Hands Across The River…

east-of-the-river

There was a time when it seemed that some Westside Angelenos perceived life east of the river to be something like this…..

Apparently, there’s been some change of heart by our neighbors to the West. I received today the following email care of L.A. Eastside and I thought it would be worthy of sharing with our readers:

Dear L.A. Eastside (east of the river) and Eastsiders therein,
Our conscious weighs heavy in realization that we have been wrong. And, that we have wronged you. Our collective guilt and steps 8  thru 10 of the program compel us to send you this message.
Our callous insensitivity and ignorance has caused so many of us to swipe the name “Eastside” purely for our own selfish reasons. We realize now that these attempts to make ourselves seem more edgy and relevant to L.A. culture has stepped on the figurative toes of the true, historic and widely recognized region east of the river, known as the Eastside. By our actions and subsequent belligerent attitude to your justified protests, we have insulted you and the city’s history. But most of all, we have made ourselves look like complete schmucks.
We ask your forgiveness, although we know that we hardly deserve it. We hope that in time you will see that we simply wanted to “fit in” or maybe sell certain real estate by making it seem edgier or maybe sell our products to hipsters anxious to feel dangerous, but not too dangerous. Many of us have backgrounds from out of the L.A. area or have lived in such privileged detachment from those of you not in our class, that we felt we could dictate what would put us at the center of the L.A. universe and get away with it. It’s always worked for us before. We were brought up to believe that wealth and influence could put us anywhere we wanted to be and that people such as you would simply roll over. Who knew?

We wish you all on the true Eastside the very best. For what it’s worth, your Taco trucks, Lucha Libre, and Day of the Dead Skulls are awesome!

We will be going back to calling places like Echo Park, Silver Lake and Los Feliz simply by their own names, as we should have all along. We have truly learned a lesson here.

With sincerest apologies to all,
Jesus,
Beige
& Others-

(letter and attachment included several pages of Westsider’s names & signatures)

Isn’t that nice!

This entry was posted in Analysis, Blogs, culture, East Los, Eastside, gentrification, Greater Los Angeles, history, Pendejadas, Personal, Politica, Rant by AlDesmadre. Bookmark the permalink.

About AlDesmadre

Al Guerrero, Artist/Humorist. Los Angeles, CA. Born in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in East Los Angeles from the age of two, Al Guerrero grew up just steps from the famous Chicano strip, Whittier Boulevard. His youth experiences include witnessing and participating in the 1970 Chicano Power demonstrations, cruising cars on Whittier Boulevard, and graduating from Garfield High School. After dropping out of UCLA (with honors), he drew upon his lifelong passion for art and cartooning and pursued a career in graphic arts. During this period, he traveled overseas and found artistic inspiration from the masterworks he discovered within the European Art Museums. His career blossomed when he was eventually hired by the Walt Disney Company in 1995, where he worked as a creative artist for a number of years. Although the artistic work was rewarding, he eventually grew weary & disillusioned with the bureaucracy of the entertainment business, and left to work briefly in the educational field. His credits include producing a feature film with actor, Conrad Brooks of Ed Wood fame, founding and performing with the Punk Rock group “The Psychocats” at numerous L.A. & Hollywood venues during the 1990’s, and in 1999 he founded and created a hell-bent puppet cabaret show aptly named: “The Puppets from Hell”. As a long time active member of the Los Angeles Cacophony Society, Al “Quaeda”, as he was known, was involved in countless Cacophony Society pranks and events throughout the city. He also produced the “Incredibly Strange Cinema” cult film series as well as themed events such as the now infamous “Pornothon Movie Nights” and the satirical “Mexican Night: Noche De Tequila & Putas” shows at local nightclub venues. Throughout his art career, he has exhibited his canvas paintings at various local galleries, and has also written & illustrated numerous comic strips and Graphic Novel stories. Today, he lives in Silver Lake, California and works as a freelance artist and writer with numerous multi-media projects under his belt and in the works. His personal hobbies include collecting vintage toys and comic books, cinema history and Los Angeles City history. Contact: alguerrero@earthlink.net Al Guerrero P.O. Box 29697 Los Angeles, CA 90029-0697 www.alguerrero.com Myspace.com/thepuppetsfromhell

8 thoughts on “Hands Across The River…

  1. To Jesus, Beige, et al.
    Apology accepted! May your days west of the river be long and prosperous. Thank you for admitting the errors of your ways.

  2. I’d say that this blog was never just about the east vs. west thing.
    That whole issue has been just one nasty distraction and most of us here would be happy to stop addressing it if it weren’t for some stubborn pendejos who keep misappropriating the Eastside name even after realizing that it’s wrong to do so and that they look stupid doing it.

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