Antonio Coronel, one of Los Angeles’ most impressive former mayors, was born in Mexico City in 1817. He came to the frontier town of Los Angeles as a teenager during California’s Mexican period, working jobs as a schoolteacher, street commissioner, and justice of the peace.

In the 1840s, he prospected for gold in the northern Sierra foothills, encountering white miners he described as “foreigners” possessed by a “terrible fever to obtain gold.” Yet he would ultimately embrace his new nationality as an American after taking up arms on the losing side of the Mexican–American War.

Five years later, he was elected to a one-year term as mayor of Los Angeles, then served another 12 years on the city council, distinguishing himself as a man of unusual refinement. Coronel established the Department of Public Works, promoted civic beautification, and supported the pueblo’s horticultural and historical societies. He later served as California State Treasurer.

But as the state’s population ballooned with settlers, the era of Latino power in California faded abruptly. In the two decades following Coronel’s mayoralty, Los Angeles elected two more Latino mayors, then no others for more than 130 years. After his death in 1894, Los Angeles’ first elected Californio mayor was largely forgotten.

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