What's in a name?
Los Angeles. L.A. The name is so familiar. Wheneven major cities in the U.S. are named, Los Angeles is always there. But while New York and Philadelphia have no secrets in their names, quite the opposite is true of Los Angeles. It's not the actual name of our city -- it's an abbreviation.Early Spanish settlers named the tiny village they started El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciuncula. The direct translation is The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of the Little Portion. Of course, the Queen they were referring to is Mary, the mother of Jesus. But what's this Little Portion thing about?
The original settlers were Franciscans, meaning that they were followers of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis himself was Italian and lived in a tiny chapel in Italy in the 13th century. After his death, this chapel became an important attraction for pilgrims (no, not the ones who came over on the Mayflower.) At some point, someone painted a fresco there of the Virgin Mary surrounded by angels and it became known as "Saint Mary of the Angels at the Little Portion", depicted here as it is housed in another church in Umbria.
posted by kuaptic. @ 10:24 AM
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