaces.com/Portola+Expedition+1769+Diaries|title=Portola Expedition 1769 Diaries|publisher=Pacifica Historical Society|access-date=January 7, 2015|archive-date=November 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151113232240/http://pacificahistory.wikispaces.com/Portola+Expedition+1769+Diaries|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Mission San Fernando Rey de España (Oriana Day) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|The [[Empire of Spain|Spanish]] founded [[Mission San Fernando Rey de España]] in 1797.]]
In 1771, Franciscan [[friar]] [[Junípero Serra]] directed the building of the [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel]], the first [[Mission (station)|mission]] in the area.<ref name="LeffingwellWorden2005">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zFn57UJ1mJIC&pg=PA43|title=California missions and presidios|last1=Leffingwell|first1=Randy|last2=Worden|first2=Alastair|date=November 4, 2005|publisher=Voyageur Press|isbn=978-0-89658-492-1|pages=43–44|access-date=September 30, 2011|archive-date=November 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106163847/https://books.google.com/books?id=zFn57UJ1mJIC&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> On September 4, 1781, a group of 44 settlers known as "[[Los Angeles Pobladores|Los Pobladores]]" founded the {{lang|es|pueblo|italics=no}} (town) they called {{Langx|es-MX|[[El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles]]|label=none|italics=no|translation=The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels}}.<ref name="almanac"/> The present-day city has the largest [[Archdiocese of Los Angeles|Roman Catholic archdiocese]] in the United States. Two-thirds of the Mexican or ([[New Spain]]) settlers were [[mestizo]] or [[mulatto]], a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry.<ref>{{cite book|title=Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California|last1=Mulroy|first1=Kevin|last2=Taylor|author2-link=Quintard Taylor|first2=Quintard|author3=Autry Museum of Western Heritage|date=March 2001|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-98082-9|page=79|chapter=The Early African Heritage in California (Forbes, Jack D.)|access-date=September 30, 2011|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2eH35EuLuUsC|archive-date=November 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106163918/https://books.google.com/books?id=2eH35EuLuUsC|url-status=live}}</ref> The settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820, the population had increased to about 650 residents.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KyFPAAAAYAAJ|title=Historical and biographical record of southern California: containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century|last=Guinn|first=James Miller|publisher=Chapman pub. co.|year=1902|page=63|access-date=September 30, 2011|archive-date=March 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230318040525/https://books.google.com/books?id=KyFPAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district of [[El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument|Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza]] and [[Olvera Street]], the oldest part of Los Angeles.<ref name="Estrada2006">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NzlO8C5-Q88C|title=Los Angeles's Olvera Street|last=Estrada|first=William D.|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7385-3105-2|access-date=September 30, 2011|archive-date=November 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106163849/https://books.google.com/books?id=NzlO8C5-Q88C|url-status=live}}</ref>