Does Los Angeles Have a Little Italy?
Does Los Angeles Have a Little Italy? Los Angeles is home to the fifth-largest Italian American population. For over a century, Los Angeles did have a Little Italy. It started in the 1800s when L.A. was a Mexican puebla. By the turn of the 20th century, L.A.'s Little Italy had expanded into present-day Chinatown and beyond. Why is it called Little Italy in San Diego? Little Italy originally took shape in the 1920s, as Italian fishermen and their families began settling there to be close to the city's tuna industry. For a time, San Diego was known as the "tuna...