MAYWOOD : Fiesta Helps Mark City’s 70th Birthday

After the commotion died down from a fiesta last weekend celebrating the city’s 70th birthday, longtime resident Patricio Quiles took the large celebration at Maywood City Park as a chance to reflect on his city’s past.

“I was the first Mexican to come live in Maywood,” said the 70-year-old Quiles in a friendly, bellowing voice.

“And I’ll tell you--the people here were really mad at the real estate agent that sold me my house.”

Today, more than 90% of Maywood’s 27,850 residents are Latinos. While the layout of Maywood hasn’t changed much in the 46 years since Quiles and his wife moved here from Lincoln Heights, the demographics have shifted drastically since the city was an enclave of mostly white residents employed, for the most part, in the nearby General Motors, Firestone and Uniroyal factories.

“The basic look of the city hasn’t changed much,” said Quiles, citing the tidy blocks of well-kept homes along tree-lined streets.

“But the faces sure have.”

According to 1990 U.S, Census figures, Maywood’s Latino population grew 48% in the 1980s. During the same period, there was a 58% drop in the city’s white population.

Indeed, all of Southeast Los Angeles County saw its population shift dramatically in the 1980s, when there was an overall 153% jump in Latino residents, who now comprise 59% of the area. During the same period, there was a 37% drop in the number of white residents.

Aside from the drastic demographic shift, Maywood’s other most fundamental change in its 70-year history has been in its economic base, said Fernando Guerra, a professor of political science and Chicano studies at Loyola Marymount University.

Once largely industrial-based, the city’s economy is now heavily dependent on service industries.

“From the period following World War II up until the 1970s, Maywood, along with other Southeast cities, was one of the most industrialized areas in the world,” Guerra said.

“The average resident of Maywood lived the archetypal middle-class life--and that’s no longer the case.”

Jobs in steel factories or auto-manufacturing plants have long since been replaced by the hotel, tourism and garment industries, Guerra said.

Incorporated in 1924 by transplants mainly from the Midwest, Maywood maintained a small-town feel at its outset, with most people working in the farming or dairy sectors.

“There was a real concern to maintain the character of the place,” said Guerra.

The Sept. 8-12 fiesta was the second in as many years in which residents gathered at Maywood City Park to celebrate the city’s birthday.

Organizers said it was timed in conjunction with Mexico’s Independence Day, which was Friday.