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For thousands of years, the land where the city of San Gabriel now sits was the home of the Tongva people. Their territory stretched westward all the way to the Pacific Ocean and from the San Fernando Valley to present-day Orange County.
The Tongva first met the vanguard of the Spanish conquest in 1769 when Gaspar Portola stopped in the region.
Portola was followed by a contingent of Franciscan friars who began to establish a series of missions throughout the state in a systematic effort to convert the native peoples of California to Christianity. That led to the formation of the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, located first near present-day Montebello and later moved to its current location after flooding devastated the original in 1776.
The interloping Franciscans were not at first welcomed by the Tongva, who had good reason to suspect that the arrival of the Spaniards augured ill for their future. Legend has it that a large group met the missionaries with the aim of pushing them from their land but that upon being shown a painting of Our Lady of Sorrows, they relented and allowed them passage.
Whether it was an appreciation of unfamiliar religious iconography that did the trick, or some subterfuge on the part of the Franciscans, the result was the same: The 5,000 members...