Review: East LA Interchange, by Betsy Kalin

In her documentary film East LA Interchange, Betsy Kalin relates the litany of exclusionary federal laws and local planning decisions that over the past seventy-five years have had negative impacts on the people of Boyle Heights, a multiethnic working-class Los Angeles neighborhood just east of downtown. Told through archival images and interviews with current and previous residents and urban historians, the film in many ways presents a sweeping love story of a community that, before World War II, was considered the “Ellis Island of the West Coast” (Figure 1). Kalin positions Boyle Heights within the narrative of immigration and migration that fostered Los Angeles's complex social fabric. As the city witnessed remarkable population growth at the start of the twentieth century, Boyle Heights became a landing point for people from dozens of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. While some people found camaraderie with those most like themselves, others...