Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Hometown Tales with Anthea's Diego Valadez

How's the view here from Fly Over Country?

It's really not too bad, but it's interesting to ask the locals about where they eat, dance and drink. Today we're hearing all about SoCal from Diego of Anthea.

Make sure you're all over their INSTAGRAM.

1. St. Louis City is my hometown. I've lived here for most of my life in and around the city. 

Where are you from? 

Diego: I grew up in the city in LA county called Whittier, California. 

 Otherwise known as Hill Valley in the Back to the Future films which is pretty awesome considering the facts that's my favorite film franchise. 

2. We have three things that don't really exist anywhere else: the slinger, the gooey butter cake, and toasted ravioli. 

Tell me about your hometown's delicacy. 

Diego: Whittier is known for having a lot of small businesses and great Mexican food. Uptown Whittier is the place to be. 

You can literally walk into any restaurant and you won’t be disappointed! 

3. In St. Louis, though there have been others. Our biggest hometown team is the St. Louis Cardinals (formerly the St. Louis Perfectos, nee: the St. Louis Browns, not the AL team that moved to Baltimore.) There is nowhere you can go to escape it. 

I'm a hockey fan, not a baseball fan, so it's a bit weird to me. Tell me about your hometown's big team. 

Diego: I’m personally not big on sports if I’m being honest, but I’m in LA so I’m aware that we have plenty of teams out here haha 

4. St. Louis isn't really known for any one type of music scene. The biggest acts I can think of to get out of here alive were Gravity Kills, Nelly and the St. Lunatics, and Sheryl Crow. There's always been a vibrant concert scene though. 

What about where you are? 

Diego: Oh for sure, there has always been a huge music scene here in LA that continues today! I would feel ridiculous even attempting to make a list of acts that we’re known for. 

I highly recommend all 3 volumes of the Metal Assault Mix Tapes. They’ve become an annual thing for the last three years and each has a ton of phenomenal up and coming metal bands of all sub-genres based out of LA! 

5. 20 years ago, St. Louis had about 300 murders each year, floods, and all sorts of other fun things. You might have heard about us being named the Murder Capital of the USA. Nowadays, a lot here is 150. But there are lots of parts of the city that are returning to former glory. On the whole, St. Louis is a better place to live today than before. Is there anything like that where you're from? 

Diego: Well there are a lot of newer modern buildings, and the city as a whole looks nicer than when I was growing up. 

I don’t think the crime rate has actually changed much but it was never really all that bad, to begin with. It's also just far enough away from the major cities like Hollywood or Anaheim if you’re not into the hustle and bustle 24/7, but close enough so you don’t have to travel too far to experience LA. 

6. Are you still there? 

Diego: I’m not, but I’m only a couple of towns over and I have a lot of friends and family in Whittier so I still go there pretty regularly.

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