East Los Angeles is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. East Los Angeles is located immediately east of the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles, and it is the least diverse of the 272 neighborhods in Los Angeles, with 97.1% of its 125,496 inhabitants (in 2010) being Hispanic.
The district was founded in 1870 by John Strother Griffin, who created the first suburb of Los Angeles after purchasing 2,000 acres of land and erected houses on that site. During the 1990s, the neighborhood had an incredibly high crime rate, with prostitutes, gangsters, and drug dealers causing disturbances in the area. The mostly residential district consisted of many small single-story houses, apartments, and housing projects, and it had some popular small-time businesses and zones, having manny Mexican-themed stores. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, East Los Angeles was controlled by the African-American Ballas gang after the Mexican Vagos were forced out, and the neighborhood was taken over by the Grove Street Families in late 1992.
By 2013, East Los Angeles was inhabited by a large Latino community composed of mainly Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans. The district used to be dedicated towards industry and hard labor, but gentrification at the start of the 21st century got rid of the large factories. Throughout the area, there were many rundown workshops, factories, and warehouses that were converted into garages or homes. Despite the gentrification and the installment of residential homes, there was still a large gang presence in the area, mostly with the Vagos and the Los Varrios Aztecas; the Salvadoran Marabunta Grande is based in Boyle Heights. The crime mostly happened in the darker and more isolated areas of East Los Angeles, especially the abandoned industrial workhouses. Most of the neighborhoods of East Los Angeles (the Arts District, Signal Hill, Boyle Heights, and Vernon) are poor, except for the ones located near the gentrified MacArthur Park to the north.
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