What Cinco de Mayo Has to do with the French in Early L.A.
Mascarel's bakery catered to a French enclave that was, by 1845, well established. Helene Demeestre traces it to 1827 when Louis Bouchet became the first French person to settle permanently in Los Angeles. In 1831, he married into a prominent, Californio (Mexican Californian) family, started a successful wine business, and now Bauchet St. meanders in a loop just north of the 101 and east of the L.A. river. It intersects with Vignes St., named not after Pierre, who brought Mascarel to California, but Pierre's brother Jean-Louis, a vintner also known as Don Luis del Aliso. Jean-Louis named his ...
Source: kcet.org