"Little India" - Artesia, California

[sopas ej]

This is one of my favorite ethnic commercial districts in the Los Angeles area. The City of Artesia, California, located about 17 miles or so southeast of downtown Los Angeles, was settled in the 1870s, though nothing remains from this period. It was mainly an agricultural town; its character is primarily post WWII with the majority of its housing being from this period (you'll see an occasional Craftsman, Victorian, or 1920s-era Spanish-style bungalow here and there). However, it does have a downtown, what's left of it, anyway. In the 1920s-1930s, many Dutch and Portuguese farmers settled in the area, and it used to be a big dairy producing community. Many of their descendants still live in the area; in fact there's a Portuguese hall where they still hold festivals, even a bloodless bullfight, and the local Catholic school is called Our Lady of Fatima. First lady Pat Nixon was from Artesia, though the site of her childhood home is now technically in the neighboring city of Cerritos (because Cerritos incorporated as a city before Artesia did, which was an unincorporated community at the time). Incidentally, Cerritos is my hometown, my family having moved there from LA proper when I was 7 years old. Anyway, beginning in the 1980s and then snowballing in the 1990s, what was once the run-down, sleepy downtown of Artesia burgeoned into an Asian Indian commercial area, with some Pakistani businesses mixed in. Immediately adjacent to this area are many Chinese and some Filipino businesses. This area has been informally known as "Little India" for some decades now, and some years ago the businesses wanted to name the area as such. But the City of Artesia voted it down, saying that there are other ethnic businesses in the area too. Of course they were accused of racism. As a compromise, I think the Artesia City Council voted to name it "International Shopping Distrct," or something lame like that. In the end, it still doesn't have an official designation. But people still call it Little India.

I was in Little India some weeks ago, and since I brought my camera with me that day, I decided to take pictures. The buildings in Little India are pretty much non-descript, definitely nothing architecturally spectacular. But I decided to post the pics on here anyway.

The Artesia Water Tower. According to Wikipedia, it was featured in the 1991 film "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare."


Little India






























A lot of jewelry stores there.










And dueling Sari Palaces.


But what I really like are their restaurants, and their array of chat houses. And the chat is so cheap!








Of course I was in the mood for some chat (snacks). So, I went to Standard Sweets and Snacks-- one of my favorite places there, where you can get good Indian food and snacks-- not just run-of-the-mill Indian food, either, but southern Indian food like dhosa and uttapa and sambhar. The puri and samosas are good too. Being that it was hot that day, I didn't get chai, instead I got a mango lassi. The chai of course is very good and authentic, it not being that crappy, overly sweet stuff that you get at Starbucks or any other western-type coffeehouse.
I had trouble deciding whether I wanted the plain burfi, or the chocolate burfi.






When Pat Nixon was a young woman, she worked in a bank in Artesia. I wonder if this was it... no, she didn't work at a Cathay Bank, but apparently this building dates from the mid-1920s and was a bank even back then.


This furniture store is a holdover from the older days-- Postma is a Dutch surname, in case any of you don't know. Adjacent to it was a Dutch bakery called the Artesia Bakery, but it closed 3 years ago, after over 40 years in business, or something like that.


Here's an old postcard of downtown Artesia, circa late 1950s or so, from yesterdayla.com:

[Bedhead]

It is now!

Great tour, great atmosphere

[ColDayMan]

So THAT'S Artesia. Thanks!

[ady26]

Good commentary,LA is indeed a multi-ethnical city!