In the 1800s,Los Angeles used to have a vibrant Little Italy located in the historic center of the city, a place today known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles. In this very area two streets were named after two Italian pioneers, Nicola Quierolo and Giuseppe Garibaldi, leaders of the Italian unification and, starting from the 1900s, the Italian community began expanding into present-day Chinatown, Lincoln Heights, Elysian Park, all the way to San Pedro. Nowadays, however, little is left of the Italian American heritage and history in this area, except St. Peter’s Church and Casa Italiana. 

It is hard to believe that in California - the third US state for number of Italian Americans, after New York and New Jersey - and in a city like Los Angeles - the 5th metropolitan area in the US for number of Italian American residents, after New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago – there was no publicly identified Little Italy.