Cayetano Apablasa
# Cayetano Apablasa

Cayetano Apablasa Blanco (or Apablaza; 1847–1889) was a 19th-century land owner and politician in Los Angeles, California. His holdings were on the south of the central Los Angeles Plaza, later the first site of the city's Chinatown and location of present-day Union Station.

## Personal

Apablasa was born April 13, 1847, in San Diego, California. He was the son of Juan Apablasa (or Apablaza) of Chile, who came to Mexican Alta California about 1839, and to Pueblo de Los Ángeles in 1843. His mother was María del Espíritu Santo Blanco. He had 7 siblings. Cayetano attended parochial school.

He was married in Los Angeles to Concepcion Carasco (or Carrasco), and they had two sons and three daughters—John Vincent, Cayetano John (who later became a dentist), Mary (Mrs. Maria Conley, or Mrs. Lita Bernstein), Candelaria or Conchita (Mrs. Finlay), and Laura (Mrs. Thesing). The family home was in a seven-acre orchard near the Old Plaza.

He died November 14, 1889, several weeks after he was thrown from his horse in an accident. His widow married Ildefonso A. Sepulveda in 1892.

## Career

After he left school at age seventeen, he entered the Wilmington Shipbuilding Company in Wilmington and served there during the American Civil War, until 1869. After the war, he opened a blacksmithery or a wagon shop at 99 Alameda Street. His later activities involved the extensive real estate holdings of his family. In 1985 the Los Angeles Times noted that:

   The family built what was believed to be the city's first frame house but it was moved in 1933 to make room for what was then Union Passenger Terminal, the nation's newest train depot when it opened in 1937–38. The Apablasa family was also responsible for Los Angeles' first subdivision, when late in the last century it sold land to Chinese residents who built the first Chinatown. An "Apablasa Street" once ran through the Chinese quarter.

### Public service

Apablasa was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council on December 3, 1877, for a term ending in December 1878, representing the 1st Ward. He was a member of the police committee.

The Workingman's Party nominated him for the State Senate in 1880.

