Olvera Street and El Pueblo de Los Angeles 🇲🇽
What do you picture when you think of Los Angeles?
Hollywood Stars? Traffic? Palm trees? American excess spilling from high rise office towers and luxury shops?
⭐️ 🏎 🌴
ALL of this exists in LA, but the city has so much more to offer.
Enter Olvera Street
Olvera Street is a Mexican shopping district located in the heart of El Pueblo de Los Angeles historical monument. This area IS the birthplace of LA. Many of the city’s oldest structures are here and a day spent in the neighborhood will give you a taste of LA’s humble beginnings.
The earliest indigenous people settled in Los Angeles by 8000 B.C! The Portuguese arrived next, led by explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542. The area eventually came under Spanish rule with the arrival of Gaspar de Portolá in 1769. He established a small outpost which was further expanded in 1781 when 11 families moved permanently to the site.
1781 is considered to be the official founding of Los Angeles. The governor at the time named the growing settlement El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula, or "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula.” source The area remained part of colonial Spain until 1821 when Mexico declared their independence. At the conclusion of the Mexican American War (1846-1848), Los Angeles and all of California became part of the United States.
Visiting El Pueblo
After decades of traveling to Los Angeles, I finally visited this part of the city in April. Our first stop was Los Angeles Plaza Park. This square features statues of several historic figures and is a central gathering spot for many of the city’s celebrations including, Las Posadas, Cinco de Mayo, and Dia de los Muertos. Several historic buildings surround the plaza including the city’s first hotel and fire station.
The Marketplace
Olvera Street opened as a marketplace on Easter Sunday, 1930. The market was the brainchild of a young woman named Christine Sterling. Two years prior Miss Sterling had been waking in the historical neighborhood when she noticed Avila Adobe, the city’s oldest house, marked for demolition. In a fundraising effort to save the home, she also envisioned creating a Mexican marketplace that would harken back to the earliest days of the city’s founding. Miss Sterling succeeded both in saving the home and in creating the market.
Avila Adobe
Adjacent to the Olvera Street marketplace is Avila Adobe. As I briefly mentioned above, this is the OLDEST home in Los Angeles. The home was built in 1818 and was the residence of one of LA’s earliest mayors. The home remained occupied by members of the same family until 1868. It eventually fell into disrepair until restoration efforts began in the 1920’s. Today the building serves as a museum showcasing life in early Los Angeles.
Plaza Olvera
Another site in el pueblo is Plaza Olvera. This small park, surrounded by orange and fuchsia bougainvillea, features a statue of Antonio Aguilar. Aguilar, a star of both stage and screen, has a huge fan base amongst California’s Mexican American community. In his life Aguilar recorded over 150 albums, and he has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. It is said he spent three night sleeping in Plaza Olvera when he first arrived in Hollywood, making this a fitting location for his tribute.
Shopping 🛍
So, in an area with a shopping focus, what did we buy? We came home with only two items. The first was a hand painted magnet set. One magnet depicting a woman in traditional folklorico dress and the other showing a male mariachi. The second item purchased was a hand carved and painted wooden octopus! Sort of an odd choice, but the detail in the thing and the colors of the paint drew us in.
Olvera Street is open 7 days a week including holidays.
For more information visit: https://www.olvera-street.com
All photos taken by @dfinney April 2019 on an iPhone 7
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What an interesting trip to an interesting area of LA! That's the type of are I like to visit. I like to know the real history of a place! The marketplace looks very inviting!
It was lovely! And the food....! It smelled so good. 🌮😍
Oh, I can imagine that!
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What a cool area, not one many who visit LA see I am sure, I do remember visiting one Mexican area when I was there with similar sorts of things I am not sure if that is the place i went to but thanks for refreshing the memory of th area I visited there
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I think for a long time downtown LA (which this is near) was a bit of a no go zone. At least for tourists. Aside from this, there were a lot of other cool things nearby. I am glad we finally went into the city instead of just visiting Hollywood, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills etc.
I passed through LA so many times I did the touristy spots but I am also not the typical tourist I like to wherever I go bet out of the touristy side and see the real place where the locals live work and play
I like touristy stuff, but I like it all!! I just always want to be traveling! 🤣😂
I am the same, I do miss traveling I used to travel so much but now not at all
We have a very small community of Mexican folks here in Vancouver and most of the are working migrants however we have plenty of MexTex styled restaurants. We just don't get much opportunity to celebrate the Day of the Dead.
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Yeah Vancouver is a lot more Asian influence than Mexican for sure.
I really love the Spanish colonial and Mexican sites to be seen in California. They are all beautiful, colorful and culturally interesting. I have been to Mexico but only a few quick hops over the border into drunk underaged Americans territory. One day I would love to see ruins and museums and the cool stuff!
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