To celebrate 420 here in the City of Angels we picked up our bro- Wilton Rezande, who agreed to model some of our latest Califari Shirts!  Wilton is kind of a bad ass who is a black belt in Jiu Jitsu and loves to play soccer and chill when he's not dominating his opponents!    We payed homage to the City of Angels while rocking our Venice Beach 70's surfer shirt and it made us think... Just how did LA become the "City of Angels"?

For years, history has told that on September 4, 1781, 44 "pobladores" who were recruited from northern Mexico to help cement Spain's control over Alta, California (Upper California), established the settlement. Only two of these settlers identified as Spaniards; the rest came primarily of African or Indian descent. However over the past few decades scholars have uncovered that the pobladores arrived separately, some as early as that June. (September 4 remains the traditional celebrated anniversary).

The small town received the name El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciuncula, "The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels.” Located on the Los Angeles River, the settlement became a cattle ranching center. The oldest house in Los Angeles County was built in 1795 on what became the Rancho San Antonio. It is now known as the Henry Gage Mansion and is in Bell Gardens.

So there ya have it! We suppose that "The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels" was just too much of a mouthful, so now it's just LA...  Should we feel short changed? Our culture is so abbreviated now, long titles are out, hell vowels are even out! We don't have time for them any longer in our go-go gadget mindset!

Perhaps we all need to chillax, errr, I mean, chill out and relax and use complete sentences!