Pio Pico

Pio Pico. Zanja Madre. , Pio Pico , Mexico‘s Last California Governor , The importance of Afro-Mexicans in Los Angeles is best represented by Pío de Jesús Pico (1801-1894), who was the last governor of California under Mexican rule. Born at the San Gabriel Mission, Pico was an owner of huge rancho properties and built the Pico House hotel as the city's grandest hotel in 1870, which still stands today. A two-time governor, Pico was fond of politics, gambling and horse racing. Pico and his brother Andrés Pico receiver a massive land grant estimated at 33.441 acres in what is now San Diego County. After California joined the Union in 1850, Pico lost all his properties and died penniless at age 93. His "summer home" is now Pío Pico State Historic Park, located in the City of Pico Rivera, the city named after the former governor. , , Zanja Madre , The Zanja Madre, or Mother Ditch, tapped directly into the Los Angeles River, bringing water directly to the growing pueblo. It later brought water from a dirt and brush dam built across the Rio Porciúncula through a series of waterwheels and reservoirs. The watercourse was strengthened later by a series of wooden pipes and later rebuilt as a subterranean brick vaulted watercourse that remained active until 1904. The Zanjero, or water master, was a powerful member of the community who often earned more money than the alcalde or mayor. , , Chinese Settlers , The Gold Rush of 1848 brought many Chinese to Norther California to work in the mines. The first Chinese to come to Los Angeles were two male house servants, who arrived in the 1850's. By 1870, a community of 200 Chinese had settled in the area east of the Plaza in what is now Union Station. The racism, exploi- tation, and violence that the Chinese experienced in the gold fields and in San Francisco during the 1850s and 1860s eventually came to the Chinese of Los Angeles. In October, 1871, a mob of more than 500 people responding to the shooting of a white man-possibly by accident-took part in a bloody racially-motivated assault on Chinatown, during which 19 Chinese men and boys were lynched, shot and stabbed to death, including the community's respected doctor, Chin Lee A Chinese Kindergarten class, 1900 Los Angeles Public Library Tong. The Chinese Massacre was one of the largest mass killings during that era. During the 1930s, residents of Old Chinatown were evicted in order to make way for Union Station, leaving many families homeless. In June, 1938, community leaders from Old Chinatown opened New Chinatown that continues today at its present location northwest from Old Chinatown. , , Fort Moore , The Fort Moore Memorial is the original site of the Post of Los Angeles, a barricade constructed by American Army troops in 1846 at the onset of the United States and Mexico War. The post was enlarged in 1847 during the occupation of the pueblo and designated as Fort Moore. By 1848 the fort was only partially completed. The garr- ison was withdrawn and the site was abandoned. In 1958, the site was rebuilt as a memorial commemorating the first raising of the U.S. flag on the site in 1848. After several decades of decay, the memorial was renovated and the landmark waterfall repaired in 2019 by the County of Los Angeles.