October 10, 2011 | 3:55 PM | By

Changing times on Boyle Heights’ E. 1st Street (Video)

FILED UNDER: Boyle Heights, Eastside Luv, M-Bar, Mariachi Plaza

#loveLA from Steve Saldivar on Vimeo.

How do you love L.A.? An entry submitted to KPCC’s #loveLA crowdsourced video feature by multimedia journalist Steve Saldivar captures a slice of L.A. in transition.

Next to Boyle Heights’ venerated Mariachi Plaza, a 60-year-old mariachi sits for his portrait – which happens to be a mural of his likeness adorning the wall of Eastside Luv, a wine bar next to the plaza that opened in 2006. The video subtly captures the generational and cultural divide taking place on a gentrifying E. 1st Street, where the mariachis who have worked there for decades now find themselves elbow to elbow with upwardly mobile second- and third-generation young Latinos who frequent nightspots like Eastside Luv and the M-Bar.

The mariachi is Rafael Rubio; the muralist is Robert Vargas, an up-and-coming L.A. artist who grew up in Boyle Heights.

Another slice of Saldivar’s L.A., a lonely little hill in East Los Angeles, was featured in Multi-American last month.

  • http://twitter.com/MiguelACorona Miguel A. Corona

    What a great video.

    Our family owned a restaurant & panaderia not too far from Boyle Heights. We spent many Friday evenings strolling along the area – the sound of the mariachis always filled the neighborhood.

  • Elbatmanuel

    A Latino neighborhood being gentrified by second and third generation Latinos? I’m not sure if that makes any sence at all.