Olvera Street : El Pueblo De Nuestra Senora La Reina De Los Angles : Its history and Restoration and the Life Story of Christine Sterling By Her Daughter [pictorial Biography / History Los Angeles California, Travel / Culture / History / Life]

38 pages. Reprinted edition. Paperback : soft cover edition in good plus condition, a typical used book with slight wear to edges and spine. Some minor bumping or creases. Overall good / nice copy of this scarce title. Excellent reading on the subject. A good book to enjoy and keep on hand for yourself. ~~ About: Olvera Street is in the oldest part of Downtown Los Angeles, California, and is part of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. Many Latinos refer to it as "La Placita Olvera." Circa 1911 it was described as Sonora Town. Having started as a short lane, Wine Street, it was extended and renamed in honor of Agustín Olvera, a prominent local judge, in 1877. There are 27 historic buildings lining Olvera Street, including the Avila Adobe, the Pelanconi House and the Sepulveda House. In 1930, it was converted to a colorful Mexican marketplace. It is also the setting for Mexican style music and dancing and holiday celebrations, such as Cinco de Mayo. Los Angeles was founded in 1781 on a site southeast of Olvera Street near the Los Angeles River by a group of Spanish pobladores (settlers), consisting of 11 families 44 men, women and children, led by Don Fernando Rivera y Moncada, Lt. Governor of the Californias and accompanied by a contingent of soldiers who had set out from the nearby Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to establish a secular pueblo along the banks of the Porciúncula River at the Indian village of Yang-na. In the 1880s Los Angeles began quick expansion through a massive influx of Anglo and European settlers who arrived via the railroad. The old Plaza area became a forgotten remnant of the city's roots, and the remaining adobe and brick buildings within the Plaza area fell into disrepair as the civic center of the city shifted to present-day Temple and Main Streets. A good view of the street during this period is to be found in Charlie Chaplin's 1921 film The Kid, which featured a number of scenes in it, mostly on the west side a few doors north of the Pelanconi House. At the time of the film, years before its makeover by Christine Sterling, it was hardly considered to be a proper street, but rather just a dingy, dirty alley. Its decline as the center of civic life led to its reclamation by diverse sectors of the city's poor and disenfranchised. The Plaza served as a gateway for newly arrived immigrants, especially Mexicans and Italians. During the 1920s, the pace of Mexican immigration into the United States increased to about 500,000 per year.…