Descendants of L.A. Settlers Take a Walk Into Past : History: Group follows route of 214 years ago, from San Gabriel Mission to Olvera Street, walking over asphalt instead of hills.

As the rising sun lit the sky tangerine from behind distant mountains, about 30 people wearing red sashes gathered in front of Mission San Gabriel on Monday for a symbolic walk into the past.

The sashes marked them as members of Los Pobladores 200, the descendants of settlers who journeyed the same nine miles to the Olvera Street plaza area 214 years ago and founded the city originally called El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de Porciuncula.

Instead of walking through arid hills to the spot near the river as their ancestors had, the descendants and about 70 supporters traveled over concrete and asphalt, under graffiti-marked bridges and past barking junkyard dogs.

But somehow, even nine generations later, the pioneers’ progeny could feel history around them.

“Can you imagine?” said 52-year-old descendant Mary Anne Moore as she trudged on a rugged dirt embankment to avoid passing cars. “This is the way it probably was.”

Moore, a retired legal secretary, said she discovered through genealogical research that she is related to one of the four Spanish soldiers who escorted the 11 original families on the last leg of their trek.

The families had been recruited in New Spain, now Mexico, by agents of then-Gov. Felipe de Neve. They came on foot, and they came from many backgrounds: Indian, mestizo, black and Spanish.

They were promised land and ordered to supply the missions with food from farms and ranches.

The Spanish government also wanted them to help secure Californian territory, which was claimed for the crown in 1542; the king was concerned about the southern advance of Russian fur traders into California, according to T. Willard Hunter, an 80-year-old history buff who said he was making the journey for the last time. It was Hunter who started the annual commemorative walk in 1981, the city’s bicentennial.

In the same year, Los Pobladores 200 was formed. Its 250 dues-paying members are scattered around Southern California and the nation, but descendants say that if more only knew of their ancestry or cared to find out, their ranks could fill the L.A. Coliseum.

Among those walking through the Eastside at a brisk gait were the next generation of pobladores , including two sisters, 13-year-old Amy and 14-year-old Corrie Moreno. “Anybody who doesn’t know their history should find it out,” Corrie said. “I think it’s important to know where you come from.”

The sisters wore dresses they reserve for special occasions, with the traditional Spanish red sashes tied around their waists.

They have joined the re-enactment each of the past six years since their mother, Maria Moreno, was given her grandmother’s genealogy charts at a family reunion. The charts revealed that Moreno and her daughters had descended from Francisco Salvador Lugo, another of the accompanying soldiers.

And while Corrie and Amy are proud that their distant relatives founded a city that boomed into a world-class metropolis, the real payoff for waking up at 4 a.m. was the chance to see their two cousins from Whittier.

When a van rolled by to drop off their cousins midway through the journey, the sisters ran to greet them.

Reunited, they walked on together, but cousin Sarah Melton, 13, said she could feel the blisters growing on her heels as they approached the Los Angeles River, which their ancestors knew as Rio de La Porciuncula.

According to descendants, the settlers hauled supplies and belongings from the mission on open carts pulled by oxen. Today, however, three mobile homes accompanied the group to pick up stragglers.

At the end of the journey, the walkers regrouped at Union Station as mariachis greeted them with trumpets. The descendants marched into the historic plaza behind a soldier on horseback, just like their distant relatives had before them.

And then, later that day, they returned to Mission San Gabriel and picked up their cars.