East Los Angeles (region)

East Los Angeles (region)

East Los Angeles (also referred to by much of the community as the Eastside) is the portion of the City of Los Angeles that lies east of Downtown Los Angeles and the Los Angeles River, west of the San Gabriel Valley, East Los Angeles and City Terrace, south of Cypress Park, and north of Vernon, California and the City of Commerce.

The short form for the region, "East L.A.," and the "Eastside" are imprecise terms which can have different meanings depending on usage and context. As a geographical term, it can refer to either the region described here or the unincorporated community of East Los Angeles. As a cultural term, "East L.A." has developed to refer to the predominantly Hispanic of Mexican descent communities lying east of the City of Los Angeles, centered around the unincorporated areas of East Los Angeles and City Terrace and the Los Angeles district of Boyle Heights. To distinguish this area from the broader eastern area of the City of Los Angeles, a collection of neighborhoods and communities lying within Los Angeles city boundaries, and to emphasize the differences in character between the two areas, locals have come to use the term "Eastside" (on the example of "the Westside") for the area within the city boundaries.