East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte, is an edited collection of thirty-one essays that trace the experience of a California community over three centuries, from eighteenth-century Spanish colonization to twenty-first century globalization. Employing traditional historical scholarship, oral history, creative nonfiction and original art, the book provides a radical new history of El Monte and South El Monte, showing how interdisciplinary and community-engaged scholarship can break new ground in public history. East of East tells stories that have been excluded from dominant historical narratives-stories that long survived only in the popular memory of residents, as well as narratives that have been almost completely buried and all but forgotten. Its cast of characters includes white vigilantes, Mexican anarchists, Japanese farmers, labor organizers, civil rights pioneers, and punk rockers, as well as the ordinary and unnamed youth who generated a vibrant local culture at dances and dive bars.     

Table of Contents:
Contents Introduction: Burn the Wagon: Finding Silenced Histories, Lost Intersections, and Radical Possibilities in Greater El Monte Romeo GuzmÁn, Carribean Fragoza, Alex Sayf Cummings, and Ryan Reft   Part I   Origins and Departures 1          The Tongva People Aurelie Roy 2          Toypurina: A Legend Etched in the Landscape Maria John 3          From Alta California to American Statehood: Race, Change, and the Californio Pico Family Ryan Reft 4          Here Come the El Monte Boys: Vigilante Justice and Lynch Mobs in Nineteenth Century El Monte Karen Wilson and Dan Lynch   Part II  Social and Political Movements 5          Rise, Fall, Repeat: El Monte’s White Supremacy Movements Daniel Cady 6          Ricardo Flores MagÓn and Anarchist Movement in El Monte Yesenia Barragan and Mark Bray 7          Bitter Fruit: The El Monte Berry Strike of 1933 Melquiades Fernandez 8          Schools for All: The Desegregation Campaign in El Monte Rachel Newman 9          City of Achievement: The Making of the City of South El Monte, 1955-1976 Nick Juravich 10        La Lucha Continua! Gloria Arellanes and the Women of the Chicano Movement Juan Herrera 11        Toward a Radical Arts Practice: Theater and Muralism during the Chicano Movement Carribean Fragoza 12        American Dreams and Immigrant Realities in a South El Monte Shoe Factory Adam Goodman 13        Dreams of Escape and Belonging: The Making of Asian El Monte Alex Sayf Cummings   Part IIINature and the Built Environment 14        Hicks Camp: A Mexican Barrio Daniel Morales 15        Life at Marrano Beach: The Lost Barrio Beach of Los Angeles Daniel Medina 16        From Small Farming to Urban Agriculture: El Monte Subsistence Homesteading Ryan Reft 17        A Community Erased: Japanese Americans in El Monte and the Greater SGV Andre Kobayashi Deckrow 18        Whittier Narrows Park: A Story of Water, Power, and Displacement David Reid 19        Transportational El Monte, From the Red Car to the Freeway Ryan Reft 20        The Starlite Swap Meet Jennifer Renteria   Part IVPopular Culture 21        El Monte’s Wild Past: A History of Gay’s Lion Farm Michael Weller 22        Memories of El Monte: Art Laboe’s Charmed Life on the Air Jude Webre 23        El Monte’s Wildweed: Biraciality and the Punk Ethos of The Gun Club’s Jeffrey Lee Pierce Troy Andreas Araiza Kokinis 24        The Punk and the Seamstress Apolonio Morales 25        A Gay Bar, Some Familia, and Latina Butch-Femme: Rounding out the Eastside Circle at El Monte’s Sugar Shack Stacy I. MacÍas 26        All the Zumba Ladies: Reclaiming Bodies and Space through Serious Booty-Shaking Carribean Fragoza   Part V  Literary Cartographies 27        1181 Durfee Avenue: 1983 to 1986 Michael Jaime-Becerra 28        Train versus Pedestrian on Valley Boulevard Alex Espinoza 29        Epiphany Catholic Church Toni Margarita Plummer 30        Rush Street Carribean Fragoza 31        Durfee Avenue Salvador Plascencia Epilogue: East of East: Suburban Cosmopolitanism in the San Gabriel Valley Wendy Cheng   Acknowledgments Selected Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index