Why Los Angeles is called the city of angels


You really don't have to be an expert in Spanish to see "the angels" in the name of the city of Los Angeles. And people often refer to LA as the city of angels, and sometimes as the city of the queen of the angels. And if you know your Los Angeles history, you know that the entire name is

El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Angeles

Which means: the town of our lady the queen of the angels. The queen of the angels is Mary, the mother of Jesus (pictured above).

Time travel with me to the days of Zorro, in old Los Angeles, back in the days of Spanish rule. Let's travel back to California in about 1820 to where downtown Los Angeles is nowadays.

No, I'm not kidding. Zorro lived in Los Angeles, California. Although he is fictional, his town isn't. But waitaminute, Zorro would not have called it Los Angeles. He would have called it "El Pueblo" - the town.

Of course, just calling a town "the town" doesn't work well when the population starts to grow and there are other towns, so it became El Pueblo de Los Angeles, and ultimately just shortened to Los Angeles (people know it was a town, that didn't need to be in the name).

¡Viva Zorro! ¡Viva Los Angeles!

Zorro, a fictional character set in a real place - Los Angeles.
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