Mariachi Plaza, Boyle Heights

Since the nineteen thirties, musicians in charro suits have gathered at this corner in Boyle Heights to wait for work. A bride's family needs a band. A quinceañera needs a trio.

A funeral needs a soloist. Word spread, and in the decades after, Mariachi Plaza became the place in Los Angeles where you came if you needed mariachi music on short notice. The brick Boyle Hotel across the street, built in the eighteen hundreds, became known simply as the Mariachi Hotel, housing musicians between gigs.

It fell into disrepair but was later restored as affordable housing. The centerpiece of the plaza today is an open-air kiosco built with funding from the state of Jalisco in Mexico, the birthplace of mariachi music. Every November, the plaza hosts a procession for Santa Cecilia, patron saint of musicians.

It is widely seen as the heart of mariachi culture in Los Angeles.