The Los Angeles metropolitan area has a significant Armenian American population. As of 1990, this single area holds the largest Armenian American community in the United States as well as the largest population of Armenians in the world outside Armenia.Bozorgmehr, Der-Martirosian, Sabagh, "Middle Easterners: A New Kind of Immigrant," p. 352.
Anny P. Bakalian, the author of Armenian-Americans: From Being to Feeling Armenian, wrote that "Los Angeles has become a sort of Mecca for traditional Armenianness."Bakalian, p. 429. Since 1965 and as of 1993, the majority of immigration of ethnic Armenians from Iran or the former Soviet Union have gone to the Los Angeles area. Armenians in Los Angeles are plentiful and make up a large part of the local Middle Eastern population.
History Early and mid 20th Century
The first Armenian families began to settle in the Los Angeles area starting in the late 19th century. Aram Yeretzian, a social worker and Protestant Christian minister who wrote a 1923 University of Southern California thesis on the Armenians of Los Angeles, stated that the first Armenian in Los Angeles arrived around 1900. According to Yeretzian, the first Armenian was a student who left the East Coast due to health concerns. Yeretzian stated that the second Armenian was a vendor of Oriental rugs.Bakalian, p. 15.
The first significant wave of Armenian immigration occurred from western Armenia, due to the Armenian genocide during the violent disruption and break-up of the Ottoman Empire.Der-Martirosian, Sabagh, and Bozorgmehr, p. 247. Most of the early Armenian settlers in Los Angeles were from Western Armenia- a territory located in modern-day eastern Turkey.Der-Martirosian, Sabagh, and Bozorgmehr, "Subethnicity: Armenians in Los Angeles," p. 250. Circa 1923 there were an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 Armenians in the city. By the mid-1920s more Armenians were settling in the Pasadena area. In 1924 the Varoujan Club was founded by 20 young Armenians to organize Armenian cultural and social events. During this period, the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) and the Compatriotic Reconstruction Union of Hadjin were founded. By 1933 there were 120 Armenian families in Pasadena. Nearly all of these immigrants were from the Ottoman Empire; very few were from the Russian Empire. The Pasadena Armenians settled in the area of Allen Avenue and Washington Boulevard, near the Church of the Nazarene, which was used by the Protestant Armenians.
Another wave of immigration to Los Angeles occurred in the 1940s. Most Armenians then settled in Little Armenia in Hollywood.Texeira, Erin P. "Ethnic Friction Disturbs Peace of Glendale." Los Angeles Times. June 25, 2000. p. 1 . Retrieved on March 24, 2014. "Armenians fleeing violence and oppression at home began arriving in Los Angeles around the 1940s. Most settled in Hollywood--once called "Little Armenia"--and aspired to homes in Glendale, among other cities." The Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument opened in Montebello in 1968.
Late 20th century The Lebanese Civil War beginning in 1975 resulted in the increased immigration of Lebanese Armenians to Los Angeles. Other political conflicts around the same time were catalysts for Iranian Armenians and Egyptian Armenians to settle in Los Angeles as well. Armenians from Fresno and the East Coast also moved to Los Angeles because of the large community there.
Approximately 9,500 Armenians came to the United States in 1979 and 1980, and most settled in Hollywood. In August 1987, as part of glasnost, the Soviet Union began approval of exit visas for Armenians wishing to emigrate to the United States to reunite with relatives. As a result, from October 1987 through March 1988, 2,000 Armenians arrived in Los Angeles County. That March, county officials were expecting an additional 8,000 Armenians to arrive. The county officials stated that the expected immigration of 10,000 Armenians from the Soviet Union was the single largest arrival of an ethnic group after the late 1970s Vietnamese immigration.Arax, Mark and Esther Schrader. "County Braces for Sudden Influx of Soviet Armenians." Los Angeles Times. March 8, 1988. online page 1 . Print: Vol.107, p.1. Available from Cengage Learning, Inc. Retrieved on July 2, 2014. Some Los Angeles-area Armenian leaders believed that increased settlement in the United States would dilute the Armenian presence in the Soviet Union and area around Armenia, and therefore felt ambivalence. This wave of immigration eventually established Little Armenia in Hollywood.
In 1988, up to 3,000 Iranian Armenians were scheduled to arrive in the Los Angeles area. From 1987 to 1989, 90% of Armenians leaving the Soviet Union settled in Los Angeles. By the 1990s political conflict in the former Soviet Union caused more Armenians in that area to move to Los Angeles.
In 1993, Anny Bakalian, author of Armenian-Americans: From Being to Feeling Armenian, wrote that many poorer Armenians, especially low income refugees from the former Soviet Union and the Middle East who arrived in the 1980s, had been forced to take an Armenian identity. He argued that many of the poor are not familiar with American customs and are uneducated, this therefore "risks increasing prejudice and discrimination against group members." Bakalian stated her belief that "Los Angeles is not representative of Armenian-Americans or the Armenian-American community." By 1996, longtime Anglo residents, largely fueled by anti-Armenian sentiment, decried the increased density in South Glendale.
21st Century In 2010, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers signed a two-year endorsement with Turkish Airlines. Because the company is owned by the Turkish government, which Armenians hold responsible for not acknowledging the 1915 genocide, Armenians in the Los Angeles area and US protested, asking him to give up the contract."Kobe Bryant's deal with Turkish Airlines outrages Armenian Americans ." Los Angeles Times. December 15, 2010. Retrieved on July 2, 2014.
