ABSTRACT
As Chapters One and Five point out, there is important variation in the nature and political involvement of Chinese communities in the United States. Monterey Park is a city within Los Angeles County. It lies about twenty minutes east of downtown Los Angeles and has a population of 61,854.1 What makes Monterey Park unique is that the majority of the population is of Asian descent. Coupled with the surrounding towns of the San Gabriel Valley and with Los Angeles’s Chinatown, this area of Southern California is an important place to study in order to understand ethnic politics.
