Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - American History Los Angeles A diverse metropolis Los Angeles A diverse metropolis People always wonder why the City of Angels is different from other cities. This paper will answer this question and explain the uniqueness that makes L.A., “L.A.” Los Angeles, since its birth as an embryonic city, has become one of the most diverse metropolises, offering to the public what no other city can. This paper will emphasize the relationship between the federal government and the western United States. It will also illustrate how capitalism has flourished because of the prevalent 19th century Laissez Faire ideology. It will describe how the free market prevailed and expanded Los Angeles outward, while cultivating new public institutions and private enterprises. Finally, this paper will explore the “end product” that exists today through the works of the various authors outlined in this course and explain how Los Angeles has survived many decades of evolution, breaking new grounds and serving as the catalyst for an urban metropolis. Los Angeles is unique in that it captures the essence of a multi-ecological setting bringing the ocean, the skyscraper, and the happiest place on earth under one rooftop. Its deep-rooted culture engulfs the city’s character and overwhelms the spirit of L.A. Los Angeles has encompassed the circle of the Mexican pueblo that began in 1848 and has returned over two hundred fifty years later. Hordes of “land hungry Anglo-Europeans” began to migrate to Los Angeles from various parts of Europe. They viciously took land from the inhabited Mexicans by fraud, force, and imposing ridiculous property taxes. Although Mexican rancheros fought gallantly for their land, they could not afford to pay the property taxes and as a result lost a vast part of their holdings. The Mexican ranchero lifestyle gradually vanished as new settlers took over. As the Anglo-whites became the majority in Los Angeles, they also became the major influence on the development of the city and its capitalist structure. Although, Capitalism brought change to the city of Los Angeles, it also created racial apprehension. As described by Sanchez, “deportation and repatriation campaigns pushed almost one-third of the Mexican community back to Mexico…. Increasingly, changing demographics and limited economic resources stunted the growth of the ethnic market, reflecting the changing composition and nature of the Mexican/Chicano community.” (Sanchez, pgs184-185) Growth of cultural diverse communities established ethnic centers of culture. Chinatown, Olvera Street, and Compton all contributed to culturally diversity and the expansion of Los Angeles. Although Los Angeles has become rich in cultures, its evolution did not go without racial tensions and segregation. With the arrival of blacks from the south, white-Los Angeles did always recognize the minority community. Angelenos did not always embrace diversity with pride, but perhaps the sad part is not the fact that racial segregation took place, but the fact that it was not created by just the individual, but also by the organization. Federal programs like the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Homeowner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) divided up Los Angeles into a complex socio-economic racial-class system. The influences of the local level influenced the federal level and revolutionized the finance industry. (Avila, lecture 2/5/02) These federal organizations blatantly labeled minorities as derogatory, uneducated, second-class citizens that brought down property value in “white” neighborhoods. Latinos and Black were often labeled as a “minority problem” and even as a “disease” on official HOLC documents. The HOLC implemented strict government guidelines and kept maps of white neighborhoods confidential. It also devised a formal and uniform style of appraising homes by breaking neighborhoods into race classifications by letter. As Waldie states, “The Montana Land Company made it clear that lots were protected by restrictions of an all-inclusive nature written into deeds covenants, these restrictions prevented the sale of lots to Negroes, Mexicans, and Jews.” (Waldie, pg 73) The HOLC and FHA were perhaps the Affirmative Action for white people, thus creating chocolate cities and vanilla villages. (Avila lecture, 2/7/02) Under Capitalism, everything could be marketed and sold, even history. (Avila, lecture 1/15/02) The romantic mythologies about characters like “Ramona,” in the novel by Helen Hunt Jackson, intrigued people. This novel became an attraction for tourist and was highly commercialized. The simple story about a young girl’s life in Los Angeles appealed to cities, pageants, and other young girls that were named after her. Another myth of Los Angeles includes the pursuit of fame and fortune in Hollywood. Many aspiring actors and actresses came out to Los Angeles to make their debut. What they found was a Hollywood dream gone sour. Nathaniel West’s, “The day of the locust,” is about broken Hollywood dreams. The fictional characters in the book are from the mid-west and east coast and are in pursuit of a Hollywood dream. West uses these characters to represent the many non-fiction characters that were confronted with the realities of the Los Angeles film industry, saying, “She went on and on, telling him how careers are made in the movies and how she intended to make hers. She mixed bits of badly understood…with other bits out of the fan magazines and compared these with the legends that surrounded…screen stars and executives. Possibilities became probabilities and wound up as inevitabilities.” (West, pg164) This totally illustrates the attitude of the want-to-be’s and would-be’s that came to Hollywood. Another expectation was not met in Los Angeles was the concept of a nuclear family living happily ever after. This type of, June Cleaver family, only existed in Hollywood and as Elaine Tyler May states in, Great Expectations, “Couples hoped that marriage would include fewer sacrifices and more satisfactions. But obviously the Hollywood formula was not the answer. Although it did represent a genuine cultural ideal, couples could not do away with the serious responsibilities of married life and children, even if they so desired.” (May pgs 90-91) May’s writing is about the many broken marriages that do not live up to the Hollywood fantasy. May also believed that marriages failed due to women entering the