La Fiesta de Los Angeles: Race, Ethnicity, and History on Parade in Los Angeles, 1894-1903

70 Pages·2014·12.89 MB·English

UCLA
UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
La Fiesta de Los Angeles: Race, Ethnicity, and History on Parade in Los Angeles, 1894-1903
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9vh216bm
Author
Shuen, Rachel
Publication Date
2014

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library
University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Los Angeles

La Fiesta de Los Angeles: Race, Ethnicity, and History on Parade in Los Angeles, 1894-1903

A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction

of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts

in Asian American Studies

by

Rachel Grace Shuen

2014
i
ii
ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

La Fiesta de Los Angeles: Race, Ethnicity, and History on Parade in Los Angeles, 1894-1903

by

Rachel Grace Shuen

Master of Arts in Asian American Studies

University of California, Los Angeles, 2014

Professor Valerie Matsumoto, Chair

This project uses La Fiesta de Los Angeles, a multiethnic parade, as an entry point into
understanding ethnic and race relations in Los Angeles, California from 1894-1903. Expanding
upon historical research and theoretical frameworks that explore the intersectionalities of race,
gender, class, and nationality within La Fiesta de Los Angeles, this project investigates how the
development of a racialized Los Angeles in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries
offers important historical perspectives for the United States. It focuses on the Chinese
community in Los Angeles and their participation in the parade and endeavors to recognize their
exercise of agency, however limited. Photographs and postcards of La Fiesta are used to glean
clues about the development of the Chinese American community and how they sought to
present themselves. In La Fiesta, the Chinese used their culture as capital to combat prejudice
and create business opportunities. In appealing to American Orientalist imagination, the Chinese
were able to craft their own representation in a way that increased their popularity (even if
temporarily) in American society and staked a claim to a sense of belonging in Los Angeles.
ii
This thesis of Rachel Grace Shuen is approved.

Robert Chao Romero

David K. Yoo

Valerie J. Matsumoto, Chair

University of California, Los Angeles

2014

ii i
Table of Contents

List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. v
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Methodology and Literature Review .............................................................................................. 8
History of the Chinese in Los Angeles ......................................................................................... 12
History of La Fiesta de Los Angeles ............................................................................................. 22
Chinese Involvement in La Fiesta ................................................................................................. 30
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 54
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 56

iv
List of Figures
Figure 1. View of parade spectators in the 1895 La Fiesta .............................................................2

Figure 2. Spectators observing the Chinese dragon in the 1901 La Fiesta ......................................2

Figure 3. Map of Chinatown, Los Angeles, circa 1890 .................................................................15

Figure 4 Postcards depicting a view of La Fiesta parade and spectators on Main Street, 1909 ....24

Figure 5. Temecula Indians representing Aztec Indians in the 1896 La Fiesta .............................27

Figure 6. Spanish caballeros portrayed by Mexican Americans, ca. 1901 ....................................28

Figure 7. Postcard by M. Reider commemorating La Fiesta, 1903 ...............................................32

Figure 8. Chinese men waiting by their float for La Fiesta, 1901 .................................................32

Figure 9. Artist’s drawing of the Chinese procession in La Fiesta, 1894 ......................................39

Figure 10. Right-side view of Chinese float in La Fiesta, 1895 ....................................................40

Figure 11. Left-side view of Chinese float in La Fiesta, 1895 ......................................................40

Figure 12. Chinese merchant float in the 1897 Fiesta ...................................................................41

Figure 13. 100-foot-long Golden Dragon carried by Chinese men during the La Fiesta de Los
Angeles parade, May 1901 ............................................................................................................49

Figure 14. A Chinese man poses next to a Fiesta dragon, 1900 ....................................................50

Figure 15. Chinese family out to see La Fiesta Parade, undated ...................................................52

v
Acknowledgements

This project would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my
committee chair, advisor, and mentor, Professor Valerie Matsumoto. I sincerely thank her for her
tireless efforts in reading my drafts, giving me constructive feedback, and for providing me with
much needed guidance about the direction of my work. The insight and wisdom she imparted
about the trials and tribulations of doing historical research taught me how to be a better writer,
researcher, and thinker. I am honored to have been able to work with such a renowned scholar
who has been a great advocate of my project.
My committee members, Robert Chao Romero and David K. Yoo, also offered incredible
comments that helped elevate this project. I am very grateful for their suggestions and
comprehensive advice.
I would also like to thank the Institute of American Cultures (IAC) and the Asian
American Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles for their generous support of my
work through the IAC Research Grant, 2013-2014.
v i
Introduction

On April 10, 1894, the city of Los Angeles, California, hosted its first La Fiesta de Los
Angeles. This festival was a unique urban ritual: part urban pageant, part spectacle.1 La Fiesta
was a processional parade that lasted for several days, passing through the major streets of
downtown Los Angeles. Float after float of Chinese, Native Americans, Spanish caballeros,
prosperity floats, the Fire Department, and the Fiesta’s Queen and court comprised the parade,
reflecting the diversity of the city. There were also daily events such as Floral Day, Military Day,
and Children’s Day. People jostled one another for spots on the streets and peered from windows
of buildings lining the streets of the procession, all trying to witness the excitement. An 1899
novel, A Business Venture in Los Angeles, or, a Christian Optimist, described La Fiesta:
The mixture of races and nationalities taking part therein gave a
flavor of originality to the whole, rendering it entirely distinct from
ordinary processions, so that, from first to last, the interest was
sustained, especially with those to whom the sight was a novel
one…. [It was] produced in such magnificence and with so much
attention to detail, as not only to be beautiful to the eye, but
valuable as object-lessons to young and old.2

As “object-lessons,” the floats and performances were meant to visually convey a linear notion
of racial progress in Los Angeles’ history, upholding Anglo-American hegemony. La Fiesta de
Los Angeles, a lavish celebration, represented a desire to shape Los Angeles’ future and made a
statement about ethnicity and race in Los Angeles at the turn of the twentieth-century.

1 William Deverell, Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of its Mexican Past
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004): 50.
2 Louise Doissy, A Business Venture in Los Angeles: Or, a Christian Optimist. (Cincinnati: The Robert
Clarke Company, 1899): 194-195. Though little is known about the author, this creative nonfiction novel
was actually published under the pseudonym, Z.Z. This novel, whose title suggests economic boosterism
and Christian liberalism, tells the story of two sisters who own a small shop in downtown Los Angeles
and are preparing for La Fiesta de Los Angeles, as it is an opportunity for more business.

1
Figure 1. View of parade spectators in the 1895 La Fiesta.
Source: California History Room, California State Library,
Sacramento.

Figure 2. Spectators observing the Chinese dragon in the 1901
La Fiesta. In front of the dragon, a parade marcher is carrying
an orb to lead the dragon. To the left of the dragon, a parade
marcher carries a stool that will be used as a resting spot for the
dragon’s head when it sits. Photograph taken by Charles C.
Pierce. Source: California Historical Society Collection, 1860-
1960, University of Southern California Digital Library.

2