Imperial Highway: Plaza Mexico (or the most amazing shopping center in LA)

In the city of Lynwood (hometown of Weird Al Yankovic), I found a part of LA, I had never seen or even heard of before, Plaza Mexico.

I'm not sure when it was built (2004, I think), but basically it's like the Grove or the Americana but Mexican. They apparently have performances of traditional dancers and concerts here all the time. I was there in the morning, so I didn't see anything like that, but I plan to go back to try to document it.

The front entrance on Imperial Highway is this beautiful palm-lined street with illuminated Mexican eagles.





Upon entering the actual mall, you get to this replica of El Ángel de la Independencia from Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma.









The inside is a pastiche of phony-colony Mexican architecture alongside sculptures of Mexican founding fathers, faux-Pre-Columbian artifacts, and miscilaneous pieces like this Mexican rocker sporting the Virgen de Guadalupe and a replica of an 18th century carousel made in New Jersey.







General Lazaro Cardenas del Rio (1895 - 1970), president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940:



General Lazaro Cardenas del Rio next to Hip Hop Zone



General Rafael Buelna Tenorio (1891-1924, dead at 33), general during the Mexican revolution of 1910 (couldn't find a lot of information on him in English so I translated a Mexican Wikipedia page).

He looks Asian here. Apparently he had light hair and people called him grano de oro or grain of gold.



Cura Don Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla (1753-1811), a Mexican priest turned militant after Napoleon defeated Spain, an event that fueled Mexico and South America's movement for non-colonial rule:



I liked that there was this guy below, with no plaque, but he looked important, so they just threw him in (although they kind of put him in a back corner of the mall).







I've seen another one of these hot dog sculptures at the Home Depot on Van Nuys Blvd. They weren't identical though. The one at Home Depot was wrapped in an American flag.







The carousel was made by S.B. Ramagosa and Sons in Wildwood, N.J. Apparently this is a company that made (makes?) amusement park equipment and famously produced an electric sightseeing car in New Jersey over 60 years ago that is still used today.











This guy wasn't a plant, like the muscians at Universal CityWalk. He was just a dude hanging out playing his guitar.



There is also an indoor flea market attached to the mall (just like the Grove has the Farmer's Market). And of course the flea market had a shrine to the Virgin de Gaudelupe and the Pope (the old pope, not the new Prada pope).



I have never seen candy apples so bright and glowing like these were. Beautiful.



The woman below ran the market that sold the apples as well as a ton of other treats. Below she is holding one of their edible arrangements which didn't look quite as good as the apples. The stores name can be seen in the back, it's simply Panaderia Pasteleria.



El Rey de Tamale had all this taxidermy at their store front in the flea market.





There must be a huge Mexican market for herbal supplements, you see them everywhere. Not being Mexican myself, I can't speak with authority, but I feel like it has some crossover with the tradition of natural homemade remedies. Below is Ron Jeremy's contribution to the market.

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