Los Angeles, however, Page 1 is comprised of a lot more than palm trees and rich movie stars. It is a sprawling city, incorporating many different cultural areas. It is often thought of as a "city state. not because L.A. is similar to Athens or Sparta but because of the very size and eye popping variety of this thriving urban confederation, with its hinterland of oil refineries and agricultural valleys. Santa Monica has the ambience of a beach resort, East Los Angeles is like Mexico, Monterey Park is like Asia, and Cerritos is an Asian Levittown for the nineties" (Kaplan 41). Traveling through Los Angeles, one often feels as though they have traveled far and wide, experiencing many different cultures within just blocks of each other. People from all over the world come to Los Angeles hoping to find opportunity and freedom from oppressors, people like Zaheer Viriji, a twenty-seven year old ethnic-Indian immigrant from the East African Nation of Zimbabwe. In Kaplan's article, Viriji recalls being harassed by police thugs in Africa. He says that "race relations are so much better in Southern California. Viriji went first to England and then to Canada, where there are large Indian communities. But he didn't feel free. "In those places the community is what's happening. Here. it's YOU that is happening" " (Kaplan 38). Viriji is but one example of many who come to Los Angeles searching for the elusive "American Dream." This intense lure attracts people of every race, age and religion, creating one of the most diverse populations of any city in the world. This constant cultural ebb and flow, often creates friction, and, coupled with ignorance, is what has created many of the stereotypes and stigmas that Los Angeles and its residents are constantly fighting. Los Angeles is a city that, in the eye of public perception wears many different masks. The media in Los Angeles as anywhere, has a tendency to create and fuel these stereotypes.
