Griffith Park Lecture Series

Presented by Friends of Griffith Park

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Griffith Park and the Shaping of Spanish California & Los Angeles

Guest Speaker: Bernadette Soter, Friends of Griffith Park

This illustrated lecture presents the story of the Juan Bautista de Anza Expedition and its military escort, Jose Vicente Feliz, whose rancho is today Griffith Park. Friends of Griffith Park is working with the National Park Service RTCA Program to enhance Griffith Park's segment of the Anza National Historic Trail. When completed, the trail will stretch from Nogales, Arizona to the San Francisco Bay and will invite users to enter the 18th Century world of the expedition and appreciate the role the colonizers played in the shaping of California. In addition to escorting the trek in 1776, Jose Vicente Feliz was one of the pobladores, the multicultural group of settlers who founded El Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1781. For these and other services to the Spanish crown he was awarded Rancho Los Feliz which ultimately became Griffith Park.