History of the East Los Angeles Christmas Parade
Faced with immense increases in automobile traffic, during the 1920s, Los Angeles city engineers improved Whittier Boulevard through the east side. To keep costs low, the engineers took land from parks and playgrounds. In short, local residents, mostly lower-income Mexican Americans, Jews, and other "undesirables," would pay the social costs of highway building in East Los Angeles. By the 1940s, poorly de-signed roads helped fuel the reformist politics of Edward Roybal but also helped state transportation planners to justify extensive freeway construction in the area. Spatial exploitation for highways contributed to the projection of place-based ethnic identity among the Mexican American people who became a majority of east side population after World War II.
Historic Parade Photos
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