work force, misguided hopes for marriage as sexual fulfillment, and an increased pressure on men to satisfy increased demands as the sole provider. Los Angeles began to commercialize through the transportation system. The federal government subsidized railroad development through various grants and loans. In 1876, the Southern Pacific Railroad connected the west with the rest of the United States. This capitalist railroad system soon became a monopoly, and proved to be a vital aspect in the development of Los Angeles. The rail system began as a tourist’s ticket to LA, but soon provided growth and commerce by linking the region to other parts of development. It brought the average person to Los Angeles and made citrus cultivation possible. The rail system brought workers to and from the orange fields, advertised the paradise like environment and eventually shipped these exotic fruits to the rest of the United States. It quickly fueled the annexation of surrounding cities to Los Angeles and expanded Los Angeles’s territories beyond that of a “walking city.” The elaborate rail system also paved the way for the future development of freeways and without it, towns like in the harbor area like San Pedro and Wilmington would have ceased to exist. Next, came the automobile. This idea of autonomous mobility came at the perfect time during the growth of Los Angeles. As automobiles began to be mass produced and available to the majority of the public, Los Angeles was also gaining its shape. The automobile industry promoted migration and a decentralization of the region. It also inspired people like A.W. Ross and the creation of the Bullocks Wilshire building, which catered to the commuter. It made the average person more independent and as Reyner Banham said, “if you don’t drive in Los Angeles, you are restricted to a very small part of it.” (Banham, pg 217) The Free Harbor Fight gave rise to yet another free enterprise. The city of Los Angeles was in need of deep waters to build a harbor. The capitalist elite alone could not subsidize this project, and therefore federal support played a major role in its development. There were two factions that lobbied for the harbor, one being Santa Monica and the other San Pedro. Samuel Hunington, owner of the Southern Pacific and prominent L.A. figure, led the faction in Santa Monica. His political pay-offs and connections paid off early in the race for the harbor. Hunington knew that a harbor in Santa Monica would raise property value, where he already had established a monopoly. Harrison Gray Otis of the Los Angeles Times led the San Pedro faction. Otis fought for a “free harbor for free people.” Finally on March 1st, 1894, after ten long years of struggle, San Pedro won the bid for the Los Angeles harbor. This proved to be major a victory of the public over private enterprises. It also symbolized an end to political corruption by the capitalist elite and a shift from the Hunington monopoly to the L.A. business community. Los Angeles became a breeding ground for popular new industries because of its unique Southern California location, climate, and constant, cheap immigrant labor. During the World War II era, Capitalism and the free market escalated immensely as a result of the introduction of the aerospace industry to Los Angeles. During the early 1940’s, ten percent of the defense federal budget came to Southern California. Again, federal subsidies helped develop Los Angeles into one of the military’s major industrial centers, building more planes and ships than any other city. World War II and the bombing of Pearl Harbor led to the transformation of Los Angeles into a mega-metropolis. Before World War II, there was skilled craftsman, but post World War II, assembly lines with unskilled labor became the norm. This mass production, gave rise to other large industries. People from all over the United States came to Southern California in search of jobs. Some only wanted wartime jobs that could release them from the obligation of serving their country elsewhere in uniform. World War II proved to be the catalyst and expansion point that set off the growth in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, along with the migration, came disparity. Again, blacks were not welcome in white towns and the increased population, made white-LA very nervous. “The immigration of tens of thousands of Black war workers from the Southwest imposed intolerable strains on the confined housing stock of the Los Angles ghetto. As Blacks tried to jump over the “white wall” to buy shelter in outlying suburban or rural fringes, they were met by a new wave of homeowner hostility.” (David, pg 163) World War II offered plenty of prosperity to Southern California and many of the defense contracts have lasted up until the Cold War. Today, Mexican culture has reasserted itself in Los Angeles and is slowly shedding the “minority problem.” The minority has become the majority. Although the majority of the parents of Mexican-Americans are under-educated, work manual labor jobs, and live in less developed neighborhoods, it is the children of these very same parents that now occupy key political positions, white-collar jobs, and account for the majority of the population. These diligent parents have set a great example for their children. Despite having to battle discrimination and poor neighborhoods, second and third generation Mexican-Americans have made a great strife to overcome large obstacles. Mexican-Americans are finally gaining representation in city government representing the 9.6 million Mexican residents of Los Angeles. White politicians can no longer ignore Mexicans in Los Angeles, as former mayor Richard Riordan saw in the elections of 1997, in which his re-election was largely in part to the high turnout of Mexican voters in his favor. Although Capitalism still exists in the greater Los Angeles, its influence is not as great as it was fifty years ago. Los Angeles continues to serve as the breeding grounds for new cultures, ideologies, and alternative lifestyles. The pursuit of the American Dream becomes a reality for most immigrants in LA. LA is a great place to live, party, and be from. I knew little about the history of Los Angeles prior to this course, but now I am well prepared to answer the question of, “What makes Los Angeles, Los Angeles?” Bibliography: Becoming Mexican-American by George Sanchez, Oxford University Press, Inc.1993 Word Count: 2031
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