LA Salvadoran community unveils El Salvador Community Corridor freeway sign

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (KABC) -- Los Angeles has numerous ethnic neighborhoods including Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Little Ethiopia, Historic Filipinotown, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Thai Town and the little-known El Salvador Corridor. Unless you're driving through it, you would probably miss it.

The El Salvador Community Corridor stretches along Vermont Avenue from 11th Street to West Adams Boulevard in L.A.'s Pico Union District where more than 255,218 El Salvadoran immigrants live and work. It was designated an official Los Angeles neighborhood in 2012 and community members have now raised funds to have signs installed at the Vermont Avenue freeway exit. This will bring greater awareness and identity to the thriving corridor that boasts more than 150 Salvadoran restaurants, shops and street vendors.

A press conference was held by the Salvadoran community and business leaders to unveil the new freeway signs which will be installed at the eastbound and westbound Vermont Avenue exits of the I-10 Freeway designating the exit to the El Salvador Community Corridor.

"We are the second largest Latino community in Los Angeles and nobody knows that we exist," said Oscar Levi Dominguez, President of the El Salvador Corridor Chamber of Commerce. "We want everybody to know who we are. We want to send a positive message to everybody. It's an opportunity to empower and educate our community."

As part of Hispanic Heritage Month and to honor the occasion, an inauguration and festival celebrating the El Salvador Corridor will be held Saturday and Sunday on the corner of Washington Street and Vermont Avenue. Festivities will include music, traditional foods, games and rides. The event begins Saturday at 9 a.m. and goes until midnight, and continues on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. A special ceremony for the inauguration of the freeway signs will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday.