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. The Santa Ana river was a source for many of the Tongva villages and the Spanish Portola Expedition stayed and named this 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). On November 1, 1776,
Mission San Juan Capistrano was established within this valley. In 1810, the first year of the
Mexican War of Independence,
Jose Antonio Yorba, a sergeant of the Spanish army, was granted land that he called
Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. Yorba's rancho included the lands where the cities of
Olive,
Orange,
Irvine,
Yorba Linda,
Villa Park, Santa Ana,
Tustin,
Costa Mesa and unincorporated
El Modena, and
Santa Ana Heights, are today. This rancho was the only land grant in Orange County granted under
Spanish Rule. Surrounding land grants in Orange County were granted after Mexican Independence by the new government. After the
Mexican-American War ended in 1848,
Alta California became part of the
United States and American settlers arrived in this area.
Post-Conquest era Santa Ana was listed as a township of Los Angeles County in the 1860 and 1870 census, with an area encompassing most of what is now northern and central Orange County. It had a population of 756 in 1860 and 880 in 1870. The Anaheim district was enumerated separately from Santa Ana in 1870. Claimed in 1869 by
Kentuckian William H. Spurgeon on land obtained from the descendants of
Jose Antonio Yorba, Santa Ana was incorporated as a city in 1886 with a population of 2000 and in 1889 became the seat of the newly formed
Orange County. In 1877, the
Southern Pacific Railroad built a branch line from
Los Angeles to Santa Ana, which offered free right of way, land for a depot, and $10,000 in cash to the railroad in exchange for terminating the line in Santa Ana and not neighboring
Tustin. In 1887, the
California Central Railway (which became a subsidiary of the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway the following year) broke the Southern Pacific's local monopoly on rail travel, offering service between Los Angeles and
San Diego by way of Santa Ana as a major intermediate station. In 1890, whites made up 71 percent of the city's population, most of whom migrated to Santa Ana from
confederate states following the
American Civil War in search of real estate ventures and other economic opportunities.
20th century Santa Ana Public Library, built 1901–05 By 1905, the Los Angeles Interurban Railway, a predecessor to the
Pacific Electric Railway, extended from Los Angeles to Santa Ana, running along Fourth Street downtown.
Firestone Boulevard, the first direct automobile route between Los Angeles and Santa Ana, opened in 1935; it was enlarged into the
Santa Ana Freeway in 1953. The Pacific Electric
Santa Ana Line ran from 1905 to 1958. Santa Ana was the home of the original
Glenn L. Martin aviation company, founded in 1912 before merging with the
Wright Company in 1916. Later,
Glenn Luther Martin created a second company of the same name in
Cleveland,
Ohio which eventually merged with the
Lockheed Corporation to form the largest defense contractor in the world,
Lockheed Martin. Although there was a significant wave of Mexican migration to the city following the 1910
Mexican Revolution, the city remained majority white in 1939. Santa Ana was at the center of Orange County's economic boom in the 1950s with its agricultural and defense industries. However, most of this prosperity was only experienced by the city's white residents, while Latinos did not similarly benefit. Instead,
economic inequality between the two groups rapidly increased during this time. Since the 1980s, Santa Ana has been characterized by an effort to revitalize the
downtown area which had declined in influence, even as it had become a dynamic commercial and entertainment center for working-class Latinos. The Santa Ana Artist's Village was created around
Cal State Fullerton's
Grand Central Art Center to attract artists and young professionals to live-work lofts and new businesses. The process continued into 2009 with the reopening of the historic
Yost Theater. (2025) In the 2010s,
gentrification became a larger concern of Santa Ana residents, with its roots starting in the 1990s. Despite strong Latino political representation, gentrification efforts have increasingly displaced the Mexican immigrant presence in the downtown area of the city in favor of outsiders. Primarily
Spanish-speaking businesses that served immigrant populations have been demolished in favor of arts projects to draw in outside investment, which bring clientele who further question why Spanish-speaking businesses are present, leading to a cycle of displacement. Residents formed a social movement to address
lead concentrations in lower-income areas of the city. A 2020 study found that areas of Santa Ana with a median income below $50,000 had five times higher lead concentrations than higher-income areas of the city, which is particularly a concern for children. Residents continue to advocate for
environmental justice in the city. ==Geography==