In Quotes: “What’s Good for Boyle Heights”

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Working Class Historian Gifford Hartman (a white guy that grew up in East Los by the way) sent me this link to a fascinating piece about the Jewish influence on radical politics and multiculturalism in Boyle Heights during the 1950’s. For those interested in the history of the Eastside, it’s a must read. There’s lots of good quotes I could pull but this has to be my favorite:

Frumkin already saw the distinction between his community of Boyle Heights and the growing Jewish community on the Westside in 1945. There was “an unspoken solidarity among all the neighbors” on the Eastside, including the 60 percent of his neighbors who were Mexican. “We never had a lock on our door, never had a key. You just didn’t do it. I don’t know if it was unspoken, but as poor as we were, nobody stole from anybody else.” In this working-class solidarity, a certain level of contempt was reserved for the more middle-class surroundings on the Westside.

“When we would smoke, for instance, we would keep the cigarettes in the car. We would never dump them out in East L.A. When we used to go to West L.A. to the Jewish Community Center to dances, we’d dump all our ashtrays out, because we knew the streets were going to be cleaned there. But we never did it here.”

Wow, even in the 50’s people were complaining about the disparity of service in our communities. Some things never change. Is ashtray micro-resistance an action we can learn from our Eastside ancestors? It couldn’t hurt!

The full title of the article is “What’s Good for Boyle Heights Is Good for the Jews”: Creating Multiculturalism on the Eastside during the 1950s by George J. Sanchez

Download the pdf from Muse here

or from us at LA Eastside here

Friday Fun

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Louis CK-On Being White

Okay, so I know this clip has nothing to do with the Eastside…or does it? I’ll leave that decision up to you. But you know what? It’s funny, it’s Friday and I’m all about the goodtimes.

Botanitas: March 19, 2009

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The Mysterious Ghostly Trash Receptacle of Lincoln Heights

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!

So many events this week, so little time! Only boring people can be bored in a city like Los Angeles. That’s right, I said it. You got a problem with my philosophy? Leave it in the comments section. This edition of Botanitas is chockfull of Eastside concerts, art shows and places to be seen. Read ahead for the scoop. *Updated this morning*

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Memorial in Highland Park

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The family of Alejandro Garcia has been keeping vigil at this memorial everyday, hydrating the flowers and answering the questions of passerbys. This past Monday would have been the sixteenth birthday of Carlos Hernandez.

Last Friday, two young boys, Alejandro Garcia, 16 and Carlos Hernandez, 15 were gunned down on their walk home from Franklin High School on the busy North Figueroa corridor. Police and eyewitness reports say the incident started initially as a brawl before it turned deadly.

I’m a bit late in mentioning this story because I was out of town when it happened but I’ve been wondering, what excuse does the Los Angeles Times have? All they’ve got on this tragic story is a small blurb on one of their blogs. That’s pathetic. People have left comments on the LA Now blog expressing similar sentiments. There have been more shootings in the area and still no coverage. Well, at least the Times wasn’t posing outrageous questions to their readers, like whether or not they felt safer with the deceased gone.
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The Rough Rider

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Get your mind outta the gutter you freaks !!! This is a family site. Ok. So last week I paid a visit to the staff of the Roosevelt High newspaper, The Rough Rider. And lemme tell ya, these kids have moxie. I’ve ran into a few of them here and there, mostly at the classic because as a reporter, we can smell our own kind. The nature of my visit was to talk about how the media portrays undocumented residents and how I, as an undocumented resident, use the media to champion my crusade. That’s what I should have talked about, but when I get the spot light I tend to trail off. In fact, the whole time I was there I spent it talking about my life experiences, how I hustle my writing and other adventures I’ve lived through. 

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Purim in Los Angeles

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Hey, it’s St. Patrick’s Day so I thought I’d share a few pics of that other drunken ethnic holiday: Purim! For those not in the know, which includes me, it’s apparently a Jewish day of celebration and required drunkeness. So where’s my invitation?

