Tehrangeles

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Persian shops along Westwood Boulevard in South Westwood. Westwood is also known as "Little Persia".

Tehrangeles is a portmanteau deriving from the combination of Tehran, the capital of Iran, and Los Angeles. It is used when referring to the large number (est. 900,000)^{[citation needed]} of former Iranian nationals and their descendants residing in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In common usage, it usually refers to the proportionally larger Persian-American subset of Iranian immigrants, many of whom are second generation citizens.

The Persian community in the L.A. area originally centered in the Westwood neighborhood of west Los Angeles, particularly Westwood Boulevard between Pico Boulevard and the UCLA campus, often referred to as Little Persia. Immigration to the area increased several-fold due to the events surrounding the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Westwood Boulevard became known for its many Persian shops and restaurants; and the Persian expatriate community of Los Angeles entered all forms of media including magazines, newspapers, radio and television stations.

As the population grew, many Persians have moved all over Los Angeles, with other large neighborhoods forming in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Woodland Hills and Encino and the city of Irvine.

An NPR report recently put the Persian population of nearby Beverly Hills as high as 20% of the total population.[1]

[edit] Tehrangeles in Pop Culture

The large Persian/Iranian population in Los Angeles, particularly in and around Beverly Hills, has found its way into several mediums:

In the 1995 comedy film Clueless a Persian student at the fictionalized Bronson Alcott High School curses out a teacher in Persian and a later scene where the protagonist explicitly describes the "Persian Mafia":

"And that's the Persian mafia. You can't hang with them unless you own a BMW and a cellular phone."

In the 1994 action-comedy film Beverly Hills Cop III, an automated gate at the Beverly Hills Police Department offers a selection of languages that include Persian.

The 2005 Oscar Best Picture winner, Crash, dealt with racism, stereotyping, hypocrisy, and crime in the L.A. area and among the central characters, all of whom are of different races, one is an Iranian, stereotyped as one who doesn't trust others. The film contains some dialog in Persian.