But Why Glendale? A History of Armenian Immigration to Southern California

Abstract

Despite its many contributions to Los Angeles, the internally complex community of Armenian Angelenos remains enigmatically absent from academic print. As a result, its history remains untold. While Armenians live throughout Southern California, the greatest concentration exists in Glendale, where Armenians make up a demographic majority (approximately 40 percent of the population) and have done much to reconfigure this homogenous, sleepy, sundown town of the 1950s into an ethnically diverse and economically booming urban center. This article presents a brief history of Armenian immigration to Southern California and attempts to explain why Glendale has become the world's most demographically concentrated Armenian diasporic hub. It does so by situating the history of Glendale's Armenian community in a complex matrix of international, national, and local events.

Exploring Armenian Ethnicity as an Independent Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease: Findings from a Prospective Cohort of Patients in a County Hospital

“…Since a large proportion of Armenians living in the US immigrated from Armenia, it can be expected that American Armenians have similar risk profiles to individuals living in Armenia. 18 …”

Perceptual Disconnect: An Ethnographic Account of Immigrant Political Incorporation

“…Some examples include increased subsidized housing (for the elderly) and park space, Armenian dual‐language immersion programmes in public schools, an April 24th (Genocide commemoration) public school holiday, the creation of a state‐funded Armenian museum, city signage in Armenian script, among many others. Because approximately 70 per cent of its Armenian community is first generation immigrant, and because over 70 per cent of the city's elected officials identify as ethnically Armenian (many themselves first generation immigrants), and because this mobilization only began to take shape in the last 20 years, Glendale embodies the rapid evolution of modern U.S. suburban spaces (Fittante, ).…”

“…This article seeks to contribute to the existing scholarship by analysing how immigrants experience and perceive the benefits of their own political incorporation. It explores the everyday realities of immigrants through a qualitative analysis of the fascinating yet understudied Armenian community of Glendale, California (Fittante, , , ).…”

The Armenians of Glendale: An Ethnoburb in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley

“…For example, the Displaced Persons Act exempted several thousand Soviet Armenian refugees stranded in settlement camps following World War II. Streams of Armenians fleeing upheaval in Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon Palestine, and Syria relocated to several American industrial cities (Fittante ; Mirak ). But the largest waves of multipolar Armenian migrations occurred from the mid‐1960s onward.…”

“…An extended note on positionality: During the academic year 2015‐2016, I lived in Yerevan and worked as a guest lecturer at the American University of Armenia. During this time, I conducted research on North American Armenian return migration to Armenia (see Fittante ). The experiences gleaned from this fieldwork also enriched my understanding of Armenian culture, perceptions, and language.…”