Antonio F. Coronel
Antonio
Franco Coronel (1817-1894), rancher, educator, art collector, fourth mayor of
Los Angeles, and mentor of Helen Hunt Jackson (author of the novel Ramona), came to Southern California with
his father, Ignacio, at the age of 17. A former Mexican army officer and a man
of letters and arts, Ignacio Coronel founded the first school of consequence in
Los Angeles
and
impressed his son with the importance of public service.
Los Angeles
businessman and chronicler Harris Newmark described the senior Coronel as "a
man of strong intellect and sterling character, kind-hearted and popular."
Antonio
learned his father's lessons well, going on to become mayor of
Los
Angeles
(1853-4),
Los
Angeles
city councilman (1854-66), and State treasurer
(1866-70). During Coronel’s term as mayor, "it was the practice of
the citizenry to gather in the Plaza at the sound of a gong and vote on general
matters by the raising of hands" [Mayors of Los Angeles, (1968)
L.A. Municipal Arts Dept.]. Among Coronel’s achievements as mayor was the
establishment of the city’s first Department of Public Works.
In his
book, Migrants West, Ronald C. Woolsey describes Coronel as a gracious
and altruistic man whose life was spent "tirelessly promoting civic
improvements that highlighted the Spanish-speaking traditions of the rancho
period and frontier era. He donated his personal art collection and manuscripts
to the
Los Angeles
,
Chamber of Commerce, promoted community efforts to build a library, highlighted
historic landmarks in the region, and organized festivities memorializing the
Mexican traditions of bygone days. According to writer John Weaver, the city's
first English-speaking theater opened July 4, 1848 in an addition
to Coronel's home. Harris Newmark described Coronel's gathering of
art and historical materials as ". . . one of the sights of the city, a
pleasure and a stimulation alike to tourist and resident."
(Coronel’s collection later passed to the County Museum of Natural
History.) Reflecting his abiding love of local history, Coronel was a charter
member of the Historical Society of Southern California when it was founded in 1883.
An
important figure since the days when
Los Angeles
was a Mexican pueblo, Coronel's involvement in civic affairs continued after
California
became part of the
United States
in 1850. Woolsey
writes: "In the next two decades, he supported Hispanic land titles and
his own claim to properties at Rancho Sierra de los Verdugos. In 1857, he
traveled to
Mexico
and
secured documents and political support for several Hispanic claims around the
San Francisco
area."
Impressive
as his civic achievements may be, Coronel is perhaps best remembered as the
confidant and mentor of Helen Hunt Jackson, the New England poet, novelist, and
advocate for Native American rights who came West in the 1880s to write
magazine articles about California’s missions. With Coronel’s help,
she went on to write the classic romance novel of
Southern
California
, Ramona.
It was
in Coronel’s Spanish-style house, in what was then a "western suburb
of Los Angeles" (now the downtown corner of 7th and Alameda),
that Jackson became immersed in Coronel’s romantic views of
California’s Mexican-era history and his insights into the decline of the
Mission Indians, which Coronel attributed largely to the American conquest of
California -- a view later reflected in Ramona. (
Jackson
's first meeting with Coronel was
arranged through a letter of introduction from the Bishop of Monterey.)
Writes
Woolsey in Migrants West: "Jackson spent days at the Coronel home
…listening to an animated Antonio Coronel detail sentimental tales about
the rancho era, while his wife [Dona Mariana Williamson, whose father was a
native of Maine] acted as hostess and intepreter. He frequently played the
guitar, sang ballads, and embellished yarns of Hispanic yesteryear…"
As for the plight of the Mission Indians, Coronel supplied
Jackson
with names of people and places she
should visit, arranged interviews, and even accompanied her on a trip to the
Riverside-Hemet area, the general setting for the later novel. The result was
the novel Ramona. Coronel helped edit the book, proofread it for
historical accuracy, and offered suggestions on local details, writes Woolsey.
Published
in 1884, Ramona became an immediate success. Woolsey writes:
"Coronel’s guidance affected the research behind
Jackson
’s
work by supplying his picture of
Southern California
against which backdrop the author could tell a story of larger context, the
Native American issues."
Coronel
died in 1894, within four months of another Californio pioneer, Pio Pico. Like Pico, Coronel was an elder statesman who had
lived through "six decades of
Southern California
history, spanning the rancho period, American conquest, Civil War years and the
late-19th-century economic volatility in commerce and
industry," writes Woolsey.
--
Contributed by Albert Greenstein, 1999
