Tehrangeles: How Iranians made part of LA their own

[Gerald]

Google maps recently recognised "Tehrangeles" as a neighbourhood of central Los Angeles. How did this upmarket part of LA become home to the largest community of Iranians outside Iran?

"We're on the map, I mean why shouldn't we be on the map?" says a girl at a hip Los Angeles cafe where young Iranians hang out.

"There's Koreatown, and Chinatown. Why shouldn't we have an area?"

Now they do.

Estimates show anywhere from 300,000 to over half a million Iranians in Southern California, with many living in Tehrangeles.

"Do not engage in any Iranian gossiping if you're not prepared to defend it," says Mahdis Keshavarz, who runs an LA PR agency. "Because everyone here speaks Farsi."

"The first time I came to LA as a student I was on campus and I heard Persian and I turned with that knee-jerk reaction, of 'Wow, cool, another Iranian,'" says Amy Malek, a PhD graduate at UCLA, who studies the Iranian diaspora.

"And the girl looked me up and down as if to say, 'Why are you staring at me, what's the big deal?'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19751370


Note: 29 September 2012 Last updated at 00:23 GMT