The Importance of Place and Place-Makers in the Life of a Los Angeles Community

2015 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Molina
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Redevelopment ◽  
Urban Forms ◽  
Ethnic Entrepreneurs ◽  
Echo Park ◽  
Racial Ethnic

This article looks at restaurants as urban forms of public space in which ethnic entrepreneurs act as place-makers. The author highlights El Nayarit, a Mexican restaurant in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, from 1947 to the present, as a nucleus of a community where racial, ethnic, class, and generational boundaries were breached. This restaurant and its spin-off enterprises also helped to define the neighborhood as ethnic space. In contrast, urban redevelopment and gentrification, beginning in the 1990s, have resulted in erasure of the area’s history and the sense of space in which ethnic identity and multiethnic bonds were once fostered.

Exploring ethnic identity perceptions of Hyun-Jin Ryu’s Korean American fans

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 855-872
Author(s):  
Na Ri Shin ◽  
Jon Welty Peachey ◽  
Doo Jae Park
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Korean American ◽  
The Us ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Racial Ethnic

The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of Korean American fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Korean pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu. Two research questions were developed to guide the study: (a) How are participants’ ethnic identity perceptions as Korean Americans intertwined with their fanship to Hyun-Jin Ryu? and (b) How are participants’ lived experiences intertwined with their fanship to Ryu? The study focused on the details of how fans perceived their ethnic identity in relation to Ryu’s performance and presence in Major League Baseball. Findings revealed that fans initially became involved due to their ethnic ties to Ryu and remained as fans because they felt connected to the motherland of Korea. Fans individually identified with Ryu through the perceived minority status of being Korean American in the US. Fans experienced vicarious satisfaction as they felt Ryu broke racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes through his body image and physical performance. Consequently, they developed Korean pride when Ryu performed well. This study extends Tajfel and Turner’s social identity theory and Phinney’s concept of ethnic identity to examine fanship to a specific player rather than a team.

Maintenance and Destruction of an East Side Los Angeles Indie Rock Scene

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy D. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
East Side ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Echo Park ◽  
Indie Rock

This article is based on an ethnographic study of the independent (indie) rock scene in the east side Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park. There is very little money derived from music circulating in this scene (musicians are routinely paid only about $35–40 for a show), and musicians, indie label owners, and others attach symbolic values to certain amounts of money, which are viewed in terms of what they can help the musicians purchase, such as gas for the band’s van. People in the scene also produce and exchange value in a number of ways that aren’t capitalist, from generalized reciprocity to several forms of patronage. This article ultimately argues that scenes such as this are simultaneously maintained and destroyed by capitalism: maintained because capitalism needs a reserve army of those who operate outside of it but destroyed because such scenes are deprived of their ability to reproduce themselves given how little money circulates.

What Does It Mean To Be Mexican (American)? Exploring Youth Ethnic Identity

2021 ◽  
pp. 001100002098530
Author(s):  
Halleh Hashtpari ◽  
Karen W. Tao ◽  
Kritzia Merced ◽  
Joél Arvizo-Zavala ◽  
James Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Academic Outcomes ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Interview Protocol ◽  
Ethnic Pride ◽  
Mexican American Youth ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
Minimal Research

Children’s racial (e.g., Black, White, Indigenous) and ethnic (e.g., Mexican) identity can influence psychological, social, and academic outcomes. Despite evidence that awareness of racial–ethnic marginalization begins during preadolescence, there is minimal research examining how children talk about identity at this age. The purpose of this study was to examine how preadolescent Mexican American youth conceptualize “who they are.” Specifically, we used the Ethnic-Perspective Taking Ability interview protocol to explore how Mexican American youth, ages 9–11, understand their ethnicity. Thematic analysis revealed four themes: Self as “Other,” Self as Invisible, Self as a Politicized Being, and Self as Community. Participants discussed feeling out of place, often feeling excluded by Whiteness, and needing to code switch. These experiences also were juxtaposed with a sense of ethnic pride and comfort. Implications for practice, advocacy, education, and research are offered.

scholarly journals Household accessibility to heat refuges: Residential air conditioning, public cooled space, and walkability

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1036-1055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M Fraser ◽  
Mikhail V Chester ◽  
David Eisenman ◽  
David M Hondula ◽  
Stephanie S Pincetl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Air Conditioning ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Heat Exposure ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Residential Air Conditioning ◽  
Walking Speeds

Access to air conditioned space is critical for protecting urban populations from the adverse effects of heat exposure. Yet there remains fairly limited knowledge of the penetration of private (home air conditioning) and distribution of public (cooling centers and commercial space) cooled space across cities. Furthermore, the deployment of government-sponsored cooling centers is likely to be inadequately informed with respect to the location of existing cooling resources (residential air conditioning and air conditioned public space), raising questions of the equitability of access to heat refuges. We explore the distribution of private and public cooling resources and access inequities at the household level in two major US urban areas: Los Angeles County, California and Maricopa County, Arizona (whose county seat is Phoenix). We evaluate the presence of in-home air conditioning and develop a walking-based accessibility measure to air conditioned public space using a combined cumulative opportunities-gravity approach. We find significant variations in the distribution of residential air conditioning across both regions which are largely attributable to building age and inter/intra-regional climate differences. There are also regional disparities in walkable access to public cooled space. At average walking speeds, we find that official cooling centers are only accessible to a small fraction of households (3% in Los Angeles, 2% in Maricopa) while a significantly higher number of households (80% in Los Angeles, 39% in Maricopa) have access to at least one other type of public cooling resource such as a library or commercial establishment. Aggregated to a neighborhood level, we find that there are areas within each region where access to cooled space (either public or private) is limited which may increase heat-related health risks.

Racial-ethnic Identity Pairings and Mental Health of Second-generation Asian Adolescents

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 834-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Preeti Vaghela ◽  
Koji Ueno
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
Problem Behaviors ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Identity Conflict ◽  
Asian Adolescents ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Racial Ethnic

Second-generation adolescents experience identity conflict when trying to adapt to the United States. This identity conflict may be compounded for Asians, who experience racialization of their ethnicity. This intensity of identity conflict and racialization of ethnicity is reflected in different pairings of racial and ethnic identities (e.g., Hyphenated-Nationality, Hyphenated-Asian). We examine how these identity pairings are associated with mental health. Analysis used a sample of 1,308 second-generation Asian adolescents (aged 15–19) from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study Wave 2 (1995–1996). Although not all associations were significant, low levels of identity conflict tended to be associated with lower levels of depression and more problem behaviors. Perhaps these identity pairings help reduce depression by lowering identity conflict while increasing peer conflicts. The analysis also showed that among adolescents with the same type of ethnic identity, mental health varied across racial identity, highlighting the importance of examining identity pairings.

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