Irangeles: Iranians in Los Angeles

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520080092
• ISBN13: 9780520080096
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 396 Pages
• Weight: 3.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 1.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A Little Dated But Still Worth A Gander

I think by now the book is a bit dated (most of the profiles in the book were done in the late 80s or early 90s it seems), but the overall description of the varied Iranian-American experience in LA is still fairly accurate. As a previous review mentioned, one should not assume that the description of Iranian-Americans in LA is representative of Iranian-Americans elsewhere in the U.S.

The pictures are accurate

I totally disagree with the authors of the last two reviews. I am an Iranian. I have visited LA and I have witnessed the tackiness that our people display in LA. I am not an anti-westerner but it is so unfortunate that we come to this country and some of us succumb to the plastic and the artificial side of the Western culture. I believe the book does accurately represent the Iranian people in LA. However, the book is not a representation of Iranians outside LA. Most Iranians living outside LA are pretty down to earth folks. Buy the book and see how not to lose yourself completely to the tacky elements of the western culture. Khodaa-Haafez

Great Candid Photographs!

I bought "Irangeles" for the photographs, which capture that familiar culture that is seen in the Iranian communities of Los Angeles. You feel like you know everyone in the photos. It also does a good job describing Iranian traditions, customs, and how they have been morphed into the Southern California lifestyle.