We're not here to debate ethnic relations in California or Los Angeles, although there have been plenty of conflicts and compromises over the centuries, not all of them pretty and a few downright ugly.
Our proposition is simply that for all its natural beauty and gifts, Los Angeles without its Mexican-American population would be insufferably DULL.
We noticed this immediately upon arrival 30 years ago, when our new Angeleno neighbors still referred to next-door Orange County, home of the (at the time) lily-white Beach Boys and the John Birch Society, as Iowa-by-the-Sea. Nothing against Iowa, but you get the implication. No one was going to leave the glorious, fascinating chaos of Los Angeles County for a night on the town in Anaheim.
Today, Latinos make up 48% of LA County's population, with income levels beginning to approach the median ($61k vs $68k). They have long dominated LA politics and government, but even more importantly, have led the way in independent job creation, with more than 24k businesses and billions in receipts and payrolls.
As with most immigrant groups, Latinos historically took the jobs no one else wanted--farm laborers, gardeners, housekeepers, day laborers, and so forth. Immigrant Latinos still dominate these sectors, but increasingly the face of the Latino community has become the independent, small-scale business.
Years ago, we were visiting a friend of ours in North Long Beach, when he invited us out to dinner. We agreed, and so he took us across the street to a neighbor's house, where they'd converted their living room into a makeshift restaurant. The food was superb and Guadalajaran in style. Within a few years, Jorge assured us, his neighbor would save enough to open a tiny eatery in nearby Compton, and then expand into a larger venue somewhere in the South Bay. And why not? It was el estilo americano!
It might sound trivial to some—and come as a surprise to others—but Latinos have a long, detailed, and generally extraordinary relationship to food. No, we’re not talking about tacos here, although there are plenty of tortillas in the mix. We've spent hours provoking and listening to debates--in Spanish, Spanglish, and English--over the relative merits of Oaxacan, Chiapan, Guadalajaran, Sonoran (Ben's favorite), or Veracruz cuisines. And here’s the thing—we know of no other city in America where the issue can be decided by a ten-minute drive to the nearest expert establishment.