Community of fate - A racialized metropolis between past and future

This paper argues that culture has become a contested issue among a community of strangers in Los angeles. Immigrants are at once expected to show allegiance to "American culture" and be multicultural. Among themselves immigrants are engaging in projects to preserve their "ancestral cultures" and to create new ones if none existed before, When old immigrants face economic competitions from co-ethnic newcomers, "culture" is deployed to justify cultural authenticity. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.