Olvera Street
Olvera Street, commonly known by its Spanish name Calle Olvera, is a historic pedestrian street in El Pueblo de Los Ángeles, the historic center of Los Angeles. The street is located off of the Plaza de Los Ángeles, the oldest plaza in California, which served as the center of the city life through the Spanish and Mexican eras into the early American era, following the Conquest of California.[1]
Restaurants, vendors, and public establishments line the street. Calle Olvera attracts almost two million visitors per year.[2] The street is home to numerous of the oldest buildings in Los Angeles, include the Ávila Adobe, the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles.
Events[edit]
Blessing of the Animals event[edit]
The Blessing of the Animals at Olvera Street, an event dating to 1930, is held every Sábado de Gloria (Holy Saturday, the Saturday before Easter). The event was originally held in conjunction with the Feast Day of Saint Anthony of the Desert, but it was changed to take advantage of better weather. The original procession has grown into an all-day event with vendors, performers, and a procession where participants bring their animals to be blessed[10] by religious authorities and others.
The event is held near the Biscailuz Building and is represented by a mural on its exterior, The Blessing of the Animals, by Leo Politi. The event is also the subject of a book by the same name.[11]
Reception[edit]
The American Planning Association named Olvera Street one of the top five "Great Streets" in the United States for 2015.[19]
Some find Olvera Street to be a sanitized fabrication of Latin American culture merely to attract tourists, a "fake" Mexican presence; since 1926, it has garnered controversy as historians and collectors have attempted to preserve the sites for historic study and educational purposes. In contrast, there are researchers that often cite that Olvera Street is an "appropriated" misnomer of Latin-American and Hispanic culture, and should therefore not remain as a source of tourism.[20] Even critics though, have acknowledged how the city fathers were ready to condemn and destroy the area in the 1920s.[21] The attention brought to the area shamed the city into saving its heritage and preserving some of the original adobe buildings.[22] This tension around an idealized cultural image is evident in the mural América Tropical (full name: América Tropical: Oprimida y Destrozada por los Imperialismos, or Tropical America: Oppressed and Destroyed by Imperialism[23]) by David Siqueiros which was slated to be an exciting addition to the street until it was actually unveiled in 1932. The Getty Conservation Institute began performing detailed conservation work on the mural in 2010 and the America Tropical Interpretive Center opened to provide public access in 2012.[24]