| By 1900, the greater Los Angeles region was a tourist mecca. Facilitated by transcontinental transportation at low prices, and owing to a wonderful Mediterranean climate and the work of clever entrepreneurs, the area was visited by thousands and later hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.;The tourist industry became one of the most important economic industries of the region, and new attractions were developed to lure the tourist market. Coupled with an emerging romanticized and mythic telling of California's Spanish and Mexican-era past, promoters created sites which attempted to "recreate" aspects of this time for the enjoyment of white-American visitors. Ethno-tourism became a valuable cash cow for promoters, developers, and investors who built and maintained sites which depicted minority groups in a way which maintained them as exotic others. Literature reinforced dominant views of non-white ethnic groups like Native Americans, Mexicans, and Chinese, and the sites which capitalized on these groups were never accurate representations of these cultures but rather exaggerated stereotypes which served to reinforce white hegemony and American domination.;The study examines tourist literature and five specific tourist destinations created during the first half of the twentieth century: Sherman Institute in Riverside, The Mission Play and Playhouse in San Gabriel, Asistencia de San Gabriel near Redlands, and Olvera Street and China City in downtown Los Angeles. Each site was a specific creation to secure the ethno-tourist dollar while at the same time demonstrating stereotypes as true representations of ethnic minorities. |
