Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
Well, yeah. Because LA metro is like 40% Mexican, while the DC area isn't even 10% any Latino country of origin. But the fact is that the vast majority of LA-area Mexicans don't live in LA proper, and most of the uber-Mexican LA neighborhoods aren't in the city proper. East LA and all those 95% Hispanic East Side towns aren't LA city. And the same rings true for Asians. Overwhelmingly not in the city proper.
And I disagree that all of LA feels Mexican. Not the Westside. Most visitors' experience of LA is based on the Westside and Hollywood, not the Hispanic streets in parts of downtown LA. Not my aunt's neighborhood in Coastal OC. Corona del Mar feels about as Mexican as Indiana.
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Boyle Heights is a city neighborhood, and probably the most iconic and storied Chicano neighborhood in the US. There are plenty of other neighborhoods in city limits that are very Hispanic-- Westlake, the entire NE Valley (Pacoima, Panorama City), most of SE LA, San Pedro, and yes, even parts of the West Side in areas like Palms and Mar Vista.
Also incorrect about the Asian community. There's obviously Koreatown, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, but also Thai town in East Hollywood, another large Japanese enclave on Sawtelle on the West Side, etc.
But beyond these neighborhoods where people live, you encounter Hispanic and Asian people in LA as a part of daily life in a way that I didn't experience in DC. Those communities are a more integral part of the culture of LA than they are in DC, and it's not even close. Hell, even your aunt's white-dominated community of Corona Del Mar has a Spanish name!
DC's Chinatown is literally just a bunch of chain restaurants and stores with Chinese characters on the signs and buildings
Rita's Italian, err, Chinese? Ice...
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