At sundown on September 4, 1781, El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles del Rio Porcioncula was founded, known to us today as Los Angeles the "The City of Angels." Los Angeles was founded by eleven pobladores and their families. Recruited from the poorest classes of Sinaloa, Mexico, were a group of Mexicans that were a mixture of Indian and African with a trace of Spanish. Where any change offered a hope of improvement. The Los Angles settlers, 46 persons in all left Sinaloa and went north bound, and arrived at San Gabriel Mission in August. From there, under the authority of the governor of California, Felipe de Neve, the pobladores moved on a few more miles to settle the present day city of Los Angeles.

Nothing could be more humbling than the beginning of this city. Early in 1782, by order of Felipe de Neve, three men were "sent away as useless to the pueblo and themselves," and their properties were confiscated. The padres considered the pueblo settlers to be lazy, who only enjoyed drinking, gambling, and pursuing Indian women. Yet, within a couple of years, agriculture and cattle raising at Los Angeles developed enough to ensure the survival of the pueblo. By 1784 the settlers had replaced their primitive huts with adobe houses and laid the foundations for a church and other public buildings. Two years later, land titles were finally issued to the founding pobladores.