| East Los Angeles (region) |
Article Index for East Los |
Website Links For East Los |
Information AboutEast Los Angeles (region) |
|
BUILT ENVIRONMENT In appearance, much of East Los Angeles is a throwback to Los Angeles' early 20th century heritage. The dusty streets up and down the '' (aka ''Mi Familia'') and '' Stand And Deliver '' (which was set in an East Los Angeles high school representing James A. Garfield High School ). Many families maintained chicken coops and citrus groves in their backyards long after most of Los Angeles had abandoned these vestiges of its rural past. HISTORY Origins (late 18th-early 20th centuries) Most of what is now considered East Los Angeles was, at the time of Spanish settlement, parceled out among the Pueblo of Los Angeles, the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel , and several Rancho s. Large-scale development commenced with the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1875, with numerous electric Streetcar lines being laid over the following three decades to connect the area to fast-growing Downtown Los Angeles . Areas along the Arroyo Seco such as Montecito Heights and Mt. Washington were once among the wealthiest neighborhoods in the region, their winding streets lined with finely detailed Mediterranean villas and Craftsman frame houses and bungalows that enjoy some of the finest views in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Spanish Colonial bungalows and duplexes sprouted like mushrooms in working-class areas such as El Sereno and City Terrace . Latinization The East Los Angeles region has long had a very high concentration of populations until the 1930s, when the development of whites-only areas in Mid-Wilshire and the West Side drew away most of the area's white population. In the southern portions of the region, there were also large and diverse non-Latino populations; Boyle Heights was heavily Serbia n, Jewish , and Japan ese, and Lincoln Heights was heavily Italian . However, most of these groups moved to segregated Suburb s after World War II , and Latinos who had been forced into squalid slums such as Boyle Heights' infamous "The Flats" (later the site of the infamous Aliso Village Housing Project ) seized the opportunity to move into the region's high-quality housing at low prices. With the exception of a small but distinct Filipino population in areas such as Glassell Park and Atwater Village , East L.A. was overwhelmingly Mexican-American by 1950. East L.A. formed the political and cultural heart of Latino life in Los Angeles County during a period when the overall population of the county was overwhelmingly White and often quite hostile to Latinos. Much of the violence of the Zoot Suit Riots occurred in the region, and not just downtown. Today East Los Angeles is populated mostly by immigrants of Mexican descent, and second-generation Mexican-American s, who are also often referred to as Chicanos . Population shifts Many second and third-generation Hispanic Americans have since moved from East L.A. to other parts of Southern California. This movement began soon after World War II , with middle-class families settling in San Gabriel Valley suburbs such as Baldwin Park and Alhambra . From the 1970s onward, Orange County , the San Fernando Valley , the Inland Empire , and the Gateway Cities region of southeast Los Angeles County have also been major destinations for upwardly mobile Latino families. Meanwhile, recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America have settled in the low-income parts of East L.A. where the parents of many US-born Hispanics once lived. At the same time, there are parts of "greater" East L.A., such as the cities of Montebello and Pico Rivera , where many US-born Latinos still live. Since the 1970s, many Latino immigrants have moved into areas that had previously been heavily African-American , in areas such as Compton , Lynwood , and the Watts district of Los Angeles. Gentrification Since the late 1990s, Gentrification has started to occur in formerly working-class pockets of East L.A., mainly in the region's northern portions. Eagle Rock (which often is not considered part of the East Side due to its historic independence) has seen a considerable influx of middle- and upper-middle-class white residents drawn by the area's architecture and schools, the latter of which are some of the best in the Los Angeles Unified School District . High housing prices in other parts of Los Angeles are leading whites to settle in pockets of areas that are not in East L.A. such as Glassell Park , Atwater Village , and Highland Park , as an affordable alternative to Silver Lake . COMMUNITIES
LANDMARKS
FAMOUS NATIVES AND RESIDENTS SEE ALSO BIBLIOGRAPHY Romo, Ricardo (1983). ''East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio''. Press. ISBN 0-292-72041-6. |