Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles, California
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Historic Filipinotown, also known as Hi-Fi or P-Town colloquially, is a district of Los Angeles, California, located between Westlake and Echo Park. Specifically, the district is bounded by the 101 Freeway to the north, Beverly Boulevard to the south, Hoover Street to the west, and Glendale Boulevard to the east, northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. It was created by a resolution proposed by city councilmember Eric Garcetti on August 2, 2002. The crosswalks in Filipinotown have been decorated with traditional Filipino basket weaving patterns.
Historic Filipinotown is historically one of the few areas where Filipinos first settled during the early part of the 20th century. Many Filipino-American families began purchasing homes and establishing businesses in the area beginning from the 1940s, shifting away from the Little Tokyo area in the 1920s and the Bunker Hill area later.
In modern times, Historic Filipinotown reflects the polyglot nature of Los Angeles. While the district still has a sizable Filipino population, they are in the minority, overshadowed by a sizable Mexican and Central American population. Nevertheless, the area still has one of the highest concentrations of Filipino Americans in Southern California and still remains the cultural heart of Filipinos throughout Los Angeles. Of the 100,000 Filipinos that reside in the City of Los Angeles, an estimated 6,900 are within Historic Filipinotown.
The Historic Filipinotown Chamber of Commerce leads the effort for commercial expansion in the area. Many Filipino service organizations and institutions, such as the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC), Filipino American Community of Los Angeles (FACLA), Filipino American Service Group, Inc. (FASGI), and most notably, Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), are located in Historic Filipinotown. The area is also host to many Filipino restaurants, churches, and medical clinics. On November 11, 2006, the City of Los Angeles dedicated the first Filipino WWII Veterans Memorial in the nation at Lake St. Park in Historic Filipinotown site of the former Our Lady of Loretto High School.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Historic Filipinotown Chamber of Commerce
- Search to Involve Philipino Americans (SIPA), a Filipino service organization
- History of Filipinos in Los Angeles
