<P> After Mexico's War of Independence (1810--1821) from Spain was won, life began to change in Los Angeles and Alta California . With the secularization of the missions, their land was distributed for the establishment of many more ranchos . The Native population was displaced or absorbed into the Hispanic population . </P> <P> Beginning about 1827, Los Angeles, now the largest pueblo of the territory, became a rival of Monterey for the honor of being the capital of California; was the seat of conspiracies to overthrow the Mexican authority; and the stronghold of the South California party in the bickering and struggles that lasted down to the American occupation . </P> <P> In about 1834, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. visited San Pedro Harbor as a sailor . His book, Two Years Before the Mast, includes a brief depiction of the pueblo and area, then dependent on the export of cattle hides and tallow . In 1835 it was made a city by the Mexican Congress, and declared the capital, but the last provision was not enforced and was soon recalled . In 1836--1838, it was the headquarters of Carlos Antonio Carrillo, a legally named but never de facto governor of California, whose jurisdiction was never recognized in the north; and, in 1845--1847, it was the actual capital . </P> <P> In 1842, a sheep rancher, pausing under an oak tree, discovered gold in Placerita Canyon in Rancho San Francisco, just north of the city sparking a minor gold rush . In subsequent decades local mining employed hard rock and placer techniques . Land however turned out to be the more "profitable gold", as ranching and development expanded as the town and region grew . </P>

El pueblo de la reyna de los angeles