Mr LA

Hi, Guys:

I'm back after tackling life issues that kept me away but I'm back.

Flash!!! Tomorrow Olvera Street celebrates its 82nd anniversary of being a Mexican marketplace.  There is a jam-packed list of events for kids, adults, and just general partying.  It'll be amazing as mariachi bands, Aztec dancers, salsa and marimba groups, mass baptisms at the Plaza Church, massive lines at the taquito stands along the way.  For those going there, getting there on the 2 Bus along Sunset Blvd. will put you within one block of Olvera Street.  The Metro Red Line will bring you from the San Fernando Valley.  The Green and Blue Lines will bring you in from the South Bay and the Gold Line will bring you in from Pasadena and points between it and Los Angeles.  Parking (if you must) can be had for $7.00 the entire day (the cheapest rate around there) at the Metro Plaza Hotel, cr. Main St. and Cesar Chavez Ave., diagonally across Olvera Street.

For those who might not know, Olvera Street is where the oldest buildings in Los Angeles are congregated.  Really, a glorified alley during the Spanish and Mexican days in Los Angeles, it was really that until the 1920's when, rundown buildings everywhere, drug deals, prostitution, bootleg liquor sales, and all kinds of violent crime were happening there.  Leave it to someone outside of L. A. to value and save historical landmarks.

Christine Sterling, a San Francisco socialite, visited Los Angeles many times and became enamored of its history.  When she saw the decrepit street and the Avila Adobe being readied to demolish, she took it upon herself to save the house and the entire street, restoring it to its former glory and saving L. A.'s origins, turning it into a marketplace and inviting people from all over the globe to see it.  She had the ears, eyes, and money of Harry Chandler, the publisher of the Los Angeles Times 24/7.  Through Chandler, Ahmanson, and many other major economic players in Los Angeles, Mrs. Sterling got the City of Los Angeles (when it had money............Don't get me started on THAT topic!) to clean up the street, pave it with bricks, restore the ditch that used to bring fresh water from the Los Angeles River to the houses on Olvera Street, invite Mexican business owners, and the rest came together on April 21, 1930, with the mayor, Harry Chandler, newsreels (the movie theater version of the nightly news), and thousands of people attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Many of the original business owners still operate the shops and restaurants on Olvera Street, albeit the great-grandchildren of the original owners.  Olvera Street remains one of the most famous and most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles.

For my money, the best Mexican meal on the street is at La Luz del Dia, a cafeteria containing freshly-ground and -made tortillas right in front of you; the best carnitas in Los Angeles; and the best nopales, a citrusy salad made of diced cactus, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, lemon juice, salt, and some diced chilis, in town.  Although Olvera Street was made into a Mexican marketplace and, indeed, it pays tribute to the city's Spanish roots and Mexican character, there are several reminders of other ethnic groups with strong ties to Olvera Street:  the Chinese-American Museum on the southern end of the Plaza, next to the Pico House, a great and long-overdue museum that fascinatingly chronicles the history of the Chinese in California, especially Los Angeles.  Don't miss photos of the Massacre of 1871, the worst mass violent episode in the United States for the next 50 years.  Also, nearby though not open is the Italian Hall, site of the once huge Italian immigrant community in Los Angeles.  To all you New Yorkers, L. A. had its own Little Italy and it was bigger than yours, nahh na ne na nahh!  When you have a great margarita and good Mexican dinner at La Golondrina on Olvera Street,  you'll be eating at the home of Antonio Pelanconi, one of the earliest Italians in Los Angeles and one of the biggest landowners in L. A. County and one of the pioneers of the wine industry in California. 

Enjoy a margarita, a taquito or a carnitas plate (more than one of each if you like) and "Viva la Placita Olvera" on its 82nd birthday!!!