People from the Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America have had an enormous impact on Los Angeles. Which isn’t at all surprising when you consider nearly fifty per cent of the population of Los Angeles today has a Hispanic background and that, therefore Los Angeles Latinos form the largest ethnic share of the population. That’s largely due to significant immigration into LA over the past century from Central and South America. Nevertheless, going back much further, California was part of both the Spanish Empire and, after its independence, Mexico. The roots of Latino culture in Los Angeles run very deep. As you’ll notice when you see many of our street and place names.

Even here in the U.S. people can get confused with the different terms – Hispanic, Latino and Spanish can get conflated, although they all mean different things. Hispanic means Spanish-speaking, which would include Spain, but not Brazil (Brazilians speak Portuguese). Latino generally means people from the countries of Latin America, so that doesn’t include Spain. And if you’re Spanish – well, that means you’re from Spain, and not from ANY other country. If you’re from Mexico you’re Mexican, in the same way as if you’re from the U.S. you’re American, not English (and, for God’s sake, not Irish!).

The five million people of Hispanic descent in Los Angeles County works out to be almost ten per cent of the entire U.S. total, so for Hispanic Heritage Month I’m going to take a look at two legendary Latinos, whom we often talk about on our tours, and the impact that they had on Los Angeles.

Pio Pico

The name ‘Pico’ is one you see around LA a lot. There’s Pico Boulevard, the fifteen-mile street running through the Westside from downtown to the Pacific Ocean, Pico House, the old hotel in the Los Angeles Plaza, and Pio Pico State Historic Park, near Whittier in the San Gabriel Valley. But who, or what, is Pico? Well, Pio Pico was a hugely important figure in the early history of Los Angeles. He was the last Mexican Governor of California and he remained here after the state became part of the U.S., finding wealth as a cattle rancher and hotelier, before dying in comparative poverty in 1894. 

Pio Pico was born at the San Gabriel Mission, near where I live, just east of the city of Los Angeles. His ancestry was Mexican, Native American, African and Spanish – a common mixture in this part of the world in those days. At the time he would have been referred to as Mestizo by the Spanish, but today he would be considered Latino.

At his birth, in 1801, the Mission was in Alta California, a province of New Spain, the Spanish colony that encompassed almost all of Central America and the western third of what’s now the United States, although California itself had only recently been colonized. Pico, therefore, was a first generation Californio, as Californians were called at the time. 

While still a young man, in 1821, Spain lost its New World colonies (or most of them) and so California became part of Mexico. These years were kind to Pico and from an early investment in a general store in San Diego his wealth grew, as he became owner of several enormous ranches in Southern California.

Eventually, in 1832, Pio Pico would become interim governor of Alta California (as California was known then), after the First Battle of the Cahuenga Pass. Later, in 1845, he would become Governor again (after another stand-off at the Cahuenga Pass between rebellious Californios and the Mexican Government), just as the U.S. and Mexico were squaring up to each other in the run-up to the Mexican-American War of 1846-8.

Pico’s brother, Andres, was also a wealthy and important figure in the early history of the state, instrumental in signing a peace treaty with the U.S. military commander in California, in 1847. You could argue that of these Los Angeles Latinos, his story had been the one most ignored by historians, when you consider that the agreement he negotiated was central to the entire peace settlement with Mexico.

Pio Pico had been ordered back to Mexico for the duration of the war, but returned at its conclusion to find California now part of the U.S. I guess he had experience in these sudden territorial changes, so he knuckled down again and made another fortune from selling beef to hungry prospectors, brought to California by the Gold Rush of 1849-50 (prices went from $2 to $70 per head of cattle almost overnight).

Spying another opportunity in 1869, he sold his enormous ranch in the San Fernando Valley to James Boon Lankershim and Isaac Newton Van Nuys, using the money to construct the three-storey, thirty-three room Pico House. For several years it was the largest building in Los Angeles and its finest hotel. Every luxury was available there, including gas lighting and no less than two bathrooms on every floor!

Unfortunately that was his peak though, as his legendary generosity, propensity for gambling and a serious illness all combined to bring him down. He finally lost his ranch at Whittier, when he unknowingly signed away the deed in return for a loan (he’d never learned to read). He died, penniless, at his daughter-in-law’s house in downtown Los Angeles in 1894, the tiny town that had numbered barely three-hundred inhabitants when he was born having swelled to a city of around seventy thousand people.

Dolores del Rio

Another legendary Los Angeles Latino (or Latina) that has largely been forgotten in her adopted home is Dolores del Rio. Once upon a time one of the most famous people on the planet, she was renowned for her beauty, her acting talent and even her mellifluous voice.

She’s the most exciting woman I’ve ever met.

Orson Welles

Bearing in mind that Welles was married to Rita Hayworth at the time, that’s really saying something.

The two most beautiful things in the world are the Taj Mahal and Dolores del Rio.

George Bernard Shaw

The great playwright was in his seventies when pronouncing that, so she was clearly quite something. But who was this lady that so seduced such successful writers and directors?

Del Rio was born in Mexico to a wealthy family and originally wanted to be a dancer but, in 1925, she was discovered by a film director at a party in Mexico City. He persuaded her to move to Los Angeles to pursue work in the then still relatively new moving picture industry there. Within a couple of years she had become a big star, due to huge hits such as Ramona, What Price Glory? and No Other Woman. Del Rio survived, and even thrived, into the era of sound movies, a change that killed the careers of many of her contemporaries. By the 1930’s she was a huge international star, one of the biggest in Hollywood.

One of the most interesting things that one notes when reading del Rio’s reviews and interviews from that period is how differently she was seen, and written about, than Latina stars today. Nowadays Latina actresses and singers are often described as being “hot”, “spicy” – maybe even a “mamacita”. Del Rio, however, was more often referred to as “aristocratic”, “elegant”, “sophisticated” and “refined”. She acted, danced and sang in her movies, proving herself to be a hugely talented triple-threat.

As roles began to dry up for del Rio in the 1940’s she moved back to Mexico to work in the movie industry there. This coincided with the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema and she had more success in films such as Maria Candelaria (the first Latin American film to win the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival) and La Otra.

After that she began alternating projects between Mexico and Los Angeles, appearing in Flaming Star in 1960, as Elvis Presley’s mother (the heartthrob himself had insisted on her casting). In many ways Dolores del Rio was the prototype for many later crossover stars and Hispanic actresses, such as Rita Moreno, Jennifer Lopez and Penelope Cruz. 

There’s a beautiful mural dedicated to del Rio in Hollywood, just off the Walk of Fame, with a list of all her movies, Mexican and American. I enjoy standing before it, paying homage to this amazing woman and offering silent thanks for the contribution that Latinos, such as del Rio and Pio Pico, have given to Los Angeles, the U.S., and indeed the world.

Learn More About These Los Angeles Latinos

We visit Pico House on the LA: Food + History + Design Tour, as well as taking a walk through the Los Angeles Plaza to get tacos, and pay our respects at the Dolores del Rio mural on the Real Hollywood Tour.

If you have any feedback on Legendary Los Angeles Latinos please email us or reach out on social media, we’d love to hear from you.

– By Damien Blackshaw (Twitter)