An Eye Opening Experience of Los Angeles

After reading Kate’s blog about her first experience in Hollywood it got me thinking about my first visit to Los Angeles, which was a real eye opener. Before coming to America my knowledge of Los Angeles was limited to portrayals of the city in films and television programs, or commercials for Disneyland.

With a few of my fellow international student we embarked on a trip into the city, using the Metro link. As soon as we left the sleepy suburban town of Claremont we looked out at the window of the train in shock as we passed town after town of dilapidated buildings, which seemed a sharp contrast to the immaculate town of Claremont we had just left. As I looked around at the other passengers it seemed to be predominantly ethnic minorities who were aboard. The diversity of the passengers reminded me of the Lipsitz reading from the beginning of the semester, which discussed the buses role of bringing communities together. The train did not seem to be fulfilling the same role, as most people had self-consciously segregated themselves and were speaking predominantly in their native tongues.

Upon arriving at Union Station we decided to start by exploring the city by foot, we soon stumbled upon the Mexican quarter which immediately presented visitors with a sign which stated that Los Angeles and Mexico City were ‘sister cities’. This made me think of the amnesia of the past which Deverell talks about in ‘Whitewashed Adobe’. After looking around at the stalls full of traditional Mexican clothing and restaurants serving authentic Mexican food, I again was reminded of the Deverell text and his discussion of Los Angeles obsession with romanticizing the Mexican past which was clearly evident here.

After a while we decided to jump on the train and visit the Universal City Walk which is located next to Universal Studios. This as we had guessed was a hotspot of tourism, with plenty of souvenir shops and lots of places to eat what I assume would be classed as ‘traditional American’ food (like hamburgers and candy!) a huge contrast from the Mexican quarter. It lacked any real cultural relation or architectural history of the city, but it had I ‘heart’ Los Angeles t-shirts which kept the tourists happy. This is one place in LA which is much ‘whitewashed’.

After a busy and hectic day we hurried back to Union Station to catch our 9pm train back to Claremont, which we missed by two minutes. We then were horrified when we were informed the next one would not be leaving until 11:30pm! The lack of public transportation and our reaction, made me think of Avila’s point that transportation is taken for granted. In our two and a half hours at Union Station I encountered many homeless people, carrying all their possessions with them. We ourselves were at one point asked to produce our tickets in order to stay inside the station. The irony for me was that right next door, a high school prom filled with middle class kids was in full swing, whilst outside people were searching for a warm and dry place to sleep. I think the most surprising thing for me was that the complete blindness of most people to see the poverty around them, they are too busy with upholding the glamorized version of LA and Hollywood.