Who We Are - The People of the 32nd District

A view of the San Gabriel Mountains from the Santa Fe dam.

The 32nd Congressional Distric includes unincorporated East Los Angeles and large portions of the south and east San Gabriel Valley. Bounded by the San Gabriel Mountains to the north and the Puente Hills to the south, the San Gabriel Valley takes its name from the San Gabriel River, which divides the Valley roughly at midpoint from north to south, and which was itself named after Mission San Gabriel Archangel, founded by Spanish missionaries in 1771. The district is comprised of mostly working-class, bedroom communities, with some industrial sectors remaining from the San Gabriel Valley’s heyday as a center for the aerospace industry during the Cold War.

A true microcosm of America, the San Gabriel Valley is one of the most diverse regions of our nation. Its roughly 2 million residents come from all corners of the globe, giving the region its distinct cultural and ethnic identity. It is not uncommon to hear various languages and smell the scents of ethnic cuisines from around the world, from Italy to China, Mexico to Vietnam, simply by strolling down a block or two of Valley Boulevard, one of the Valley’s main east-west thoroughfares.

The two largest minority groups in the District are Asian Americans and Hispanics, although significant populations of Caucasians, African Americans, Armenians and Arab Americans can be found throughout the San Gabriel Valley.

The average household size in the San Gabriel Valley is 3.81 persons according to the 2010 Census, while the largest share of the population was aged between 15 and 19.