East Los Angeles, or East L.A., (El Este de Los Angeles in Spanish) is an unincorporated community in the Eastside of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It borders Monterey Park to the northeast; the City of Los Angeles to the north, west, and a small portion to the south. Commerce to the south, and Montebello to the southeast. California State Route 60 and Interstate 710 intersect through the community. According to the United States Census Bureau, East Los Angeles is designated as a census-designated place (CDP) for statistical purposes. The most recent data from the 2020 census reports a population of 118,786, reflecting a 6.1% decrease compared to the 2010 population of 126,496.

The concentration of Hispanic/Latino Americans is 95.16 percent, the highest of any large city or census-designated place in the United States outside of Puerto Rico.

History Original East Los Angeles Historically, when it was founded in 1873, the neighborhood northeast of downtown known today as Lincoln Heights was originally named East Los Angeles, but in 1917, residents voted to change the name to its present name. Today, it is considered part of Eastside Los Angeles, the geographic region east of the Los Angeles River that includes three neighborhoods within the city of Los Angeles (Boyle Heights, El Sereno, and Lincoln Heights) and the unincorporated community in Los Angeles County known today as "East Los Angeles". Lincoln Heights is northwest of present-day East Los Angeles. When Lincoln Heights, the first Eastside subdivision created in 1873, changed its name in 1917, Belvedere (Belvedere Gardens and Belvedere Heights) and surrounding unincorporated county areas were given the moniker of East Los Angeles. By the 1930s, most maps had started to label the Belvedere area as "East Los Angeles".

Belvedere

The cornerstone of the first building of Occidental College was laid in September 1887 on Rowan Street. In 1896, the building was destroyed by fire.

On April 2, 1905, it was reported that the Janss Investment Company would be developing an area "on Boyle Heights" (later, Boyle Heights would refer only to a smaller area to the west, i.e. the neighborhood now called Boyle Heights within the Los Angeles city limits). The tract was located at the eastern terminus of the Los Angeles Railway's "R" streetcar line. Originally known as "Hazard's Eastside Extension", it was to be named Highland Villa, but would later be rechristened Belvedere Heights. Belvedere Heights, at its launch in 1905, extended from the L.A. city limits (Indiana Av.) on the west to Rowan Av. on the east, from Aliso St. on the south to Wabash Av. on the north, the northwestern portion of today's East Los Angeles, thus including the lower portions of what today is called City Terrace.

By the early 1920s, workers in the sprouting industrial district to the south were seeking nearby housing. At the time, the unincorporated region was undeveloped and or preserved for agriculture and oil extraction. Belvedere township included the territory that in 1902 became the city of Montebello.

By 1922 Janss advertised that it had sold 6000 lots there and that 35,000 people lived in Belvedere Heights. Buildings that were described as being in Belvedere Heights included the junior high school on Record between Brooklyn and Michigan, now called Belvedere Middle School.

In February 1921 Janss announced that it had purchased adjacent to the end of the streetcar line on Stephenson Avenue, now Whittier Boulevard, south of Belvedere Heights, and divided the empty land into housing lots of square-mile grid cells. Janss called the new tract Belvedere Gardens, an area still found today on maps for the area east of the Long Beach Freeway."Belvedere Gardens", Google Maps, accessed October 16, 2020

The area was able to avoid being annexed into the City of Los Angeles because of a private groundwater utility formed in 1926 now known as the California Water Service, which would later become a customer of the Metropolitan Water District. Prior to the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, governing bodies would set property taxes independently, which led to a cumulative overlapping rate including bond taxes for large infrastructure projects such as the building of the Port of Los Angeles. However, unincorporated areas were often forced to incorporate or be annexed into these taxing entities in order to obtain critical municipal services such as water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct. For decades, the lack of a city property tax and bond taxes made East Los Angeles a tax haven for the working class.

New name: East Los Angeles In 1932, local business leaders gave the name East Los Angeles to Belvedere and adjacent areas (that had been known as Belvedere Gardens, Belvedere Heights, Laguna, etc.) However, in 1937 the Automobile Club of Southern California put up three large signs, "Belvedere Gardens". This led to the business leaders uprooting the signs, with a "burial ceremony" for the signs with 150 state, county, and city officials attending, and they rechristened the area East Los Angeles. Several county buildings were renamed in line with the new appellation. At that time the area had 75,000 residents and was "declared to be the largest unincorporated locality in the world."

East Los Angeles was a significant site during the Chicano Movement, which included the East L.A. Walkouts in 1968 and the National Chicano Moratorium, in which Ruben Salazar was killed.

