Tehrangeles: The Iranian Community of Los Angeles

I recently visited Los Angeles as part of my research on Iranian music and poetry. This vast and vibrant American city is also home to the largest Iranian diaspora community. The five to six hundred thousand Iranian Americans who live there call it Tehrangeles, combining the name of Iran's capital city with Los Angeles. It is also known as Little Persia, a name that harkens back to a pre-islamic culture, which is fitting considering it grew following the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

The Shah, or king of Iran, was deposed in 1979 and the rebels who replaced him reconstructed the nation as an Islamic state. During this time of political upheaval, millions of Iranians fled the country in what is known today as the Iranian Diaspora. Many of them flocked to the United States, Canada, Germany, and Sweden. But "why Los Angeles in particular?" you may ask...

The LA neighborhood of Westwood had the beginnings of an Iranian community, that first manifested itself in the 1960s. This was exacerbated by the Revolution of 1979 as thousands of Iranians flocked to the neighborhood. Soon enough the area became populated with Iranian restaurants, bookstores, and markets.

Today, the Tehrangeles community is bigger than ever before. On my visit, I passed through the famous Persian Square, which may be the closest I ever get to being in Iran. Wherever I looked there were neon signs in Farsi adorning Persian shops, newspapers written in Persian language, the smell of kabob koobideh at every restaurant, and Iranian music floating the air.

While there are many commonalities between the Tehrangeles Persians and Persians living in Iran, the two groups have their differences. Tehrangeles Persians share a nostalgia for a time before the revolution. Many of them are elderly and remember life before the Islamic Republic. Others are their children, who have grown up apart from their native land. This separation allows Tehrangeles Persians to be more vocal about Iranian social issues, as they do not face the censorship of native Iranians. Iranian musicians such as Googoosh and Dariush who began their careers in Iran later continued to make music calling for social change while living in Los Angeles.

If you are curious about the Tehrangeles Persian music scene, check out Farzaneh Hemmasi's book, "Tehrangeles Dreaming".