Hidden away in Santa Monica Canyon, Los Angeles' only family cemetery provides a link to the 1830's, when the Reyes and Márquez families owned Rancho la Boca de Santa Mónica. The cemetery evolved as Márquez family members passed away and were buried in the distant canyon. Even after the rancho was subdivided and developed, in the 1920's, the cemetery remained intact, protected by an adobe wall commissioned by the developer's daughter, Dorothy. Dorothy bought a saint's statue to guard the cemetery's gate, and her dad gave the saint's name to the street out front: San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo's Tears is the ancient name people gave to the Perseid meteor showers that stream from the sky every mid-August - on the feast day of San Lorenzo, a 3rd century deacon of the Church and defender of the poor, who died a fiery death. One pictures San Lorenzo's Tears darting over Márquez Cemetery, underscoring the transience of our lives, yes, but also lamenting the nights when those tears streaked bright against skies of ebony over Rancho la Boca de Santa Mónica, and throughout all the ancient Tongva and Chumash lands