September 4 marks the traditional anniversary of the 1781 founding of El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles (The Town of the Queen of the Angels).
In a scene that's reenacted each year by descendants of the pueblo's original colonists, the 44 founding pobladores (townspeople) marched on Sept. 4, 1781, as a group from Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to the historic Los Angeles Plaza at the southern end of Olvera Street. There, Governor Felipe de Neve welcomed the procession and presided over a lavish ceremony commemorating the town's founding. It was a celebration worthy of the birth of a great city.
Except that none of it actually happened.
