The Italian American Museum of Los Angeles (IAMLA) opened its doors in 2016 to tell the story of Italian immigrants in Southern California: their history now housed in the renovated Italian Hall, built in 1908. The Italian presence in California dates back to 1683 when Eusebio Francisco Chini (known as Eusebio Kino), a Jesuit priest born in northern Italy, was part of a mission sent to lower California.

Chini was also a cartographer and after several expeditions, he crossed to the Pacific Ocean and charted the land as a peninsula of California, not a separate island as previously thought. He is credited with drawing the first map of the area. The city of Los Angeles was founded by the Spaniards in 1781; California was part of Mexico at the time.