Overflowing with research, oral histories, policy analysis, and urban history, this book by George J. Sánchez shows not only why Boyle Heights is so important for understanding Los Angeles, but why it is so important for understanding race, culture, and urban policy anywhere in the United States (and arguably the world). This is an extraordinary work of history.--Josh Kun, Chair of Cross-Cultural Communication, University of Southern California Annenberg School Boyle Heights is a truly magisterial piece of writing, spanning centuries of historical time in order to examine both the complex history of multiracial diversity-in-the-making and the vernacular understandings of place, peoplehood, and belonging that have taken root there. This book is at once a chronicle of the neighborhood and also a sophisticated interpretation of racial formation and radicalism as well as the histories of US progressive politics, forced removals, and urban conflicts over patterns of ethnic succession and gentrification. Intensely local and satisfyingly global, it is staggeringly thorough.--Matthew Frye Jacobson, author of Whiteness of a Different Color and Barbarian Virtues George J. Sánchez's research on Boyle Heights inspired me to take pride in my community and to see the value of my barrio and recognize the historical context of our fight against gentrification. As a Mexican American I was able to see my place in history and the importance of our contributions to US history. --Josefina López, Writer of Real Women Have Curves and the Founding Artistic Director of the Casa 0101 Theater in Boyle Heights What Vin Scully did for baseball and Jonathan Gold did for food, Sánchez does for the history of LA itself. In this passionate, powerful, and beautifully written work, Sánchez shares the story of Boyle Heights and shows how people's connection to community and neighbors can transcend time and historical change. Boyle Heights is a love letter to a vibrant, sometimes fragmented, yet deeply interconnected metropolis.--Natalia Molina, author of How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts George J. Sánchez's history of Boyle Heights is a moving, intimate, sweeping, and intellectually rigorous account of the ethnic diversity and popular resistance to be found in one community in the heart of Los Angeles. This is an essential new addition to the canon of California history.--Héctor Tobar, New York Times bestselling author of Deep Down Dark and The Last Great Road Bum