Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.
Dominie, ad adjuvandum me festina.

My 86th birthday coincided with the 236th birthday of my home town, Los Angeles, CA. The L.A. County sheriff at the time of my birth, the 150th birthday of the city, was Sheriff Biscailuz, of Basque heritage. All the babies born on Sept. 4, 1931 received from the good Sheriff a little blue felt sombrero with white tassels. Its ribbon brim, in the colors of Mexico had printed on it, La Fiesta de Los Angeles. I still have mine, believe it or not.

I thought I would share a little history that most people do not know about the name of Los Angeles. On August 2, 1769, Father Juan Crespi, Franciscan, with the expedition of Captain Rivera Y Moncado, came upon a river that they named, Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de la Porciuncula. August 2 on the Franciscan calendar celebrated the Perdono at the tiny Assisi chapel of St. Francis. The chapel was given to St. Francis by Benedictines. It needed repair and Francis restored it. The chapel was on a small parcel of land, called a porziuncola. Painted on the wall behind the altar was a fresco of the Blessed Virgin with angels. The chapel, now inside a Basilica at Assisi, was named St. Mary of the Angels at the Little Portion (porciuncula). The new settlement near the river, discovered in California, became a pueblo, Sept. 4, 1781, and was known originally as El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (The town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Little Portion). Officially the name was simply El Pueblo de a Reina de Los Angeles, now just Los Angeles.

AMDG