Los Angeles' second suburb, first subdivided in 1876, defied popular perceptions of what suburbia meant. Boyle Heights was shaped by waves of immigrants—including Armenians, Russians, Italians, Mexicans, blacks, Jews, and Japanese Americans—when discriminatory lending practices, restrictive covenants, and racist homeowners associations These immigrants swept through the area while excluding them from white areas. Los Angeles
Today, the Highland neighborhood east of the Los Angeles River is 95 percent Latino and is home to one of the region's most organized fights against gentrification. The remnants of Boyle Heights' multicultural past and the grassroots movement it spawned still stand today, not the least of which are its restaurants and food stands.
Canter's Deli
Any pastrami connoisseur is familiar with Canter's on Fairfax Avenue, but few know that Los Angeles' most famous deli opened in 1931 on Brooklyn Avenue (a continuation of Sunset Boulevard, later renamed Cesar Cha Weiss Avenue) opened for the first time. Located in the Midwest and New York City, Boyle Heights was once known as the "Los Angeles Lower East Side" and is home to the largest Jewish community west of Chicago.
Paving the way for Kantor's arrival was a group of radical Jewish bakers, many of whom were refugees from the Tsar's pogroms, who worked to preserve Yiddish culture, advocate for workers' rights and anti-racist organizing. In 1949, Boyle Heights native Edward Roybal was successfully elected with the support of much of the Jewish community, becoming the first Latino American to serve on the Los Angeles City Council in the 20th century and later becoming California's first Latino congressman since 1879.
otomisan
As the last remaining Japanese restaurant in the area and the oldest surviving Japanese restaurant in all of Los Angeles, Otomisan is a landmark in the neighborhood and citywide. In 1956, the Seto couple opened a store under the name Otomi Café, and the light yellow store still stands at the original location on Higashi 1st Street. The quaint shop is now owned for the third time, run by Yayoi Watanabe and her daughter Judy Hayashi, and has just three booths and a few stools at the bar. Regulars come for the crispy pork cutlets, served with sushi rolls or sashimi.
Japanese immigration to California dates back to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese immigration and increased demand for cheap labor. Eventually, Little Tokyo expanded eastward into the area along First Street, making Boyle Heights home to the city's second-largest Japanese community before World War II. In 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which forced Japanese Americans to be incarcerated in concentration camps, and a third of the students at nearby Roosevelt High School disappeared from the auditorium and classrooms.
After the camp closed in 1945, many Japanese Americans moved back to Boyle Heights because there was little housing in Little Tokyo, and by the 1950s the area had once again formed a large ethnic community, when the Otomisan was held there A packed lunch will be provided for the County Governor’s meeting. garden.
los cinco pontos
Los Cinco Puntos was opened in 1967 by Vincent and Connie Sotelo and was named for the Five Points intersection it overlooks. In the back of the kitchen, women can be seen pounding, grinding and shaping the dough with their hands before baking their famous tortillas on griddles. There's a generous serving of meat on a tray out front, ready to be chopped and piled onto tacos or tossed into a burrito with cactus, salsa and guacamole underneath. Stephen Sotelo and Michael Sotelo, the second and third generations of the family, now run the restaurant, which is beloved for its succulent meatloaf, as well as its yakisoba. Charred meatloaf, tender suadero and, especially during the holidays, tamales.
When the butcher shop and taco shop opened, Boyle Heights' population was predominantly Latino and the civil rights movement was well underway. In 1968, students at East Side High School went on strike and, starting in 1969, held anti-Vietnam War Chicano Moratorium marches to protest the disproportionate death rate among Mexican-American service members. A 1970 march ended in tragedy when three demonstrators, including Los Angeles Times columnist Ruben Salazar, were killed as the Los Angeles Police Department dispersed the crowd. Every year for the past 73 years, a 24-hour vigil precedes the Memorial Day ceremony at the Cinco Puntos intersection in Morin Square, which honors decorated veteran and author Raúl Morín Named after.
