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  • Restaurant co-owner Nelson Valdez stands outside his expanding restaurant "El...

    Restaurant co-owner Nelson Valdez stands outside his expanding restaurant "El Pulgarcito," in the hearth of Los Angeles' Salvadoran community, where immigrants are promoting the corridor designation like the Koreatown, Chinatown, and Little Tokyo neighborhoods'

  • A commemorative plaque for Catholic archbishop Oscar Romero is displayed...

    A commemorative plaque for Catholic archbishop Oscar Romero is displayed at the center of Los Angeles' Salvadoran community. A bustling Salvadoran population lives south of downtown near the intersection of Pico Blvd. and Vermont Ave., where the square was dedicated Saturday April 21,2012 to Archbishop Romero killed in 1980 during El Salvador's civil war.

  • A mural bearing the image of martyred Catholic archbishop Oscar...

    A mural bearing the image of martyred Catholic archbishop Oscar Romero is displayed in the center of Los Angeles' Salvadoran community, where immigrants are promoting a newly recognized corridor designation like other ethnic neighborhoods such as Chinatown, Little Armenia and Little Tokyo

  • The location of the new "Little Salvador" enclave in Los...

    The location of the new "Little Salvador" enclave in Los Angeles

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Boosted by dedication of an intersection to a martyred bishop, the Salvadoran community in Los Angeles is promoting a newly recognized ethnic corridor designation like the Koreatown, Chinatown and Little Tokyo neighborhoods.

The El Salvador Community Corridor became a reality late in the summer. Now, the community has to get the word out and attract visitors.

A bustling Salvadoran population lives south of downtown near the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, where the square was dedicated in March to a Catholic archbishop killed in 1980 during El Salvador’s civil war.

Designation of the intersection as Oscar Romero Square also gives Salvadorans a place in the city.

Salvadorans lobbied for a designation that had already been given to official neighborhoods and corridors for other ethnic groups around the city. Many have seen the mix of race and religion shift after the original designations, and some longtime residents who are not of the ethnic group can oppose having their area give over its identities to one group.

Chinatown has had two locations – first on the land that now is the Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. When the last of the great railroad stations was built at the end of the 1930s, the community was uprooted and moved to the north and east to the area that is known as Chinatown today.

Chinatown bumps up against Olvera Street, one of the oldest enclaves, which is built around the original settlement of Los Angeles from colonial times under Spanish soldiers and Franciscan priests building a series of outposts and missions along El Camino Real.

The designations have grown over the intervening decades, with Little Tokyo rising and then declining in recent years around downtown Los Angeles as Japanese companies moved into the area during the 1970s and ’80s boom and then receded during the long decade of stagnation in Japan. Still, a shopping arcade near the Museum of Contemporary Art has kept the concept alive, and a museum focused on the Japanese-American experience in Southern California has become a popular tourist attraction. Much of the once hip energy of a later generation of Japanese expatriates has migrated to Little Osaka, a strip along Sawtelle Boulevard just west of Interstate 405 in West Los Angeles.

There’s also Little Armenia and remnants of the original Jewish community on Fairfax Avenue near Melrose, with a mural of L.A,.’s Jewish heritage painted on the side of the venerable Canter’s Delicatessen. While the Mexican popular has taken hold in neighborhoods around the city, it’s heart is in Boyle Heights, ironically a onetime Jewish stronghold.

The Salvadorans say they just wanted recognition of their large numbers who have migrated to the area over the past four decades. Often lumped in with other Spanish-speaking groups, the Salvadorans sought recognition for their own story and for the struggles that many faced in fleeing the oppressive military regime that ruled the country during much of the 1980s.

The corridor is next to the Koreatown neighborhood. The campaign kicked into high gear two years ago when Romero Square was named.

Community leaders earlier succeeded in naming an elementary school for Jose Castellanos, a Salvadoran colonel who saved thousands of Jews from Nazi persecution by providing them with false Salvadoran citizenship papers.

Salvadoran community leaders hope the community corridor will awaken Salvadorans to the need for more civic engagement.

The intersection dedication effort that began two years ago started when Salvadoran leaders learned that Korean activists wanted to include areas with Central Americans in the Koreatown boundaries. After hearing about the proposed Koreatown expansion, dozens of Salvadoran community leaders showed up for a City Council committee hearing to protest the Koreatown boundary extension.

The official Koreatown boundaries are Olympic Boulevard to the south, Third Street to the north, Vermont to the east and Western Avenue to the west.

The Associated Press

and Register Travel Editor Gary A. Warner contributed to this report.

The Associated Press and Register Travel Editor Gary A. Warner contributed to this report.

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