American Alarm Systems

About Santa Ana

Santa Ana (Spanish for 'Saint Anne') is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the second most populous city in Orange County (after Anaheim), the 13th-most populous city in California, and the 64th densest large city in the United States. Santa Ana is a major regional economic and cultural hub for the Orange Coast. In 1810, the Spanish governor of California granted Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana to José Antonio Yorba. Following the Mexican War of Independence, the Yorba family rancho was enlarged, becoming one of the largest and most valuable in the region and home to a diverse Californio community. Following the American Conquest of California, the rancho was sold to the Sepúlveda family, who subsequently lost their land claim. In 1869, William H. Spurgeon then purchased the rancho and formally founded the modern city of Santa Ana. Approximately four-fifths Hispanic or Latino, Santa Ana has been characterized by The New York Times as the "face of a new California, a state where Latinos have more influence in everyday life—electorally, culturally and demographically—than almost anywhere else in the country." == History == Members of the Tongva and Juaneño/Luiseño are indigenous to the area. The Tongva called the Santa Ana area "Hotuuk." The village of Pajbenga was located at modern day Santa Ana along the Santa Ana River. === Spanish and Mexican eras === After the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolá out of Mexico City, then capital of New Spain, Friar Junípero Serra named the area Vallejo de Santa Ana (Valley of Saint Anne, or Santa Ana Valley).