Monterey Park highlight
Strong Chinese-American community
Beginning in the 1970s, Monterey Park became home to the first Asian-American majority city in the continental United States, with Lily Lee Chen elected the first Chinese American woman mayor of a U.S. city in 1983.
Monterey Park was incorporated on May 29, 1916, as a residential suburb in the San Gabriel Valley. For most of the twentieth century it remained a predominantly white, middle-class neighborhood. The transformation began in the 1970s when middle-class Asian Americans and Asian immigrants, particularly from Taiwan, began settling in the city. A realtor named Frederic Hsieh is credited with catalyzing this community development through property transactions with newly arrived immigrants.
The change accelerated through the 1980s, earning the city nicknames like 'Little Taipei' and 'The Chinese Beverly Hills.' By 1990, Monterey Park became the first city with an Asian-American majority population in the continental United States. The 2020 census recorded a population of 61,096, with approximately 66 percent identifying as Asian alone. In 1983, Lily Lee Chen was elected mayor, making her the first Chinese American woman to lead a U.S. city.
A community built by successive generations choosing to build their lives here—first-generation homebuyers, families expanding, businesses growing—is a community where life insurance matters. The people building Monterey Park have mortgages, children at home, business loans, and the same straightforward reason everyone else does to get a policy in place: to make sure the household is protected if they're not there.