El Pino (The Pine Tree) facts for kids
El Pino (the Pine Tree) is a natural landmark of East Los Angeles, sitting on the border of East Los Angeles and the Boyle Heights neighborhood, on the corner of Folsom and N Indiana Streets.
Background
The tree, an Australian bunya pine, grows on the former property of Dr. Okuno, a Japanese dentist and intern in a WWII detention camp, who after receiving the land as a gift from an Anglo lady with whom his wife worked, rebuilt his business and amassed a huge library. After retiring, he took long strolls around East Los Angeles, greeting everyone and amusing the children with storytelling.
Mr. Okuno is listed in the California Who's Who.
The El Pino is extensively featured in the 1993 Taylor Hackford movie Blood In Blood Out, and people in East Los Angeles consider the tree a living monument of the area's multifaceted ethnic background.
