East_La

East Los Angeles Los Angeles is a large city filled with unique neighborhoods rich with style, culture and flavor. This city is known for it’s wide diversity of communities. You can travel through these vicinities and at times feel as though you are walking through different parts of the world like Chinatown, little Tokyo and other ethnic neighborhoods. Out of the many different areas in Los Angeles, there is only one part of the city that I feel at home with, a part of the city that helped define who I am, East Los Angeles. East Los Angeles is unique because of its beautifully painted murals, strongly Influential Mexican American heritage and its un-modernized traditionally landscaped neighborhood. East Los Angeles is known for it’s vivid and colorful murals painted throughout the city. On almost every business corner in the community you will find walls covered with murals symbolizing the Mexican American and Chicano culture. They are beautifully paintings depicting the Virgin Mary, Cesar Chavez, the Aztec calendar, Dia de los muertos and other cultural murals. Among these pieces of artwork, you will also find great paintings like those of Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo. Each art piece catches your eye as you pass these brilliant and vibrant colorful murals that tell a story in the neighborhood. Many in this community will see themselves identifying or connecting to a piece of artwork they see. The city is strongly influenced by Mexican American traditions. In East Los Angeles, “la familia,” the family, is a huge part of the community. Families in East Los Angeles live very close to each other. You can literally walk from your house and visit family living a few blocks away. One tradition you will find is the early evening walks that are taken in the neighborhood. Some of the families are drawn out by the smell of the carne asada tacos. They step out into the crowds of people lining up ready to enjoy their steaming tasty food. They have their tacos freshly prepared and marinated in lemon juice topped with onions, cilantro and spicy Mexican salsa with a freshly made horchata, rice milk. Once their order has been filled, they take it back home and sit on the porch to enjoy their dinner while watching the sky change to yellow and pink as the sun begins to set. These family’s, are so close to each other that they look out for each other, the younger generation benefits greatly from this family closeness by having role models or others you can look up to and guide you in the right direction. For example, I lived down the street from my aunt and uncle both who went to college, and were great examples of the benefits of pursing higher education and its results. They provided me with guidance, helped me with homework and projects and anything I needed. Family is a very strong part of this community as I have learned from my own personal experience. When you walk into East Los Angeles, you will feel as though you have walked back into time. East Los Angeles has not modernized itself with the rest of Los Angeles. You will not find your mini mansions or your modern yuppie and trendy lofts, rather a city that has kept the same character for years. The neighborhood is made up of small homes and duplexes, all old and closely built to each other. If you are Closter phobic, you may have issues with how crowded it may seem the homes are. Some of the homes are so close together that when you walk on the side of your house to go to the back yard, you can practically look into your neighbor’s window and see what they may be watching on TV or see what juicy traditional Mexican dish they are serving at meal times. This part of the city has a lot of character, old traditional and classical buildings that seem to have been built in the late forties through the early fifties and sometimes earlier. The houses haven’t seem to have changed with the times, its one of the cities that hasn’t really modernized itself making it very unique. East Los Angeles has become the home of many Mexican Americans, where they can live comfortably within their culture. There is a rich history of generations in this part of the city that has seen very few changes. Families continue with their traditions, and the residents strive to maintain the stunning murals that decorate this part of town. The landscape and architecture remains to go unchanged which gives East Los Angeles the distinctive character that it has. If you haven’t been to these parts of Los Angeles, I encourage you to come out and explore the arts and enjoy the food as you find yourself among families with rich traditions and history.