My Boyle Heights
It doesn’t seem to matter if here in Boyle Heights, just like in Beverly Hills, we have palm tree lined streets (like my street), or new BMW’s and Lexus’ SUV’s driving down every street. It doesn’t matter that we’ll have 2 state-of-the-art hospitals or a local winery or a gorgeous view of downtown. It doesn’t matter that home prices have doubled or tripled in the last 6 years (I even saw a million dollar home listing last year), or that in the “location, location, location” game, I can be in downtown - door-to-door - in less than 12 minutes.
All of the other things that make up life in Boyle Heights doesn’t seem to matter when a journalist throws down a two word summary of my neighborhood:
gang-ridden.
But that is how public perception works. Every stereotype is based on some experience, now, isn’t it? The “SSL” tags on the corner wall - freshly painted on Fridays by the State Street Locos and painted over every Monday - attest to that.
But I just wonder, has that journalist - or any others that use the same summary tag - been to Boyle Heights? Maybe if they drove around a little bit, they could say we are a “mural-infested” town, since there are over 100 murals in Boyle Heights. Or “tamale, pandulce & elote ridden”, since if you’ve ever been in Boyle Heights past 5pm or on any weekend morning, that resounding bellow of “TAAAAAA MAAAAAL EEEEEEsssss. CHAAAAAAAAMMMM PUUUUUUUUU RAAAAAAAA DDOOOOOOOO” from, well, the tamale lady, you’d know what I was taking about.
Sometimes, I just wish that Boyle Heights would be known more for El Rinconcito del Mar (try the ceviche, its good), El Tepayac, Mariachi Plaza, Homegirl Cafe, La Serenata De Garibaldi, the original King Taco, Jesse’s barbershop, el corrido de Boyle Heights, the Estrada Courts Murals, Hollenbeck park, the Breed Street Shul, Elsa’s Tamales, the CASA 0101 theatre (responsible for “Real Women have Curves”), or La Favorita Bakery (I’m eating their pan dulce right now).
Maybe someday. Maybe even soon. Just not today.
November 3rd, 2006 at 11:55 am
I don’t think it’s fair to say that those things *aren’t* true.
East LA can be a dangerous place for the wrong person. It might be changing, even rapidly, but there are places that I am not welcome.
That said; It’s also home to some great eats! I will brave the banditos locos for the amazing taste of the Hollenbeck burrito.
November 3rd, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Nathan,
I\’m sorry to hear about your stab wound. I hope you are healing well. Glad to hear of your courageous act of culinary exploration into such a violent setting. How noble of you.
Sincerely,
Spanglish Gringo
P.S. all satire aside, there is nothing unfair nor inaccurate about how I described Boyle Heights. I actually (gasp) live here, so I know. Right now, there are 3 new model BMW\’s parked on my street. Turn the corner onto Sheridan, and palm trees line the street on both sides until you reach the freeway. White Memorial Hospital recently reopened after a $90 million remodel (read here), the screaming tamale lady really exists (she drives a brown van), and the founder of CASA 0101 really did write Real Woman have Curves (The play version is pretty good, too.)
As to not feeling welcome, I can\’t really interact with your subjective experience of this neighborhood, since you are entitled to interpret your experience as you desire. I must, though, question the objective basis by which you have drawn that interpretation. In saying \”there are places I am not welcome,\” do you mean places that actually turned away your business? Or somewhere you were denied entrance?
Or did you have an experience in which you felt uncomfortable? Were there actually gang-members there (& how were you able to assertain that)?
Or is it possible that there were other factors (& possibly cultural assumptions & maybe even possibly predjuces) that shaped your subjective experience of not feeling welcome?
Might it be that you are only confirming the point I made in this post, that a two-word summary like gang-ridden reflects more about the lense of the person giving that summary - that can only see the gangs in Boyle Heights (& don\’t get me wrong, there are many gangs here) - and fails to see the gross inadequacy of that summary, based on many other contributing factors that make Boyle Heights what it is?
Pardon my edginess on this topic. I just get tired of hearing all of the c@##p about Boyle Heights that fails to take into account the reality that people live happy, well-adjusted lives here, even with all of the gangs, and - as I\’ve experienced it - typically comes from people who\’ve never spent more time here than it takes to drive through on Cesar Chavez.
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Hey, I lived there for 5 years and was never once the victim of a crime.
And El Tepeyac is OK. I prefer a bunch of other places, like El Sol on 1st St.
And, yes, walking out in your PJs and getting fresh tamales from Tamale lady is pretty sweet.
November 9th, 2006 at 10:34 am
I lived in BH for 4 years by myself and never had a problem. I miss the “Tamales! Tamales!” and Jim’s pastrami quesodilla. Heart attack heaven. Loved the library and all my Mariachi neighbors throwing parties into the night. Good times.
April 6th, 2007 at 5:03 am
I came across your post through yelp (while looking to review La Favorita on fourth) and i have to say: Thanks.
I’ve lived in Boyle Heights, for most of my life. My family has lived here for three generations (on both sides). Uncles and aunts have been gang bangers, etc etc.
And i could totally see a comparison between Boyle Heights and Hollywood. Actually, i’m more afraid of Hollywood. The views are the same but the muggings are less here. I actually have a great view of the hollywood sign from here.
Maybe, it’s that i grew up here? or maybe it’s that i have a lot of family here, or maybe it’s that the gang-bangers know me, or that the bartenders raised me (the lady that used to run El Metropolitan Cafe [El Metro] would feed me growing up, miss her), but this neighborhood gets a bad wrap. I feel completely safe here.
Now back to my search.