Author Archives: chimatli

About chimatli

In the fourth-grade, I won second place in the Humphreys Elementary School poetry contest. It's been all downhill from there.

In Quotes: Eastside Stories

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Ralph’s Market, Five Points-Lincoln Heights circa 1920’s

From the Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1919:

STATION RENAMED

Old East Side Police Quarters Now “Lincoln Heights”

The name of the East Side Police Station is to become a matter of ancient history. Henceforth this place is to be known on all official records as the Lincoln Heights Police Station. The Police Commission yesterday complied with the request of improvement associations in Lincoln Heights and officially changed the name.

In 1917 a section of East Los Angeles was renamed “Lincoln Heights.” As endearing as the new name was to become, it was still common for residents to refer to their neighborhood as “The East Side.” To this day, when older Angelenos talk about the Lincoln Heights, they’ll often say “You know, The Eastside.”

The World Upside Down

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“Country estates for all!”

One of my favorite writers is former Uruguayan exile, Eduardo Galeano. His historical-ish books on Latin America (he claims he is no historian but he makes the past come alive like no other) are filled with the absurdities and the small joys that make up the upside down world we live in. Like Galeano, I sometimes feel the logic of the world we live can become so twisted that it simply ceases to make sense. The current spectacle of electoral politics is an example. From today’s Los Angeles Times:

Obama Elitist, Says Lady Rothschild

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild is an ardent Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter who raised scads of money for the New York senator’s failed presidential campaign. She and her husband, Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England, split their time between New York and a British country estate.

It’s not a bad life, she says, and she’d like you to have one just like it. Which is why she’s backing Sen. John McCain for president, not her party’s nominee.

Sen. Barack Obama? He’s an elitist, she says.

More on Lady Rothschild here.

El Rocoto

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Saltado de Vegetales

I admit this restaurant is faraway from our beloved Eastside but I have been known to venture out of my neighborhood. I’ve been wanting to try Peruvian food for sometime now and this is one of my Whittier-dwelling brother’s favorite place to chow down. There are a few Peruvian restaurants in Hollywood but when I’ve scanned their menus, almost everything seemed to include meat. (I’ve also had this problem in Cuban restaurants). I was happy then to find El Rocoto in Cerritos has a vegetarian section on their menu, excellent!

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A Quiet Celebration

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El Grito

The annual El Grito celebration will take place tonight at City Hall. For those not in the know, here’s a description from a city website:

El Grito, which translates to “The Cry,” celebrates the cry for Mexican Independence from Spain. The annual tradition includes food, fun, and Mexico’s President ringing the bell that was originally used by the Mexicans who shouted the cry for independence that started the revolution in the early 1800s. El Grito has also become a Los Angeles tradition, with our city’s mayor sounding the chimes of freedom by ringing a bell at a local ceremony.

Of course, the real El Grito happens at the Zocalo in Mexico D.F, where pride of La Patria is taken seriously. Forget the words of the excruciatingly long national anthem and in Mexico you can be fined. Jenni Rivera, who infamously flubbed the lines at the Los Angeles Grito celebrations a few years ago was lucky to have an audience of fans who didn’t care.

Monday, September 15, 2008
El Grito festivities tonight at 7:00 p.m.
Los Angeles City Hall (200 N. Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles)

Where are the flags?

Usually every year around El 16 de Septiembre, Mexican flags small and large can be seen waving from car windows, houses, poles and various other places around Los Angeles, except this year they aren’t. In fact, every year I notice less and less flags. Even after 9/11 in 2001 when everyone had the small American flags on their cars, I saw folks with Mexican and American flags. It seems though all the propaganda by anti-immigration groups and right-wingers has made Mexicans have second thoughts about displaying La Bandera Mexicana. Last year in Lincoln Heights around this time, I counted two flags on cars, this year not even one. In years previous, I couldn’t count the amount of Mexican flags I saw around town. How about the rest of you? Notice any difference this year?

Goodbye Frieden’s Department Store

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Before the days of Target and Walmart, when residents of working class neighborhoods needed to shop for clothes, they had small family owned neighborhood department stores to turn to. Here in Lincoln Heights, we have one of the last remaining examples of this bygone era, Frieden’s Department Store. It was with dismay that I recently spotted a big sign outside the building proclaiming “Retirement Sale.” After 61 years in business, the 91 year old owner Leon Frieden has decided to take a long overdue retirement. Throughout the years, Mr Frieden who can usually be found keeping accounts in his small back office, has displayed respect and affection for his customers by offering quality merchandise and personal service in a time when these practices seem to matter little other businesses.

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Pedestrian Killed in Lincoln Heights

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(photo by Flickr user pastamaster 39 )

Sad news in Lincoln Heights today. A pedestrian crossing near Griffin and Broadway was struck and killed during a police car chase. I saw the blocked off street and activity on my way home.

Call me overly cautious but when I wait to cross the street, I often will stand behind a pole or some other kind of object in case some car jumps the curve or loses control. I know of at least two times something like this has happened right here in Lincoln Heights and I’m not taking any chances.

More on the car chase at the KCAL website: Pedestrian Killed After Chase Ends in Crash

Estilo Angelino en S.A.

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Coelhos Negros-Belo Horizonte, Brasil

I know a lot of people hate on myspace and for good reason, there are millions of kids, teenagers and adults who spend waste way too much of their computer time on the site. But like all things in the world, things are what you make of them and personally, I’ve been able to use myspace for what it was originally intended to be, a social networking site. In fact through one of my numerous myspace pages, :dos lunares, I’ve met and visited Gypsy music fans in Mexico City and hosted Gypsy music DJs from Switzerland here in Los Angeles. Besides using the site as intended, it’s also allowed me to pursue some of my not so flattering tendencies. I can be, how would one put it, extremely curious (okay, nosey) and a tad bit voyeuristic. And I must admit, myspace can provide hours of satisfying entertainment. What I often search for are the strange little subcultures that exist in the world but are not widely known. I’ve spent many a night visiting pages of friends and friends of friends that have included: almost-out-of-the-closet cholos, bizarre art groups, French nu-ravers, Romani gangstas and hardcore Anarchists. And I have to say, I’ve learned so much!

“Amazonas, que viva America Latina”

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Botanitas: July 18, 2008

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Vexing: Female Voices from East LA Punk, Claremont Museum through Aug 31.

Botanitas is an ongoing feature bringing you stories and news from various sources, upcoming events and other bits of ephemera that might be of interest to LA Eastside readers. Suggestions welcome!

Bridging the grade divide in Lincoln Heights

Residential Food Scrap Pilot Program

Old Los Angeles

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