At one point, this holiday must have been common in Boyle Heights. Now it’s probably only big on the Westside. Click ahead for a few pics.

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Saint Patrick’s Day

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San Patricio Battalion Flag
[repost from chimatli.org, written last year]

It can be argued that St Patrick’s Day is like a national holiday in my neighborhood, despite the fact there is no sizable Irish community in this area. Here in Lincoln Heights, it’s common to see people wearing shamrock paraphernalia all year round. As was recently pointed out to me, stores in Lincoln Heights will stock green colored clothing more frequently as it tends to sell more quickly than other colors. Shamrocks magically grace the walls after long weekend nights, spreading the luck of the Irish throughout our little hood. Continue reading →

The Magic is in the Meat

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Torta review by Victoria Kraus

If you haven’t already discovered East L.A.’s best kept torta secret, you can stop shelling out your precious American dollars for crap and start getting more for your money, at least Monday through Saturday between 11:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.  Taco Real is nestled in the business complex on Mednik and 3rd in East L.A., across the street from the East Los Angeles Civic Center.  A few doors down from the franchises Coffee Bean and Quizno’s, this small-sized kitchen and four-stool counter seating is a secret waiting to explode on the LA Weekly and Times foodie scene.  I’ve been a loyal biweekly, sometimes weekly, customer for over a year now.  I stumbled upon Taco Real in January 2008 unwillingly on my way to work.  I thought it was another one of those Mexican food places that are too many in East LA.  I was debating whether to eat a familiar Quizno’s sub that would be pseudo-satisfactory or try something different.  I took a leap of faith and went into Taco Real, indulging myself with the best freakin’ torta on the planet.  I took a bite of my first Taco Real order – a carne asada torta – in front of Victor, the restaurant’s owner and fellow Roosevelt H.S. alum.  I could not believe a simple six dollar Mexican sandwich would satisfy me beyond description.  It was better than any overpriced $10+ gourmet sandwich or panini at a chic Los Feliz/Silverlake café.  I told Victor that I’ve had many a torta but this torta was magic.  “It’s the meat, man,” I told him.  “I can taste the quality.”  He said I nailed it on the head.

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Carwash Compadres

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Assumption youth group, Boyle Heights (1970s)

My parents met in the early 70s when they were both active members of the Assumption Church youth group and choir. They never left the tight-knit group as some of the members were their own siblings and became lifelong friends and compadres.

When they got married in 1977, several of the kids from the group got all dolled up and joined the large wedding party. Thirteen couples! I think my mom was still sore about not having a quinceañera.

Late the next year, my parents welcomed their first son, Danny. Of course, he had to be baptized. Danny’s padrinos were los Padilla, a couple my parents had met and befriended in the youth group. He was baptized at Assumption, as were the rest of us kids even though our home parish was in Hacienda Heights. They were now more than friends, they were compadres.

Growing up, I saw the youth group members — whom my parents called los Marcianos — frequently for birthday parties and camping trips. Somewhere along the way, the visits became less frequent. The last time I saw many of the Marcianos (save for my tío Johnny, seated in red) was for my Madrina Bertha’s funeral five years ago. Los Marcianos and their now grown children gathered at a church in Lincoln Heights for the Mass. They recreated the choir of their teens and early 20s, but this time the songs were much sadder. It was quite the bittersweet reunion.

Pedestrian safety in Boyle Heights

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img_34281With pedestrian traffic accidents increasing in Boyle Heights, the Union de Vecinos wants to make sure that the streets are safe for everyone. Community members staged a protest on Cesar Chavez Ave. and Forest holding up signs and chanting in rhythm for safer streets for pedestrians in Boyle Heights around 6 p.m. today. Elizabeth Blaney is one of those community members who want the cities Department of transportation to place traffic signals in two high traffic areas, Wabash and Fickett and on the corner where they were protesting. Some of the residents, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that they’re tired of having to worry if they’re kids will get home safely from school because drivers don’t adhere to the residential speed limit, which is 35 mph.

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