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Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871

1871 in California1871 murders in the United States1871 riots19th century in Los AngelesAnti-Chinese violence in the United States
Asian-American issuesAsian-American riots in the United StatesBullying in the United StatesChinatown, Los AngelesChinese-American culture in CaliforniaChinese-American historyCrimes in Los AngelesEvents in CaliforniaHispanic and Latino American riots in the United StatesHistory of immigration to the United StatesHistory of racism in CaliforniaLynching deaths in CaliforniaLynching in the United StatesMass murder in CaliforniaMass murder in the United StatesMassacres in the 1870sMassacres in the United StatesMassacres of ethnic groupsMurder in Los AngelesOctober 1871 eventsRace riots in the United StatesRacially motivated violence against Asian-AmericansRacially motivated violence in the United StatesRiots and civil disorder in CaliforniaWhite American riots in the United States
Los Angeles, corpses of Chinese victims, Oct 1871
Los Angeles, corpses of Chinese victims, Oct 1871

The Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871 was a racial massacre targeting Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, California, United States that occurred on October 24, 1871. Approximately 500 white and Hispanic Americans attacked, harassed, robbed, and murdered the ethnic Chinese residents of the old Chinatown neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles, California. The massacre took place on Calle de los Negros, also referred to as "Negro Alley". The mob gathered after hearing that a policeman and a rancher had been killed as a result of a conflict between rival tongs, the Nin Yung, and Hong Chow. As news of their death spread across the city, fueling rumors that the Chinese community "were killing whites wholesale", more men gathered around the boundaries of Negro Alley. A few 21st-century sources have described this as the largest mass lynching in American history.Nineteen Chinese immigrants were killed, fifteen of whom were later hanged by the mob in the course of the riot, but most of whom had already been shot to death before being hanged. At least one was mutilated, when a member of the mob cut off a finger to obtain the victim's diamond ring. Those killed represented over 10% of the small Chinese population of Los Angeles at the time, which numbered 172 prior to the massacre. Ten men of the mob were prosecuted and eight were convicted of manslaughter in these deaths. The convictions were overturned on appeal due to technicalities.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871 (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871
North Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles Downtown

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Latitude Longitude
N 34.056583 ° E -118.237806 °
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Antonio Aguilar

North Los Angeles Street
90012 Los Angeles, Downtown
California, United States
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Los Angeles, corpses of Chinese victims, Oct 1871
Los Angeles, corpses of Chinese victims, Oct 1871
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Avila Adobe
Avila Adobe

The Ávila Adobe, built in 1818 by Francisco Ávila, is the oldest standing residence in the city of Los Angeles, California. Avila Adobe is located in the paseo of historic Olvera Street, a part of the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District, a California State Historic Park. The building itself is registered as California Historical Landmark #145, while the entire historic district is both listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The Plaza is the third location of the original Spanish settlement El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Ángeles sobre el Río Porciúncula, the first two having been washed out by flooding from the swollen Río Porciúncula (Los Angeles River). The Avila Adobe was one of the settlement's first houses to share street frontage in the Pueblo de Los Angeles of Spanish colonial Alta California. The walls of the Avila Adobe are 2.5–3 feet (0.76–0.91 m) thick and are built from sun-baked adobe bricks. The original ceilings were 15 feet (4.6 m) high and supported by beams of cottonwood, which was available along the banks of the Los Angeles River. Though the roof appears slanted today, the original roof was flat. Tar (Spanish: brea) was brought up from the La Brea Tar Pits, located near the north boundary line of Avila's Rancho Las Cienegas. The tar was mixed with rocks and horsehair, a common binder in exterior building material, and applied to beams of the roof as a sealant from inclement weather. The original floor of the Avila adobe was hard-as-concrete compacted earth, which was swept several times a day to keep the surface smooth and free from loose soil. (Dirt floors were common among most early adobes.) In later years, varnished wood planks were used as flooring. The original structure was nearly twice as long as it now appears and was "L"-shaped, with a wing that extended nearly to the center of Olvera Street. The rear of the house had a long porch facing the patio. Francisco tended a garden and a vineyard in the rear courtyard. The nearby Zanja Madre (literally "Mother Ditch") was a main water aqueduct and irrigation ditch that brought water down to the Pueblo from the Los Angeles River and was close enough to the adobe for Francisco Avila to avail himself. Avila eventually added a wooden veranda and steps to the front of the adobe.

Olvera Street
Olvera Street

Olvera Street (also Calle Olvera or Placita Olvera, originally Calle de los Vignes, Vine Street, and Wine Street) is a historic street in downtown Los Angeles, and a part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, the area immediately around the 19th-century Los Angeles Plaza, which has been the main square of the city since the early 1820s, when California was still part of Mexico, and was the center of community life until the town expanded in the 1870s. Many of the Plaza District's historic buildings are on Olvera Street, including its oldest one, the Avila Adobe, built in 1818; the Pelanconi House built in 1857; and the Sepulveda House built in 1887. Restaurants, vendors, and public establishments are along the pedestrian mall, a block-long narrow, tree-shaded, brick-lined marketplace where some merchants are descended from the original vendors who opened shops when a then-decrepit Olvera Street was recreated as a tourist attraction in 1930, a romanticized version with the theme of a Mexican marketplace. The exterior facades of the brick buildings enclosing Olvera Street and on the small vendor stands lining its center are colorful piñatas, hanging puppets in white peasant garb, Mexican pottery, serapes, mounted bull horns, and oversized sombreros. Olvera Street attracts almost two million visitors per year who can find, while not an authentic Mexican or Mexican-American market, an homage to the history and traditions of the pueblo's early settlers and the city's Mexican heritage.