This article, written byLeslie Berestein Rojas, appears on KPCC.

Italian-Americans unearthing lost history of LA’s Little Italy

Hear the words “Little Italy” and you might think of New York, Boston or San Francisco’s North Beach. But a Little Italy once thrived in Los Angeles and a group of local Italian Americans hope to soon put it back on the map.

The city’s Little Italy developed in the 19th century when Italians began migrating to California in significant numbers. Their community centered around the northern side of downtown, right about where Olvera Street meets Chinatown today.

Bob Bozzani remembers what it was like. In the 1930s, when he was a boy, he and his mother would take the train from their home in Pasadena to visit Little Italy’s many shops.

“It was all Italians in the area,” said Bozzani, 86, who still lives in Pasadena. “They had an Italian bakery shop for pastries, and they’d have an Italian place that made sausages. There was a meat shop, a produce shop. There were about four Italian bakeries in that area.” Read more and view the slideshow at KPCC…