What's the name of the Filipino who settled the city of Los Angeles for the Spanish?

Answer 1

Gabino Angca.

Answer 2

Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, along with his daughter, were among those chosen to be the original settlers of the City of Los Angeles in 1781. He did start the expedition with the other pobladores, but his daughter got sick with small pox along the way, causing his delay in order to take care of her lingering illness. Antonio Miranda Rodriguez's name does appear in the first census for Los Angeles, and the next as well, however, in the census of 1783 his name was dropped and his allotment was re-assigned to someone else. His daughter eventually died of her illness, and he did subsequently arrive in Los Angeles, despite some stories to the contrary. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Miranda found that his allotment had already been assigned to another, but that the presidio in Santa Barbara wanted him.

Miranda's highly valued skill as a gunsmith was desired for the Presidio of Santa Barbara. The Presidio in Santa Barbara was in charge of protecting the area missions and settlements, including San Gabriel and Los Angeles, as the closest other presidio was in San Diego. Miranda settled in Santa Barbara in 1783 and lived there until his death. He was buried in the chapel of this Presidio in Santa Barbara. Presidio life is an interetsing study of the soldiers in these garrisons.

When in Southern California, go to the Presidio in downtown Santa Barbara and see the wall plaque listing him (Antonio Miranda) among those buried in the Presidio Chapel. Another thing to see is the commemorative tile at the foot of the altar, which was placed there by the Filipino Community of Santa Barbara.

According to the research of William Mason, former curator of the History Division of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Antonio Miranda Rodriguez was not just a settler but also a soldier, a soldado de cuera, and was literate (unusual for that time), as at least one report has been found that was written by him.

We owe a lot of what we know about Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, beyond Los Angeles, to William Mason, who had been doing this research until his untimely death in late 2000. Mason, who wrote an article about the Chinese in Mexico, found "chinos" (not Chinese, but Filipinos from the nao de china, or Manila Galleons) mentioned in church records of marriages in Mexico. His daughter will be donating his papers, hopefully to UCLA. In a tribute to Mason, I am preparing an article for the FANHS Journal on what he shared with me in regard to his research on Antonio Miranda Rodriguez. For now, here is the text of my lecture from a special event honoring the memory of Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, held at the Santa Barbara Presidio on June 13, 2004. This "Historical Lecture on the Occasion of the Life of Antonio Miranda Rodriguez" was also published in 2004 in La Campana, the quarterly journal of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.

Answer 3

Hello,

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