Festivities Mark L.A.’s Birthday and Labor Day

With much of Southern California basking on the beaches and relishing Labor Day barbecues, hundreds of Los Angeles residents spent Monday celebrating a different kind of holiday amid a festive display of 18th-Century tradition and modern technology.

As Mayor Tom Bradley sang an off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday,” the city of Los Angeles celebrated the 208th year of its founding with daylong ceremonies at the downtown Olvera Street Plaza.

On hand for the celebration were descendants of the city’s 11 founding families and their soldier escorts who first made the journey from the San Gabriel Mission and established the historic site of El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles on Sept. 4, 1781.

Annual Journey

Los Angeles has since grown to become the nation’s second-largest city with a population of more than 3.4 million, and more than 50 people who trace their ancestry to the founding families--or Los Pobladores--repeated that nine-mile trek Monday in what has become an annual journey.

“It gives us a sense of pride,” said Robert Lopez, 68-year-old president of Los Pobladores 200 who described himself as a seventh-generation descendant of Luis Quintero, one of the city founders, and Roque Cota, one of the soldiers who escorted the original group of settlers.

“To think that one of your ancestors owned one-eleventh of all of Los Angeles is something to think about,” Lopez said, “although there wasn’t much to own back then.”

Among those who greeted the first Spanish arrivals more than two centuries ago were the Gabrielino Indians, a local tribe that called the village of Los Angeles by their own name of Yang-Na. And, they too, were represented Monday by an elderly couple in traditional Indian dress.

‘One of the Few Recognitions’

“This celebration is one of the few recognitions we’ve had in 200 years,” said Vera Rocha, 60, as she clutched a handful of crow feathers for spiritual strength. “Our people were lost in the missions, and we lost our identity. . . . We were a lost people.”

Her 65-year-old husband, Manuel, agreed. “We are here so people won’t forget about (the Gabrielinos),” he said. “This is a very important day for all of us.”

For many in the crowd, it was a day of blending old-style culture and high-tech wizardry as costumed actors portrayed life in 18th-Century Los Angeles as nearby Los Angeles city firefighters demonstrated a high-rise rescue. Singing groups and dance troupes performed to historical Latin American music, while a team of city helicopters flew overhead in formation.

For the rest of Southern California, however, Labor Day involved a more traditional celebration as the summer’s final long weekend drew to a close.

Hundreds of thousands of people took advantage of sunny skies, temperatures in the 80s and two- to three-foot waves to jam local beaches, but lifeguards reported only a moderate number of rescues.

In Hermosa Beach, Lifeguard Capt. Steve Voorhees said about 300,000 people were at beaches from Playa del Rey to Cabrillo Beach with few incidents.

In Marina del Rey, a flotilla of motorboats, sailboats and fireboats surrounded two tall ships as they sailed into the harbor Monday as part of a festival celebrating trading vessels that used to ply ocean waters in the 1830s.

About 600 onlookers on land also watched as the brig Pilgrim and Witch of Wood arrived on the first leg of the Tall Ships Festival that will run this month along California’s coastline.

And on a day when freeways were flowing freely, one of the biggest traffic jams was around the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where thousands of football fans spent their Labor Day at the season opener between USC and the University of Illinois.

But on this holiday, it was not all cheers for the local team and the birthday city.

A West German couple, on their first visit to America, had just arrived in Los Angeles Monday from Northern California and, as they walked the downtown streets, Holger Haertling and his wife, Monika, remained unimpressed. “I have to tell you,” Haertling said, “I still like San Francisco better.”