I don’t ever remember that. I don’t think I’ve had any bad personal experiences with Mexicans.
You can learn from every group.
From blacks and Jews, you can learn the beauty of group solidarity.
From blacks, you can see the benefits of spontaneity.
From whites, you can learn how to create a great country.
From Mexicans, you can appreciate their happiness and hard work.
From Christians, you can appreciate their love.
From Ashkenazi Jews, you can appreciate their brilliance and intensity.
From Australians, you can learn mateship.
I’ve rarely seen latino or asian homeless. These groups seem to take care of their own.
Once the home to Jewish, Italian, Japanese and diverse other people, Boyle Heights by the time that El Mercado was born was increasingly becoming a predominantly Mexican American neighborhood. Some activist groups have taken increasingly harder and louder stands against certain kinds of developments – including art galleries – that they see as opening the door to gentrification.
In Boyle Heights, the most striking examples of change have surfaced on the western side of the neighborhood closer to downtown L.A. – near Mariachi Plaza and a Gold Line station – where a wine bar, coffeehouse and bakery draw young, American-born Latinos.
Boyle Heights has not seen anything remotely like the gentrification that other neighborhoods, including Silver Lake and Highland Park, have experienced. But many of the residents have long felt that it’s a neighborhood on the brink of a major change; For years there has been talk about transforming the 14-story Art Deco Sears, Roebuck & Co. building on Olympic Boulevard into a complex of condos, retail space and restaurants.
