THE EASTSIDE

People are weird about Los Angeles' Eastside. On the one hand you've got people throwing up "w" signs yelling "west-siyeeeed!" On the other, you've got people from Midtown to Silver Lake and Echo Park claiming (pretending?) Eastside… All this points to the fact that "The Eastside" means different things to different groups and individuals. To many black Angelenos, the traditional division between the Eastside and Westside is the 110 freeway (which is why gangs like the East Side Compton Crips represent the east side). To many, possibly most Latinos, the LA River is the dividing line between the east and west sides (which is why a Latino gang like West Side Silver Lake 13 represents the west side). To many newer Angelenos and white (and maybe Asian) people, the east side begins much further west (remember "East Side Mondays" in Westlake's (keyword: west) Wilshire Royale?) None of the definitions are inherently more correct than the other but when people talk about The Eastside, let's get it straight -- they're talking about the region east of the LA River that includes Boyle Heights, East Los, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno… and the smaller neighborhoods within them.
 

Pendersleigh & Sons' Official Map of East Los Angeles

East Los Angeles is a neighborhood on (as its name suggests) Los Angeles' Eastside -- indeed, I'd say it's the most famous neighborhood on the Eastside. Please click here to vote for other Los Angeles Neighborhoods to be the subjects of future blog entries. Please also click here to vote for Los Angeles County communities. And lastly, please vote for Orange County neighborhoods by clicking here. 

Pendersleigh & Sons' Official Map of The Eastside

East LA is neighbored by El Sereno to the north, Alhambra to the northeast, Monterey Park to the east, Montebello to the southeast, Commerce to the south, Vernon to the southwest, and Boyle Heights to the west. It includes the smaller districts of City Terrace, Belvedere, Whittier (not to be confused with the city), Eastmont and Wellington Heights. 

Most of the images shown were the same as a show that I was fortunate to catch at the original Tia Chucha’s Café about a year and a half ago. There were also many interesting new displays that caught my eye. One was a piece that took an entire wall that was a blown up Thomas Guide map of Los Angeles from West L.A. to East L.A. On the map were key points of interests from that era, such as the rehearsal space where the East Los punk bands used to practice, and the location of the backyard party where the members of the band X first saw all the East L.A. bands. It showed all the punk rock hangouts and all the clubs from that era that are now long gone. I also enjoyed looking at the original Fatima Records promotional and gig posters. The other day at Amoeba I saw someone about to buy The Plugz Better Luck for $3.99!  What a steal! Coincidently, you can still buy the original Fatima Records issue of The Brat E.P. Attitudes from the band whenever they play a show, which has been more frequent over the last couple of years.

Reading about East L.A. punk while in high school was inspiration. I had known about Los Lobos and knew about the 60’s Chicano bands like El Chicano and Tierra. However, these punk bands were Chicanos and around my age, playing music that I was into. It made me feel less like a freak to know there were others just like me somewhere in the barrios of East Los Angeles. Hippies wanted to move to San Francisco, rockers to the Sunset Strip and I wanted to move to East L.A.

On Saturday, The Claremont Museum of Art will present Vexing: Female Voices from East LA Punk, which will run from May 18 to August 31, 2008. There will be live performances by Vexing artists Teresa Covarrubias (Lead Singer from The Brat) Angela Vogel, Lysa Flores and Alice Bag. I have been looking forward to this exhibit since I heard about it a few months back. The women that are featured in this exhibit were the pioneers of a thriving women's art movement that is happening now in East L.A.

2008 has been turning out to be the year for Retro-Chicano art. LACMA’s Phantom Sightings: Art After The Chicano Movement is currently showing and starting June 15th, LACMA will also feature Los Angelenos/Chicano Painters of L.A.: Selections from the Cheech Marin Collection.

I found some great articles on East L.A. Punk, Vex era and Beyond. The first one is written by Josh Kun and is the story of the Vex. The second one comes from Jimmy Alvarado, who wrote about the history of all the EAST L.A. punk bands that not many have heard about. In this article originally written for Razorcake Magazine. Jimmy covers the minions of pre and post Vex bands as well as all the backyard party giants that were huge in the East Los backyard scene.

Teatro East Of The River, from East L.A., describe themselves as: Teatro Xicano, Theater Of The Oppressed, Hip-Hop theater, spoken word, flor y canto, using theater as a form of education, inspiring, organizing, enlightening and liberating.

...and on top of that, they have a new production:

The Complex
A Theatre of the Oppressed / Rebelde Production
Investigating the Prison Industrial System in the U.S.
Part of the USC Visions & Voices 2007-2008 Program

Companion community event of
"The Press"
March 2, 2008*
2:30 - 4:30 pm
FREE ADMISSION
(bring your resistence - traite tu resistencia)

at the
24th St. Theatre
1117 W. 24th Street (corner of 24th and Hoover)
Los Angeles, CA 90007

In this play, theatre takes on the political realities of prison life and asks us all to investigate what is trapping millions behind bars, including many of our youth, often for life sentences without the possibility of parole. What is really behind "the complex?" USC Senior Lecturer Brent Blair collaborates with activist/artist Mario Rocha, LA County Probation officer Rick Vidal and parents of incarcerated youth, along with other artists, activists and stakeholders from several groups within the general community affected by the "Prison Industrial Complex." This event loosely follows the framework of "forum theatre" informed by the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed of Augusto Boal, where audience members are invited to trade places with the protagonists to derive solutions to this socio-political rupture.