Olvera Street and Union Station

This is the last of the pictures from Olvera Street and Union Station for Christmas of 2008.

Union Station Los Angeles Christmas 2008

2 pix of Olvera Street & Union Station

These 2 pix of Olvera Street from last Christmas (2008) are the last in this series. I will post a few of Union Station from Christmas, and that will be the last ones until December 2009.

East of the Mexican Cultural Museum is a place to sit and rest after walking around the Olvera Street area. I snapped a picture of the light standards in repair. The photo of the church is: La Placita Church. It is the oldest Roman Catholic church in Los Angeles, begun in 1784. 535 N Main St Los Angeles, CA 90012 - (213) 629-3101. After Sunday services, I have found good quality Mexican food in the church. On a nice day, you can get some of it to go and walk around. The last photo is the Pico House Hotel. Built for Pio Pico, Mexican Governor of California, the hotel was begun in 1869. It had approximately 80 room and at the time, was a luxury hotel. Since then it had dilapidated until it became property of the government in the 1950s. Since then it has been re-habbed, but is no longer in use as a hotel.

North passage way - Xmas 2008

Pictured is Olvera Street looking north towards Sunset Blvd. (Cesar Chavez Blvd.)

Olvera Street Christmas 2008

Click each photo for a larger image.

Instituto Cultural Mexicano de Los Angeles

The Mexican Cultural Institute has a small museum and is open to the public. Do check their website for days and times. The posters are from a shop on the east side of Olvera. Pictured are Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.

----------- Political stuff below this line -------------------

Villa is the only person to attack and murder Americans before the Al queda horror of September 11, 2001 on American soil. Mostly, Americans, looking back at Villa do so with a smile. Not that the smile is with the understanding that those 20 odd people killed in Columbus New Mexico had done anything to Villa. He killed them, sacked or destroyed a Coca Cola bottling plant and did other damage. Today, in Columbus, there is a Pancho Villa Park and a statue of Villa. Even more oddly, school children from Mexico are picked up by a Columbus school district bus, carried across the border and educated in the Columbus school system. This author hopes that in a century from now, there are no "nods & winks" about the events of September 11th.

Casa California

Casa California with a few snowflakes (top of doorway) for Xmas 2008.

The photo of the huipiles is from another store on the east side of Olvera Street. The link I've provided is to a travel bureau. I'm not associated with it. I give this link as I had a problem finding Mexican huipiles photos and this travel-sales site had an excellent article about them. Wikipedia's was a stub and didn't distinguish Mexican from Guatamalan, etc.