Rancho Las Cienegas
Rancho Las Cienegas was a 4,439-acre (17.96 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1823 to Francisco Avila by Governor Luis Antonio Argüello. "La Cienega" is derived from the Spanish word cienaga, which means swamp or marshland and refers to the natural springs and wetlands in the area between the Baldwin Hills range and Baldwin Hills district, and Beverly Hills. The rancho was north of Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera and east of present-day La Cienega Boulevard between Wilshire Boulevard and Jefferson Boulevard. The Los Angeles River would periodically change course historically, and flowed through the rancho's lowlands to Ballona Creek and the Santa Monica Bay until 1825, when it returned to the flowing through Rancho San Pedro to San Pedro Bay.
Francisco Avila (1772–1832), one of several sons of Cornelio Avila, was a native of Sonora y Sinaloa, New Spain-Mexico. Francisco Avila came to the Pueblo de Los Angeles in Las Californias sometime after 1794. In 1810, Francisco Avila became alcalde of Los Angeles. In 1823, the new Mexican government granted him Rancho Las Cienegas in Alta California, approximately seven miles west of the pueblo. Avila grazed cattle here and turned it into a profitable venture. Francisco Avila died in 1832.
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