Zócalo Public Square

The “Mexicanism” of Los Angeles, wrote Mexican poet and onetime L.A. resident Octavio Paz, “floats, never quite existing, never quite vanishing.” L.A.’s historical connections to Mexico and the rest of Latin America are well known, and its human connections—in a city of immigrants and their progeny—are obvious. Mexicans and Central Americans in particular have shaped Angeleno identity for generations. But how Latin American is L.A. really? Comedian and art collector Cheech Marin, Univision anchor León Krauze, and The New York Times national correspondent Jennifer Medina, and moderator Gregory Rodriguez, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Zócalo Public Square, joined in a Zócalo/Getty “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA” panel discussion, “Is L.A. Really Part of Latin America?” to examine the bridges and walls between Los Angeles and the world to its south.