Boyle Heights: Her Neighborhood

Boyle Heights is a city east of Downtown Los Angles that is predominantly inhabited by working-class, Mexican Americans. As a Boyle Heightsian, Gloria Estrada recognizes the cultural and musical richness of her community. She highlights that she has lived in the city of Boyle Heights her entire life and shares that she has even lived in the same house. Being a daughter of mexicanos, Gloria acknowledges her biculturalism and the implications of being a product of two cultures. She mentioned how it could be difficult for an individual to mesh two different cultures and efforts young people make to do so through their clothing and self-portrayal. Her life near a mariachi plaza and the projects allowed Gloria to interact with individuals from different backgrounds. Gloria explained that coming from financially disadvantaged community motivates people to be creative and do with what they have. She recalled that while her parents were skeptical of her pursuing a musical career, they preferred her to see her involved in music as opposed to the gangs in the city.

Gloria Estrada describes Boyle Heights as “little Mexico” due to the abundance of mercados, street vendors, and taqueros in the city. She believes that everything in Boyle Heights is creative and admires the way people “make a hustle to make a living”. Gloria mentions that people’s creativity is seen in the way they cook and eat; adding extra condiments that add texture and style to the food sold on the street. She sees the culture within Boyle Heights as colorful, resembling Mexico, and believes that this artistic scene is owed to the community members being creative. She discussed how the diversity of people’s dressing attire and the way in which people shop is reflective of their creativity, “around here people went to downtown, los callejones (the alleys), and there you can get 10 T-Shirts for twenty-dollars”.