Multiple campaigns by residents have been made for cityhood for East Los Angeles, such as in 2010.

Geography East Los Angeles is located immediately east of the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles, south of the El Sereno district of Los Angeles, north of the city of Commerce, and west of the cities of Monterey Park and Montebello.

The unincorporated area known as City Terrace occupies the northern part of the CDP. The Census Bureau definition of the area may not precisely correspond to the local understanding of the community.

Climate East Los Angeles. has a very warm hot-summer Mediterranean climate.

Demographics

East Los Angeles first appeared as an unincorporated place in the 1960 United States census as part of the Southeast census county division; and as a census designated place in the 1980 United States census.

Racial and ethnic composition +East Los Angeles CDP, California – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)4,5593,4972,2751,9172,3994.14%2.77%1.83%1.52%2.02%Black or African American alone (NH)3781,5381923226380.34%1.22%0.15%0.25%0.54%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)961182601671990.09%0.09%0.21%0.13%0.17%Asian alone (NH)1,1991,1988389621,6481.09%0.95%0.67%0.76%1.39%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)1313190.01%0.01%0.02%Other race alone (NH)2713441081533310.24%0.27%0.09%0.12%0.28%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)xx290178516xx0.23%0.14%0.43%Hispanic or Latino (any race)103,514119,684120,307122,784113,03694.09%94.70%96.80%97.07%95.16%Total110,017126,379124,283126,496118,786100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%

East Los Angeles is the least ethnically diverse community in Los Angeles County, as noted by the Los Angeles Times "Mapping L.A." survey. Mexican (85.4%) and Italian (0.2%) are the most common ancestries. Mexico and El Salvador were the most common foreign places of birth.

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, East Los Angeles had a population of 118,786. The median age was 33.3 years. 25.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 11.2% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.2 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 95.1 males age 18 and over.

100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 31,548 households in East Los Angeles, of which 46.5% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 42.8% were married-couple households, 17.5% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.5% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 14.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 32,589 housing units, of which 3.2% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 1.6%.

+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 19,984 16.8% Black or African American 822 0.7% American Indian and Alaska Native 3,606 3.0% Asian 1,833 1.5% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 61 0.1% Some other race 68,372 57.6% Two or more races 24,108 20.3% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 113,036 95.2%

2010 census

The 2010 United States census reported that East Los Angeles had a population of 126,496. Population density was . The racial makeup of East Los Angeles was 53,934 (50.5%) White (1.5% Non-Hispanic White), 817 (0.6%) African American, 1,549 (1.2%) Native American, 1,144 (0.9%) Asian, 63 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 54,846 (43.4%) from other races, and 4,143 (4.3%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 122,784 persons (97.1%).

The Census reported that 126,176 people (99.7% of the population) lived in households, 174 (0.1%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 146 (0.1%) were institutionalized.

There were 30,816 households, out of which 17,509 (56.8%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 15,497 (50.3%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 7,104 (23.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 3,238 (10.5%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,516 (8.2%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 199 (0.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,781 households (12.3%) were made up of individuals, and 1,781 (5.8%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.09. There were 25,839 families (83.8% of all households); the average family size was 4.33.

The population was spread out, with 39,804 people (31.5%) under the age of 18, 15,193 people (12.0%) aged 18 to 24, 37,354 people (29.5%) aged 25 to 44, 23,281 people (18.4%) aged 45 to 64, and 10,864 people (8.6%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.1 males.

There were 32,201 housing units at an average density of , of which 10,986 (35.7%) were owner-occupied, and 19,830 (64.3%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.2%; the rental vacancy rate was 3.2%. 47,123 people (37.3% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 79,053 people (62.5%) lived in rental housing units.

According to the 2010 United States Census, East Los Angeles had a median household income of $37,982, with 26.9% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

2000 census

As of 2000, there were 124,283 people, 29,844 households, and 25,068 families residing in the community. The population density was . There were 31,096 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the community was 39.3% White, 4.52% Black or African American, 1.29% Native American, 0.77% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 54.01% from other races, and 4.22% from two or more races. 96.8% of the population were Hispanic or Latino.

As of 2000, speakers of Spanish as a first language accounted for 87.30%, while English accounted for 12.65%, Japanese was spoken by 0.16%, Armenian made up 0.09%, Vietnamese was at 0.07%, Chinese at 0.05%, Russian at 0.04%, Tagalog at 0.03%, and Mandarin was at 0.03% of the population.