Council Opposes Planned Move of Juan Carlos’ Gift : The Right Statue, but the Wrong King

These days, it’s tough being an 18th-Century monarch. Just ask, if you could, King Carlos III, the Spanish king who in 1781 ordered the creation of El Pueblo de La Reina de Los Angeles--or simply L.A.

Carlos took a bashing Wednesday. The bashing was delivered by, of all people, the Los Angeles City Council.

Never mind, for the moment, that the council had assumed it was bashing King Ferdinand of the 15th Century. The question now is whether the present king of Spain, Juan Carlos I, will feel insulted. His majesty and Queen Sofia are scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles next Wednesday for a three-day visit.

Question of Moving Statue

At the heart of the confusion stands King Carlos III--more precisely, a statue of the king that was given by Juan Carlos to Los Angeles during his 1981 visit and placed in MacArthur Park. Unresolved is the question of whether the statue should be moved to El Pueblo State Historical Park--better known as Olvera Street--to stand with a statue of Felipe de Neve, the governor who carried out Carlos’ order and established the original Los Angeles settlement at the Olvera Street site.

The Spanish government, with Mayor Tom Bradley’s concurrence, asked that the statue be moved and had planned to rededicate it at a ceremony at noon next Wednesday.

But when Latino council members Richard Alatorre and Gloria Molina learned of the transfer of the statue, they were outraged. Sympathetic to their colleagues’ concerns, council members Wednesday voted 11 to 0, with four members absent, to disallow $10,000 in funding earmarked for the transport of the statue.

Bradley Unmoved

A Bradley spokesman said that, despite the council action, it is still the mayor’s intention to move the statue. “He intends to have the statue in place on the eastern end of the plaza in time for the dedication ceremony,” mayoral aide Fred MacFarlane said.

During council debate, Molina and Alatorre said they understood that the statue in question was of King Ferdinand.

“King Ferdinand basically conquered Mexico and the Mexicans,” Molina asserted. “This statue would be an insult to Mexico and the Mexicans here. It would be the equivalent of putting a statue of King George in Washington, D.C.”

Later, Molina--admitting that her knowledge of history may be faulty--said Ferdinand authorized the mission of Hernando Cortez, who conquered the Aztecs. (Some historians say it is unlikely that Ferdinand, who with Queen Isabella commissioned the explorations of Christopher Columbus in the 1490s, had even heard of Cortez, who conquered the Aztecs in 1521.) After it was learned that the statue in question was of King Carlos III, efforts to reach Molina were unsuccessful. Alatorre, through an aide, said it made no difference--that to honor a Spanish king that reigned prior to Mexico’s independence would be to celebrate tyranny.

Pedro Temboury, the Spanish consul general in Los Angeles, said he is puzzled and disturbed by the council’s action.

“I don’t understand this reaction,” Temboury said. “He (Carlos III) was the king of Spain and the king of California. He was the founder of this city!”

MacArthur Park, Temboury said, “has nothing to do with Carlos III. At that time, MacArthur Park was in the outskirts of the pueblo .”

Temboury defended the king’s memory, stressing that Carlos III had aided the American revolutionaries in the naval Battle of Pensacola. As for Mexico, he asserted, “there was no oppression at all” during the king’s reign.

‘Enlightened’ Monarch

USC history professor Mario Rodriguez, author of two books on the Spanish colonization of America, also defended Carlos III as an “enlightened” monarch who was responsible for many positive social reforms.

Rodriguez, himself a Spaniard, said Carlos III’s reputation is slandered by the “emotionalism” common to post-revolutionary countries. “They think monarchy is evil. . . . This is what people do with history so often. . . . From the scholarly point of view, I’d say Carlos III was a great figure.”

It would be “a compliment” to Juan Carlos to honor Carlos III in his presence, Rodriguez said.