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IMMIGRATION | EL PUEBLO DE LOS ANGELES 

The smell of enchiladas float down Olvera Street, glass jugs of horchata drip with chilled condensation in store windows, sugar skulls laugh at the passerby, adorable abuelas hurry to honor the various religious monuments and churches with boquets of red roses, and a small man stands in the heart of the town square and raises his face to a microphone.

 

"I am the man from the Andes," he says. "I am Cayambe. I hope you like the music I am about to play for you.” The piping of his ancienct Ecuadorian music mingles with the grating sounds of Los Angeles traffic. 

 

The vibrance of Hispanic culture can be found concentrated in downtown LA in a strong ethnic community known as El Pueblo De Los Angeles.  Generations of Hispanic immigrants come to this historical place in order to keep their ethnic culture alive while they find their own version of the "American Dream" here in Southern California. 

 

The musician, John Mosquera, is an Ecuadorian immigrant who plays original music from the Andes mountains everyday in El Pueblo. Mosquera says it is important for America to adapt to the influx of different cultures, due to immigration, because ethnic minorites will soon become the majority. He says keeping culture alive, for him through music, is also important to pass on to upcoming generations.  

 

Within this robust microcosm of Central and South America, as well as other Asian, African and European communities neighboring El Pueblo,  downtown Los Angeles is given the opportunity to embrace new cultures as well as provide familiarity for those emigrating from thousands of miles away. 

 

Sometimes the world can lie just one street away. 

 

 

 

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