The date is September 4th, Wednesday, and today I’m coming to you from Jakarta, Indonesia. 

On this day in 1781, 44 Spanish settlers officially founded El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles, known today as Los Angeles, California. 

Compared to other settlements, los Ángeles was specifically a municipal settlement: not a Catholic mission base or strategic military settlement. It was the second pueblo in the Spanish colonization of Alta California, just after San Jose. 

The settlers were recruited from other settlements in the area with a promise of large plots of land. Per the ordinances set out by the Spanish government on how to create new towns, the main town center roads were constructed from SW to NE and NW to SE – so in an x rather than a plus-sign. To this day Downtown Los Angeles streets maintain 45-degree angles. 

Los Angeles remained a Spanish settlement for about 40 years until it became a part of Mexico with Mexican independence in 1821. Los Angeles and Alta California changed hands again in 1847 when Mexico was defeated by America in the Mexican-American war. 

Now part of America, Los Angeles saw its rise as a Southwestern mecca with the completion of the Southern Pacific rail line in 1876 and the discovery of oil in 1892. 20 years later, Hollywood’s booming movie industry proved to be a substantial draw for those seeking work. In 1932 the city hosted the Summer Olympics, and with the advent of WWII Los Angeles became a major manufacturing hub and military and shipping port.  

With a mild, sunny, Mediterranean-like climate and what seemed like endless job opportunities in a variety of fields, Los Angeles saw its population more than double from the end of WWII to 1990. 

From a small criss-crossed settlement, Los Angeles has become the second largest metropolis in the United States and is perhaps the definition of urban sprawl. In Los Angeles, there is a bit of everything for everyone.

And today is the birthday of Mary Renault, English-South African writer.

Born Eileen Mary Challans in 1905 in England, Mary graduated from college in 1928 with a degree in English. However, at the onset of WWII, Mary found herself signing up to train as a nurse. She determined she would write in her spare time. 

While in training, Mary met fellow nurse Julie Mullard. It was soon clear that there was an attraction between the two. Mary and Julie began a romantic relationship that would last their whole lives. 

Renault’s first novel Purposes of Love (1939) is based on her time working as a nurse. But it is her novel The Friendly Young Ladies (1943) published four years later and also based on her experience as a nurse, that is more autobiographical. The main will-they-won’t-they couple is lesbian compared to the straight couple in her first novel. 

Although Renault’s historical fictions were her most widely read work, it was her novel Return to Night that won a prize from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. The award amount was $150,000 or about $1.6 million in today’s dollars. With the winnings, Mary and Julie moved to an open-minded expat community in South Africa.

Renault has been hailed in the LGBTQ community for inclusions of gay and lesbian couples in her work. In particular, her Greek historical fiction novels depicted homosexual relationships between men. A product of her own time, Renault herself was unsure about the pride movements of the ‘70s. She did not think of herself as a “gay writer” and preferred not to be defined by her sexual orientation.

Your World

Georgia Douglas Johnson

Your world is as big as you make it. 

I know, for I used to abide

In the narrowest nest in a corner, 

My wings pressing close to my side. 

But I sighted the distant horizon 

Where the skyline encircled the sea 

And I throbbed with a burning desire 

To travel this immensity. 

I battered the cordons around me 

And cradled my wings on the breeze, 

Then soared to the uttermost reaches 

With rapture, with power, with ease!

Thank you for listening. I’m your host Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.