By 2014, the Los Angeles area had received additional Armenian refugees from Egypt and Syria.Gonzalez, David. "Following the Global Armenian Diaspora ." The New York Times. April 24, 2014. Retrieved on July 2, 2014. The ongoing Syrian civil war is responsible for the recent wave in refugee arrival.
The 2015 Armenian March for Justice saw over 130,000 people march from the Little Armenia neighborhood of Hollywood to the Turkish Consulate of Los Angeles to demand recognition and justice for the Armenian Genocide on the centennial anniversary of the tragedy.
An Armenian Genocide memorial opened in Grand Park in September 2016.Boxall, Bettina. "Memorial to Armenian genocide unveiled in L.A.'s Grand Park ." Los Angeles Times. September 17, 2016. Retrieved on September 19, 2016.
Geographic distribution The strip encompassing East Hollywood, Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena is a major concentration point as is Montebello, according to the 1980 United States census; as of that census, Armenians in the areas together made up 90% of Armenians in Los Angeles County. Together, Armenians have created one of the largest sub ethnicities in the United States within Los Angeles. As of 1991 the established Armenian communities in the area included Encino and Hollywood in Los Angeles as well as the cities of Montebello and Pasadena. The Burbank/Glendale settlement is newer.Clifford, Frank and Anne C. Roark. "Racial Lines in County Blur but Could Return: Population: Times study of census finds communities far more mixed. Some experts fear new ethnic divisions." Los Angeles Times. May 6, 1991. p. 2 . Retrieved on March 24, 2014.
The Little Armenia in Hollywood historically had Armenians from Armenia. In 1980, Armenians in East Hollywood made up 56% of Armenians in Los Angeles County. In 1988, Mark Arax and Esther Schrader wrote that Hollywood "has become something of a port of entry for the Soviet refugees." In 1989 Vered Amit Talai wrote that "the Soviet Armenian emigrants form a very visible community in Hollywood".Talai, Vered Amit. "Armenians in London: The Management of Social Boundaries" (Issue 4 of Anthropological Studies of Britain/Armenian Research Center collection/Volume 4 of Studies on East Asia). Manchester University Press, 1989. , 9780719029271. p. 93. In 1988 the Los Angeles-area chairperson of the Hunchak Party, Harry Diramarian, stated "'Going to Hollywood, going to Hollywood.' You hear it all the time on the streets of Yerevan." In 1988, Little Armenia, had many Armenian residents operating bakeries and living in apartments above the businesses. Zankou Chicken had opened in Hollywood in 1984.Satzman, Darrell. "Zankou Chicken's tragic family rift impedes chain's growth ." Los Angeles Times. March 18, 2010. Retrieved on July 2, 2014. In 1989 Talai wrote that Armenians in Hollywood had a negative effect on the Armenian reputation in California because they were "visible" and "indigent" but that the indigent status is "unusual" relative to the overall Armenian diaspora.
In the 1980 U.S. Census, Armenians in Glendale comprised 25% of Armenians in Los Angeles County. In the Glendale Unified School District, by 1988 Armenians along with students from the Middle East had become the largest ethnic group in the public schools, having a larger number than the Latinos. Alice Petrossian, the GUSD director of intercultural education, stated that Burbank lies within the middle of other Armenian communities, so it attracted more Armenians. Levon Marashlian, an Armenian history teacher at Glendale Community College, stated that Glendale's Armenian population became larger than Hollywood's by the early 1990s. As the 2000 U.S. census, 30% of the residents of Glendale were Armenian.Pang, Kevin. "Glendale Unified May Add Armenian Holiday ." Los Angeles Times. February 8, 2004. Retrieved on July 2, 2014. By 2000 Glendale had the largest Armenian population outside of Yerevan.
Historically many U.S.-born Armenians settled Montebello and Pasadena. In 1980, Armenians in Pasadena were 9% of the county's total number of Armenians. By 1989, the makeup of the Armenian community in Pasadena had changed: of Armenians in Pasadena, 33% were born in Lebanon, 17% were U.S.-born, 16% were born in Armenia, 12% were born in Syria, and the remainder were born in other places. The city government had gathered the data through a special census.Der-Martirosian, Sabagh, and Bozorgmehr, "Subethnicity: Armenians in Los Angeles," p. 251.
By 1988 many Armenians were moving from Hollywood to suburban Glendale, Burbank, and other areas. By that time, some immigrants settled directly in Glendale and Burbank. Historically many of the Glendale Armenians were from Iran.
On October 6, 2000, the community in East Hollywood was named Little Armenia by the Los Angeles City Council. The city council noted that "the area contains a high concentration of Armenian businesses and residents and social and cultural institutions including schools, churches, social and athletic organizations."
Culture
The Armenian American Museum is under construction in Glendale. The nearly 60,000-square-foot museum was designed by Glendale's Alajajian-Marcoosi Architects. The heavily engraved facade simultaneously references both Mount Ararat, as well as the Verdugo Mountains surrounding the city of Glendale. The two-story museum will include an indoor auditorium and a demonstration kitchen.
Religion
Armenian Apostolicism
In 1994, Karekin II, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, visited Los Angeles. At the time, an estimated 300,000 Armenians in Southern California were associated with either wing of the Armenian Apostolic Church.