With Mariachi and pan dulce, E-Line riders celebrated the eastside extension ‘quinceañera.’

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On November 22, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) celebrated the 15th anniversary of the opening of the E-Line’s Eastside Extension in 2009. 

In what Metro called a “quinceañera,” two Latino Mariachi bands serenaded East L.A. passengers as they rode between Atlantic Station and Little Tokyo Station. 

Mariachi Cielito Lindo and Mariachi Las Catrinas sang songs from Latino artists like Jorge Negrete, Pedro Fernandez, and Vicente Fernandez, among others, to commemorate the E-Lines milestone, a train line that has about 40,000 weekday riders and an annual ridership of 11,586,541 in 2023. 

“This was a surprise to many people riding the train today,” Jose Ubaldo, a LA Metro spokesperson, told CALÒ News. “We are celebrating the 15th anniversary with this quinceañera, which is a Latino tradition.” 

Apart from Mariachi music, riders were also given pan dulce to go hand in hand with their morning commute. 

Today, the E-Line is a 22-mile (35 km) light rail line that runs east-west between Santa Monica and other historically rich places in East L.A., such as Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, where mariachi musicians have gathered since the 1930s. With a total of 29 stations, including five that it shares with the A Line in Downtown Los Angeles, the E-Line is also one of the most populated metro lines throughout L.A.

Originally named the Expo Line after Exposition Boulevard, along which it runs for most of its route, the line was renamed the E-Line in late 2019. 

The six-mile-long light rail eastside extension opened in November 2009 with eight new stations, including Little Tokyo, Pico/Aliso, Mariachi Plaza, Soto, Indiana, Maravilla, East L.A. Civic Center and Atlantic. The extension, which according to LA Metro had a cost of $8989 million, began its construction in 2004 and today connects many heavily Latino-populated communities on the east side. 

Last year, the regional connector opened in DTLA, connecting Metro’s L, A, E, B and D lines, allowing Metro riders to not have to transfer from line to line and save on ridership fees.

“Now people can travel from Atlantic [station] all the way to Santa Monica, all in one seat and one ride,” Ubaldo said. “That makes it easy for the people and it saves them roughly about 20 minutes to people who ride through DTLA.” 

Wendy Alarcon, the director of Mariachi Las Catrinas, the all-women mariachi group, said the E-Line has a very special place in her heart as she was born and raised in Boyle Heights. 

“We are happy to have been invited to celebrate the [E-Line’s] quinceañera,” she told CALÒ News. “We stopped at various stations and it was a nice, cool ride the whole time as we celebrated. It's really great to see everybody singing, everybody dancing with us.” 

Alarcon said since its founding in 2018, Mariachi Las Catrinas has also performed in LA Dodgers games, Los Angeles Football Club matches and the LA Clippers basketball games. “These have been great opportunities and we are glad today to represent women mariachis,” she said.

Osvaldo Mendoza, founder and director of Mariachi Cielito Lindo, also announced that the quinceañera celebration also fell on the same day of this year's National Musician’s Day, as he invited the crowd outside of the Little Tokyo station to dance alongside the mariachis. 

The E-Line will also be expanding further east in the upcoming years further east. In May, the Board of Metro voted to approve the certification of the final Environmental Impact Report (EIR), finalizing the environmental review for this two-phased project that will extend the E-Line nine miles further east from its current terminus at Atlantic Station in East L.A. to Lambert Station in the City of Whittier. The first phase of the project will begin construction in 2029.

“It's important that the people understand that this is a public service for everybody,” Ubaldo said, referring to the LA Metro buses and trains. “We're trying to build this network of transit services to provide an option and alternative to the traffic congestion in the city.”