Author Alex Moreno Areyan will shed some light on the neglected history of Latinos in the South Bay with an event at the Hermosa Museum Thursday night.
Areyan, the author of Beach Mexican and Mexican Americans in Redondo Beach and Hermosa, will appear at the Hermosa Beach Historical Society’s “Happy Hour with History” program at 6 p.m. The former book is a personal history, while the latter provides a larger picture of Mexican American life in the region. Part of what compelled him to write, Areyan said, was the sheer absence of material about people like him and his parents.
“We remained invisible for over 100 years in the South Bay until I wrote that book,” he said. “We were ignored by traditional historians. It’s like we weren’t there.”
Unlike other immigrants from Mexico, who often settled in neighborhoods densely populated with others from their country of origin like East Los Angeles, Areyan’s family settled in Redondo Beach. They were part of a small but close knit network of about 85 Mexican American families in Redondo and Hermosa.
“Here in the South Bay, we were in a sense kind of surrounded. We had to assimilate very rapidly to survive,” Areyan said. “In the process, we had to kind of give up part of our cultural identity.”
Areyan stood out among his classmates. Every fall until his freshman year of high school, he would leave with his family to go pick crops in the Central Valley. He would miss up to four months of school, and resorted to fabrications to explain his absence.
“I used to lie to my teachers, and tell people my dad got transferred. My dad couldn’t even spell transferred,” Areyan said, noting that his father was illiterate.
But behind the struggle, Areyan writes, was a vibrant culture that became intertwined with Mexican American communities all over Southern California. In 1921,  Areyan’s father helped build Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Hermosa Catholic church that still stands today. Latino families from Carson, San Pedro, Wilmington and elsewhere, Areyan said, would come to Hermosa to get married.
The Happy Hour with History program, an effort of the Hermosa Historical Society, is sponsored by King Harbor Brewing and La Playita restaurant. The event is free for historical society members, and $10 for non-members.
