The Order That Made Los Angeles the Capital of California
An extraordinary rare printed broadside notifying the people that Los Angeles was now a city and would function as the seat of Alta California's government
There existed a warming sectional rivalry between Alta California’s arribeños (northerners) and abajeños (southerners). Monterey, a settlement on the northern coast of Alta California, had been capital since Spain first colonized the province. But as the pueblo of Los Angeles grew in population and economic clout, its residents began to resent the...
There existed a warming sectional rivalry between Alta California’s arribeños (northerners) and abajeños (southerners). Monterey, a settlement on the northern coast of Alta California, had been capital since Spain first colonized the province. But as the pueblo of Los Angeles grew in population and economic clout, its residents began to resent the continued primacy of the Montereños. And so when in 1835 Jose Carrillo, a native of Los Angeles, took his seat in the Mexican Congress as Alta California’s sole delegate, he pleased his fellow Angeleños by orchestrating the southern migration of the territorial capital.
On May 23, the Mexican Congress promoted Los Angeles from the rank of pueblo to ciudad and made it the territorial capital of Alta California.
Rare broadside dated in Mexico, May 23, 1835, by order of President Barragan and Minister of Foreign Affairs José María de Gutiérrez Estrada. One page, trimmed at bottom.
“(…) We say that the town of Los Angeles is now a city and also declared it will be the capital of Alta California (…)” Partial transcription in Spanish: “El Presidente interino de los Estados-Unidos Mexicanos, a los habitantes de la Republica, sabed: Se erige en ciudad el pueblo de los Angeles de la Alta California, y será para lo sucesivo la Capital de este Territorio….”
The rivalry continued to simmer between Monterey and Los Angeles (then a town of 1,000 people) with some of the functions of a capital still performed at the latter, which had the facilities.
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