Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California

Contents

Introduction
Mexican War
Post-Conquest
1900-1940
World War II
Chicano Movement
Future

Historic Sites
Selected References

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El Clamor Publico Site
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

El Clamor Publico was the first Spanish-language newspaper in California after the American occupation. Founded in Los Angeles in 1855 by Francisco P. Ramirez, a 19-year-old printer and former Spanish editor of the Los Angeles Star, El Clamor Publico was the predecessor of today's Spanish-language press. It served as a singularly important cultural force in the Spanish-speaking community and as a defender of Mexican people.

Initially moderate in tone, campaigning for cooperative work between Anglos and Mexicans, this four-page weekly tabloid soon became an activist newspaper. A series of lynchings of Mexicanos by Anglo mobs led to blistering attacks in the editorial pages of El Clamor Publico against Anglo-American law and democracy as practiced in California. Criticizing the new government for failure to protect the rights of Mexicanos, El Clamor Publico called for united protest and action in the Mexican community against abuse at the hands of public officials.

With agents from Los Angeles to San Francisco, El Clamor Publico was distributed in Spanish-speaking communities throughout California. During its four years of publication, this newspaper was the main defender of the rights of Mexicanos and was also the major purveyor of Hispanic language and culture. Its pages were filled with the literary output of Spanish-speaking people in California and elsewhere. Carrying national, international, and local news, El Clamor Publico was a critical link with the rest of the Spanish-speaking world and was a crucial source of information about local, state, and national politics. In the contemporary period, El Clamor Publico is a major primary source for historians and other scholars writing about nineteenth-century California. Francisco P. Ramirez and El Clamor Publico richly merit historical recognition for their important contribution to the people and the state of California.

The original building housing the offices of El Clamor Publico has been razed. An abandoned brewery facility currently occupies the site adjacent to the San Bernardino Freeway in Los Angeles.

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Last Modified: Wed, Nov 17 2004 10:00:00 pm PDT
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