L.A. TACO is embarking on its biggest mission yet: to create a reliable taco and food guide for every neighborhood in Los Angeles! Along the way, we will also be releasing brief histories of each neighborhood to understand L.A. a little more and why each and every neighborhood makes our fine city unique. Check out the rest of our history and food guides on our neighborhood page.
Initially inhabited by the Tongva people, Phineas Banning, a businessman from Delaware, acquired the land from Manuel Dominguez and renamed it after his east coast birth town, Wilmington. This coastal barrio is now known as the “Heart of the Harbor.” Wilmington is an unincorporated city in the Harbor Area of Los Angeles. Populated by a high percentage of Latinos and foreign-born residents, mostly of low to medium-income, there is a great food if you know where to find it.
Nearly 20 percent of Wilmington’s total land area is taken up by refineries, making it the third-largest oil field in the US. There are only six parks in the 9,14 square miles that make up the city. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilmington had one of the highest death rates in all of L.A. County, exacerbated by the elevated levels of industrial pollution. If a city fits the definition of environmental racism, Wilmington would be it.
Alas, When asked to write a taco guide for Wilmington, the city that made me, I couldn’t say no, but I also couldn't just write about tacos. Growing up in the late 80s and 90s, my experience of Wilmas wasn’t tacos; it was having Wienerschnitzel (the first location ever built is the Wilmington location), it was cheeseburger specials, and zucchini fries from Gus burgers, it was pizza parties at Red West and later as an adult, sobering up at Los 3 Cochinitos with some chile verde fries afters wasting away a Friday night at backyard show or a friends garage.
Growing up, I always thought the Dream was to leave Wilmington and never look back. Now I realize the dream was leaving and coming back, or for some staying, and making Wilmington more than a forgotten locals-only refinery port town. So next time you find yourself driving down the 110 or maybe making your way to Long Beach to check out a cool bar pop-up like Chuntikis, cruise down to Wilmington.
These are the diamonds in the refinery-laden rough that is Wilmington.