No other city except perhaps New York City, NY, captures and reflects American imagination like Los Angeles. What began as an unpopulated, ecologically rich, mountainous and coastal land straddling numerous tectonic plates, evolved into one of the most densely populated, ethnically diverse and technologically developed cities in the world. In between these two extremes, Los Angeles was a gathering place for several indigenous groups, a Spanish colonial outpost and a northern Mexican frontier. LA remains a Promised Land for immigrants, an Anglo-American mecca and a global dreamscape.

At the heart of Los Angeles lies El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula, founded by the Spaniards in 1781. In 1998, beyond the city (estimated population 3,597,536) and county bearing the name, Los Angeles extends over approximately 33,000 square miles in five counties with over 15 million inhabitants. The original indigenous and Spanish inhabitants, and subsequent Anglo and African American settlers from the eastern United States, have been joined by large numbers of immigrants from every continent seeking a better life. In 1990 major local immigrant groups (populations over 100,000) included Armenians, Chinese, Filipinos, Guatemalans, Japanese, Koreans, Mexicans, Salvadorans and Vietnamese, a diversity that has accelerated since 1960s changes in US immigration law.

Yet, economic and demographic development of Los Angeles has been uneven. Local legislation in the early twentieth century favored race and class divisions, reinforced by social attitudes. The result was a highly segregated city where wealthy white suburbs bordered significantly poorer ethnic neighborhoods. A massive freeway system has fostered both segregation and metropolitan expansion, and added to the unique commuter character of Los Angeles’ growth pattern. Between 1970 and 1990, the population rose 45 percent, while developed land surface area increased at almost ten times this rate. LA styles in architecture (with flowing interiors open to outdoor living), fashion and food reflect this suburban wealth. Sports teams like Anaheim’s Mighty Ducks in hockey and amusements like Disneyland reflect centripetal growth as well (other major LA teams include the Lakers in basketball, Dodgers (moved from Brooklyn) in baseball and football’s Rams). Downtown development, including the Museum of Contemporary Art and surrounding office and residential towers, also has emphasized social and racial divisions.

These same divisions caused or exacerbated a number of major events in the city’s contemporary history In August 1965, after a decade of urbanrenewal programs destroyed African American neighborhoods and reduced already scarce employment opportunities and affordable housing, residents of the Watts community rebelled.

Fourteen thousand National Guard troops were deployed and a state of martial law was declared. Thirty-five died and property damage totaled over 1200 million. The Kerner Commission formed after the riots cited white-on-black racism as a major cause.

Five years after the Watts Rebellion, the peaceful August 29 Chicano moratorium against the Vietnam War turned into another riotous racial incident. In response to a minor theft of soda by teenagers at a local liquor store, Los Angeles police and sheriffs rushed to nearby Laguna Park where 30,000 adults and children had gathered. Among the casualties was Los Angeles Times reporter Rubén Salazar, who was killed by a teargas projectile fired by police into a crowded bar.

On April 29, 1992 what became known broadly as the 1992 Los Angeles riots began.

An acquittal of four white Los Angeles Police Department officers accused of using excessive force on African American motorist Rodney King sparked immediate protests that escalated into days of violence and rebellion. African American protesters were joined by Latinos who vented decades of oppression and frustration on targets in their own communities: local business owners and landlords. Korean immigrants in the affected areas were hit particularly hard. Arrests, deportations and other reprisals were severe but suspiciously slow, allowing the destruction of entire ethnic communities and furthering racial tensions. It was the largest American civil disturbance in the twentieth century with over $1 billion in damage and 13,000 arrests. The riots sparked uprisings in other urban areas nationwide.

Masking these serious socio-economic and political issues, however, are the glamorous and dangerous stereotypes of Los Angeles: Hollywood, mansions, movie stars, the fabulous Getty museum, earthquakes, wildfires and freeway shootings. In fact, whole books deal with the representation of the city especially in film, which has both made Los Angeles a constant setting and transformed it into anywhere in the universe via Hollywood sets. In 1981 former Hollywood studio-system actor, California governor and US President Ronald Reagan said: “Film is forever. It is the motion picture that shows all of us not only how we look and sound but—more important—how we feel.” Los Angeles has taken on a powerful public persona of its own, that of the decadent Hollywood star, extreme and highly visible in everything.

Separating the facts from the myths about Los Angeles’ history is difficult, but therein lies its future. Numerous scholars in the late 1990s dubbed Los Angeles the third-world capital of the United States and suggested that it is a microcosm of both national and global socioeconomic development. Global restructuring has caused a decline in the Los Angeles economy Coupled with people of white, European ancestry becoming the new “minorities” in Los Angeles and around the world, nativist politics have increased.

Policies such as California’s Propositions 187 and 209, restricting immigrant and ethnic rights, are examples of this trend. Los Angeles’ struggle for the future will be not just one of politics and economics, but ultimately one of definition of American identity.

Los Angeles has been highly documented, often by researchers affiliated with major local institutions like the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Southern California or the Glaremont Colleges.