Irangeles

Iranians in Los Angeles

Jonathan Friedlander, Anita Colby, Ron Kelley, Jonathan Friedlander, Anita Colby, Ron Kelley

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520328341
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Following Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979, hundreds of thousands of Iranians fled their homeland. For a great number, Los Angeles was their destination, and today more Iranians live there than anywhere else in the world outside of Iran. This compelling collection of photographs, essays, and interviews explores that exodus from Iran and the Iranian presence in Southern California. While capturing the remarkable diversity of this immigrant community, Irangeles also confronts the sprawling metropolis that is increasingly influenced by its large ethnic and immigrant populations. Iranians, too, are inexorably linked to the demographic changes in California--changes that raise questions of assimilation and cultural survival--and that will see minority populations become the majority in the next century. Integrating visual, textual, and oral sources, this book explicates and humanizes the Iranian experience for scholars and general readers alike. We come to know people from a broad range of occupations and income levels, political persuasions, and religious faiths. Supporters of the deposed Pahlavi regime and staunch followers of Khomeini are here, along with other Muslims, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Baha'is. We hear the voices of women--those who veil themselves in public and those who have adopted Western cultural practices--and learn how both old and new gender roles pressure Iranian women and men. Social relations among Iranian adolescents and the conflicts with their elders are also illuminated. Irangeles is a fascinating portrait of a community caught between two cultures. It offers a new perspective on Iran and its people as well as on immigrant communities in general.

This title was originally published in 1993.

Many titles in the Voices Revived program are also newly available as ebooks, offered at a discounted price to support wider access to scholarly work.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• NATIONALISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY IRAN
• Interview
• Interview
• Interview
• BEYOND NATIONALITY: RELIGIO-ETHNIC DIVERSITY
• ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES FROM IRAN IN LOS ANGELES
• Interview
• IRANIAN WOMEN AND GENDER RELATIONS IN LOS ANGELES
• Interview
• CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO CULTURES: YOUNG IRANIAN WOMEN IN LOS ANGELES
• Interview
• Interview
• WEALTH AND ILLUSIONS OF WEALTH IN THE LOS ANGELES IRANIAN COMMUNITY
• WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: THREE CASE STUDIES OF SMALL BUSINESSES
• Interview
• Interview
• IRANIAN PROTEST DEMONSTRATIONS IN LOS ANGELES
• POPULAR CULTURE OF IRANIAN EXILES IN LOS ANGELES
• IRANGELES: PHOTOGRAPHIC CONTEXT
• ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
• INDEX