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For my Intro to Asian American Studies class, me and five other classmates chose to study the impact the arts (visual/performing) have had on Little Tokyo, which is in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. Little Tokyo is a community that has experienced much over its history, including dealing with the effects of gentrification as more and more Japanese-owned, small businesses continue to close and lose against brand names like Starbucks and Subway. As part of our assignment, we needed to interview someone who knew a lot about Little Tokyo’s arts scene and we spoke with Alison De La Cruz, who works at the Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo. Alison told us a lot we didn’t know about Little Tokyo, such as the conflicts between the Museum of Contemporary Arts (MOCA) and the cultural arts scene in Little Tokyo, how both the performing and visual arts’ futures are in question due to the city of Los Angeles’ use of eminent domain and how Little Tokyo continues to shrink as more and more high rise condos and high-class outlets like pet groomers continue to pop up and how the Board of Directors is caught between preserving the historical significance of Little Tokyo or allowing more commerical development in exchange for more money to flow into Little Tokyo.
People who go to places like Little Tokyo, for the most part do so not to learn about the history and culture of enclaves like Little Tokyo, but to “consume the culture and reshape it into something that they envision it should be” says De La Cruz and I would have to agree. When I visited Little Tokyo seven years ago on a field trip, it was mostly just window shopping and ending the day by eating at a ramen shop. Now that I visited Little Tokyo again, not as a tourist but someone with an interest in Japanese-American culture and using the skills I have learned from my courses as a community college student, I can see things differently now that the old me would have not picked up on and it has changed my ways of learning about different cultures. Talking with Alison and learning about the many changes Little Tokyo has faced and continues to face makes me more motivated and inspired to do my part in helping a community that needs a champion to fight for them.
Me and my group at Little Tokyo on November 10th.