00:00Ooh, here we go.
00:02I love buying Mexican candy here.
00:04These, fire.
00:06This is a dip, con polvo, polparindo.
00:09The real hot Cheetos in Mexico
00:11are very different than the hot Cheetos here.
00:13Mmm.
00:15Watch them.
00:17Hi.
00:25Hi.
00:26Being Chicana to me has really fueled
00:30a lot of my inspiration in how I show up and what I do.
00:34My people are very much about union
00:37and supporting one another,
00:39and I think that there's something really beautiful
00:41about being an Angeleno,
00:42because when you meet someone else
00:44who was born and raised here,
00:47there's a pride.
00:48And so it's like a family.
00:49And when you come to Placita Alvera,
00:52you get family vibes.
01:03My earliest memories of Placita Alvera
01:05is definitely coming with my family,
01:07spending time here in the summers,
01:09sitting out in the shade,
01:10eating raspados, hearing live music.
01:13The air becomes very electric and charged
01:16with a lot of pride.
01:22Hi.
01:22My name is Valerie Hanley.
01:24I'm a third generation merchant here on Alvera Street,
01:26and I own Casa California.
01:27This place really, to me, is home.
01:29You grew up with the people that are here.
01:31We all kind of ran around here,
01:33and God help you if you got in trouble,
01:35because it's just all family.
01:37Everybody would talk.
01:38It's that sense of community and home.
01:40The people here are working to try to keep this place alive,
01:44because it means so much to them.
01:46All of our traditional events are free to the public.
01:48We always try to see what we can do to give back to the community at large here in Los
01:53Angeles.
01:59So you'll hear little FM radios blasting.
02:03I always love buying Mexican candy here.
02:06And then, of course, there's a lot of great food here.
02:10The taquito was created here on Alvera Street back in 1934, I believe.
02:15And each of the different taquito stands here on Alvera Street have a different sauce.
02:19The one on the end, Silito Lindo, is probably the most famous,
02:22but all of them have their unique flavor.
02:24They're all wonderful.
02:25I've actually found some fake merch of mine here,
02:29which was, I think, the moment that I realized I made it.
02:32That was pretty cool.
02:34And then this is the adobe house, which is the oldest house in all of Los Angeles.
02:40And it reminds me a lot of my papi's house, my grandpa's house in Mexico.
02:44It's wild to think that there was a time in L.A. where there was no technology in sight.
02:49You just look up, and it's just a blue Los Angeles sky.
02:52Many people say this is the birthplace of Los Angeles, and it's true.
02:57We have the oldest house.
02:58We have the oldest church.
03:00The first theater, the Merced Theater, winemaking for California started here.
03:06These vines, UC Davis did research, and they said they are probably 150 years old.
03:15This is the heart of the city.
03:17This is where everything started.
03:20History gets erased very easily, especially nowadays.
03:23We have people that come here three or four or five generations to our events,
03:27and they're like, oh, I brought my grandkid.
03:29Oh, we bought jumping beans here.
03:31Those memories are so important to have.
03:33Preserving that part of history is important.
03:38There's a resilience to Los Angeles, and there's a resilience to L.A.'s people.
03:43And Placita Overa being the oldest part of Los Angeles, which used to be Mexico,
03:51being Chicana and coming here grounds me, and it makes me feel connected again to
03:58what we're all a part of, which is something bigger than us.
04:02And the history of this place, that energy is very empowering to, I think, a community that
04:11is being attacked and, you know, really struggling right now, and so I think for all of us to show
04:16up for one another is necessary. I think we're all being called upon to be courageous right now,
04:21and I love that our people still make it happen.
04:33So we are at the America Tropical Interpretive Center.
04:39America Tropical is a beautiful piece done by David Alfaro Siqueros.
04:45It's a piece that I admire very much because art has always been peaceful protests and very
04:52challenging times for a lot of communities.
04:54He was a proud Mexicano, and I love seeing the inspiration in his art.
05:02What they wanted was a billboard to get people from the East Coast to come out here,
05:08and they could say, look, it's winter in Los Angeles, we can still go swimming,
05:11just like promoting people to come to California. So he accepted the commission under those terms.
05:17However, we know that his beliefs were much different. He had a block of 10 painters,
05:23and he told them the night before, you know what? Go home. I'll do the rest myself.
05:28I'll paint the theme of the mural, which is an indigenous person being double-crossed.
05:33Above him is the North American eagle getting ready to pounce on this person.
05:39Off to the right were two sharpshooters, the Mexican Revolution and the other was Peruvian,
05:44getting ready to shoot the American imperialist eagle.
05:50Growing up, I would hear a lot of phrases like ni de aquí ni de allá, which means not from
05:55here,
05:55not from there. And I always felt in my heart that to be 50-50 didn't really reflect my pride
06:04for where I was born and raised and also the pride that I have for the blood that runs through
06:09my veins.
06:09And so I started to identify with being a 200 percenter, 100% proud to be born and raised in
06:15Eaglewood, and also 100% proud to be Mexicana. What's beautiful about walking through all of LA,
06:22but especially here in Placita Alvera, is that you will hear both languages. It's a Spanglish place,
06:29and it's just that duality and that fluidity. It's how we communicate. It's how we connect. I think
06:35that that's really beautiful. All I can tell you is I've been 30 years here. There's something about
06:41it that makes you want to come back all the time. This place is so unique. There's so many interesting
06:47places. So many little nooks and crannies that people don't know about. The different cultures
06:52that you can touch in a second. This city's amazing. Thank you guys for coming with me to
06:58Placita Alvera. Literally, like, I'm gonna go get some food now. Your girl's hungry.
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