Aliso Tree — Los Angeles, rooted in history.
Before the LA riots; before the internment of Japanese-Americans and the massacre of Chinese-Americans; before Slavery; before this land was ever conquered by Spain, Mexico, or the U. S.; before the genocide of Native Americans… millennia after the first humans arrived on the scene, overkilling large mammals to extinction… by the river, within the community of Yang-Na, a sapling sprouted. The sycamore would grow to become a 400-year-old local landmark, called, "El Aliso." Here, a French cooper hybridized the mission grapevine with cuttings from Bordeaux, and together with the terroir, cultivated a vineyard which gave birth to California's wine industry. Indigenous villages and immigrant orchards prepared the ground for what followed: a German brewery; a boxing arena; a mule market; an Edison Electric power station; an artist colony; a gym for indoor rock-climbing; the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States… While the Aliso Tree is no longer standing, it continues to stand for Los Angeles, rooted in history.
"Jean Louis Vignes came to Los Angeles in 1829, and set out the Aliso Vineyard of one hundred and four acres which derived its name, as did the street, from a previous and incorrect application of the Castilian aliso, meaning alder, to the sycamore tree, a big specimen of which stood on the place. This tree, possibly a couple of hundred years old, long shaded Vignes' wine-cellars, and was finally cut down a few years ago to make room for the Philadelphia Brew House."
"A carload of grapes from California, Postcard shows montage of farm workers in a vineyard standing inside a horse-drawn cart as a rail car marked 'S.P.R.R. 81424' rolls past carrying a gigantic bunch of grapes."
"There were no wine presses and the grapes were placed in huge shallow vats placed near the 'zanja' or water ditch. The Indians were made to bathe their feet in the zanja and then step into the vats where they trod rhythmically up and down in the grapes to press out the juice. The juice was drained off into larger vats where it was left to stand until fermentation. Then it was clarified, aged and bottled or barreled."
Aliso Tree — Los Angeles, rooted in history. 