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Jaquelyn Salinas

Professor Batty

English 101

28 March 2018

Los Angeles: Cultural Salad Bowl

In ​1781, 44 village settlers from the Mexican provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa made their

home in what is now Downtown Los Angeles. Two of the 44 settlers were Spaniards, while the

others were Indians, Blacks and Mestizos of mixed ancestry. The Spanish named the new

settlement El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles, or The Town of Our Lady the

Queen of the Angels. After the territory changed hands from Spain to Mexico, the town was

officially declared a city in 1835. Los Angeles became part of the U.S. in January 1847.​ ​Los

Angeles is located in southern California, on the Pacific Coast, with the Santa Monica Mountains

to the north and the San Gabriel Mountains to the east (Learning from Los Angeles). Although it

has long been known for its gentrification history, Los Angeles is mostly known for its cultural

diversity. ​People from more than 140 countries, speaking 224 different identified languages,

currently call Los Angeles home. Los Angeles has always had a large immigrant presence and

has seen its immigrant population dramatically rise since 1980; immigrants now make up one-

third of the County’s total population.

One of the things that makes Los Angeles so diverse are its immigration friendly laws.

According to Robin Abcarian, a columnist at the Los Angeles Times, “the City of Los Angeles,

the second largest in the nation, is a sanctuary city which is a symbol of the region’s acceptance

of its immigrant population. Along with longtime gateway cities like New York and Chicago,
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Los Angeles remains committed to immigrants and changing policy both locally and nationally

to enable integration”. What Abcarian argues is that Los Angeles as a sanctuary city, it offers

political support or practical protections to people who are in the country illegally. This also

means the the city has adopted far-reaching policies, such as taking steps to cut ties with federal

immigration officials and refusing to fully cooperate with them. This is a clear demonstration of

how LA does not care much about the money instead it about the people and its history.

Los Angeles is known for many nicknames, for example, the City of Angels because Los

Angeles means “the angels” in Spanish, The Big Orange because of the fruit that grows in that

city’s warm climate, and La-La Land, using the first letters of Los and Angeles. This last

nickname is also the name of a film that was based on how people in their minds think that LA is

a city of dreams and that the minute they come here, all their dreams will come true. But then

they find out that in real life things don’t always exactly work out that way. The film centers on

aspiring musician, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), looking to open his own jazz club, and struggling

actress Mia (Emma Stone). Both have big dreams but are struggling to make it in Hollywood. La

la land, is able to hold its own and touch everyone who has the opportunity to watch it. However,

it has caused many controversy. A main criticism the film has faced is its lack of diversity. “the

film is its supposed "white savior complex." Sebastian, a Caucasian jazz pianist, feels like it is up

to him to save the dying music genre. A genre created by Black people. While no one has argued

that a white person cannot listen to or play jazz music, it has been ardently expressed that

Sebastian should have been played by a Black actor”(​Noah Gittell​). This means people argue

that it is a story about an art form created by Blacks, but neither of the protagonists are Black. In

fact, the only major Black character, Keith (John Legend) which is against traditional jazz music
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and has developed a more inauthentic sound. In the film starts with this incredibly

choreographed and stunningly complex dance number where it zooms down onto an LA

overpass and focuses on a young Indian woman who starts singing. From there, it pans across a

cast of dancers of all ethnicities, ages, classes and occupations and it's clearly a celebration of the

true diversity of LA and a large part of what makes it such a unique city but after that all those

characters are not heard of again, their perspectives aren't heard of either for the rest of the

movie. Overall, we see that this film doesn’t really show LA’s true meaning which is diversity.

Los Angeles is full of cultural diverse places, one of them is Santa Monica Pier. During

my observation, I found out that for a small city located in Los Angeles County,

Santa Monica plays a highly influential role in the cultural life of Southern California. “Santa

Monica has a rich history of embracing diversity and acting with compassion. These

are two key community virtues that attracted me to Santa Monica”(Los Angeles). What this

means is that this place is colorful, full of entertainment and life. This place is really crowded

and loud with thousands of people, each of them doing their own thing. Some of them just walk

around while enjoying the sunset, others are in stores buying stuff that would remind them of

their visit to this amazing place, others are just eating in the different fast food restaurants and

the others are enjoying the rides. All these people have a different perspective, they all look

different. Some of them are brown skinned, others white and others dark. In this place I also see

a variety of talents, some people sing, others paint, others dance and they also play some

instruments, therefore, there’s a lot of different types of music going on. Hence, all these little

things are what makes LA so diverse, places like this one full of tourists, immigrants and artists

make Los Angeles be a cultural salad bowl.

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Though some Angelenos (people from LA) will say that Los Angeles is best known for

its gentrification history I still argue that Los Angeles is a cultural diverse place where everyone

is welcome to call it home. “Gentrification is the process of renewal and rebuilding

accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often

displaces poor residents” (​Definition of Gentrification​). This concept has been seen in many

places in LA for example Santa Monica. Statistics show that Santa Monica has transformed into

an exclusive tourist destination and high-income community with less and less room for its

low-income residents. However, I still argue that Los Angeles is a place where culture is

embraced and kept. In my visit to Santa Monica Pier I found that a lot of wealthy people live

there yet, I still saw the diversity of cultures that were found in each person that was eating,

singing or performing any kind of activity there by the language they spoke or the way they

looked.

In conclusion, Los Angeles is home to a tremendous amount of people with different

cultures. LA is La la land to all those who want to come work hard to succeed no just come and

spect that all your dreams come true out of nowhere without any effort. Because unlike the

setting shown in the movie La la land, Los Angeles is a place where we see diversity in our

everyday lives at school, streets, stores, everywhere literally. In my observation about Santa

Monica Pier’s environment, I was able to see things about this place that I never noticed in the

hundreds of times I visited it before. I noticed that there was not only a diversity of stores but

also a diversity of talents and foods which made me think I was in so many places at the same

time surrounded by different cultures. Now I understand why people come to Los Angeles, I

believe they come here because they feel safe and welcomed. They come from everywhere each
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with different reasons for coming here, as time passes by they will have their own perspectives

on why it is a great place and why they call it home. Therefore, I believe we all should take of

what LA is right now. We all shouldn’t let gentrification to happen instead honor the roots of LA

and embrace as many cultures as possible.

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Works Cited

Arcarian, Robin. “They Discover, They Gentrify, They Ruin: How 'Progress' Is Wrecking Los

Angeles Neighborhoods.” ​Los Angeles Times​, Los Angeles Times, 19 July 2017,

www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-venice-density-20170719-story.html.

Chazelle, Damien, director. ​LA LA LAND​. Summit Entertainment, 2016.

“Definition of ‘Gentrification’ - English Dictionary.” ​Gentrification Definition in the Cambridge

English Dictionary​, dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/gentrification.

Freeman, Kimberly. “Learning from Los Angeles.” ​Diversity Journal​, 31 July 2015,

www.diversityjournal.com/13996-learning-los-angeles/.

Gittell, Noah. “The La La Land Backlash: Why Have Critics Turned on the Oscar Favorite?” ​The

Guardian​, Guardian News and Media, 6 Feb. 2017,

www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/06/la-la-land-criticism-race-gender-jazz-awards.

Pitt, Leonard M. “Los Angeles.” ​Encyclopædia Britannica​, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 20

Feb. 2018, www.britannica.com/place/Los-Angeles-California.