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Denise Pelayo
Jennifer Rodrick
English 115
12, November 2016
The Effect of Los Angeles
Los Angeles is the city of opportunity, people come with high expectations. Some
succeed and many do not. This city is very divers, making it a very welcoming place for anyone.
Los Angeles does not have a specific culture, it is more of a place where anyone can be who they
want and discover who they truly are. In order to discover who you are here you have to be able
to adapt to the city. The city is constantly changing resulting in everyone having to be able to
adjust quickly to change. LA living contributes to the peoples identities in many ways. Los
Angeles will make you realize that you can be whoever you want to be. The cities ways of living
will slowly mold you to be an Angeleno. Los Angeles is a place where there is constant change,
but there is no other place like it.
In the story Native to the Place the author Lynell George is a result of how Los
Angeles shapes your identity. The author is a native. She is often described as not being "normal"
as in not fitting into the normal description of a Los Angeles Native. The normal is someone
that is outgoing and spontaneous. She is neither of those. George is someone that is the complete
opposite. The author states that how living here is a constant adaptation because the city is
always changing. She states "Part of it, perhaps, has to do with the region's fast-forward
evolution"(George 149). Meaning that there is always something new and you just have to roll
with it. The changes that have happened are; the city evolved from being a "horizontal pueblo" to
what it is now viewed as a modern Los Angeles. With these changes she has had to become

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accustom to constant adjustment. The author mentions that she has had to get use to the constant
deletion of history. "It is perpetual change I've gotten use to, history often razed, painted over,
obscured, or simply rewritten to be made "more grand" (George 151). This city is so divers that
there is no tradition as there would be found in many other countries, which is what makes Los
Angeles so unique. The author is a native yet she finds herself not a figure of what is seen by
others as being the Los Angeles norm. This is because the city of LA is keeps evolving and she
finds herself stuck in the past. The author was more a person that kept things to her, but living in
LA transformed to her to being more open to everything. She has grown to recognize that living
her, there is no such thing as one identity, and it is more of a constant costume change. Little
by little she found herself, in the sense that she sees that she doesnt have to be what everyone
expects, she can be whoever she wants, who she truly is which is a Los Angeles Native.
The city of stereo-types; where people all are perfect, rich, stuck-up, etc. People that are
non-natives usually believe all of these rumors do to the images that are show on television and
social media. But if you are true Los Angelenos you know that all these rumors are not true, well
at least not for everyone. Like every other city there are some of those kinds of people. Los
Angeles is not your usual city; lets just say that this is not your traditional one culture place. It is
more of a pot that contains everything but the kitchen sink. Angelenos are culture-makers even
though they dont have one certain type of culture that they represent, it is more them being very
inviting and being easily accustom to different things, accepting. You dont have to be born in
Los Angeles in order to be an Angeleno because the city has this type of vibe that will make you
into one. In an article called The Angelenos: A Love Letter to Los Angeles the author, Patrick
Sullivan, expresses his opinion on what makes an Angeleno and talks about the vibe that is the
cause of creating and Angeleno:

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So maybe LA isnt so much of a location as a feeling you get a vibe. When I say that, I
dont mean the vapid narcissism that many would purport to have experienced. I dont
even think that vibe really exists in true Los Angelenos. The vibe I mean is the kinetic
stay up all night drinking with friends you only met last year while simultaneously
making culture for the masses and love to a beautiful out-of-work model/actress/Subway
sandwich artist originally from Minnesota but now living in a shit hole in North
Hollywood with two roommates.
The author of this article expresses that in order to be considered an Angeleno you just have to
go with the flow of things, create a certain vibe and live by it. Going back to the short story by
Lynell George, we see how her being different is actually just a part of being a native. She is her
own person, even though she does not stand out from the crowd for the right reasons, she still
stands out and that is what makes her a native.

(figure 1)
Lynell George talks about how she love to hear the stories of many who come to the city;
their reasoning in doing so and their journey to get her. I mentioned earlier that she is not viewed
as being the normal Los Angeles native, well in a journal called Superficial by Leo C.
Wolinsky, he mentions Ok, so Im a L.A. native, wwhomakes me an anomaly in a city known
for its nomadic tendencies. But it does qualify me as an observer of what comes and goes in this
town that thinks of itself as a trendsetter. Wolinsky is describing himself to be quite the opposite
of an Angeleno, but how he mentions that being a native makes him an observer is exactly how
Lynell George described herself to be in her short story. George and Wolinsky are similar minded

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yet very different. In Superficial Wolinsky talks about his move to the Hollywood hills with his
wife, and how he lives near superstar. He also talks about all his encounters with superstars. He
states that he loves Los Angeles because every day there is something new happening; you can
be driving down the street and encounters something out of the ordinary that would not be found
anywhere else, but in this superficial of a place called Los Angeles.

(Figure 2)
Anywhere you come from whether it is New York, Utica, Arizona, etc. Los Angeles will have an
impact to who you are, just how it has an impact with Lynell George and Leo C. Wolinsky.
Lynell Georges identity was not what the normal native was identified as yet she was very
much an Angeleno as the rest because she was herself and did not let anyone change that. Unlike
Wolinsky, he fell into all the superficiality that Los Angeles has, this was mainly because of
where he ended up moving to, which was the Hollywood Hills. Los Angeles is a city with no
culture, but thanks to all the Angelenos that have come from every single part of the world, there

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is a vibe that is irresistible to outsider which are who make up Los Angeles.

(Figure3)

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Work Cited
George, Lynell. Native To The Place Another City, edited by David, L. Ulin,
2001, p.149 -162.
Sullivan, Patrick. A Love Letter to Los Angeles The Angelenos,
www.garrettleight.com, N.D
Wolinsky, Leo C. Superficial Los Angeles Natives,
www.huffpost.com, 20 Sep, 2011
N,A. Los Angeles: Angeles: A Melting Pot.
www.youtube.com, 10 May, 2013
Figure 1- Google Images

Figure 2- Google Images

Figure 3- Google Images

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