The Changing Face Of Arlandria

Dozens of Hispanic business owners have moved into the closed stores along Alexandria's Mount Vernon Avenue in the past decade, earning the neighborhood the nickname Little Chirilagua after the costal village many Salvadorans fled during the country's civil war.

There are nearly 20 Hispanic-owned restaurants, bakeries, salons and sellers of books and inexpensive knickknacks that employ dozens and lure Latinos who are nostalgic for home to the six-block area.

The city's economic development planners say they want to build on this, creating a Latino version of the bustling Chinatowns in Los Angeles and New York. The hope is that non-Hispanics looking for authentic Latin food and products will come to Little Chirilagua, which is also known as Arlandria because it borders Arlington County.

"Hispanic folks from everywhere come. It's known in the Hispanic community," said Marc Brambrut, an economic development specialist with Alexandria Economic Development Partnership Inc. "We don't want to change the identity of the neighborhood." The city just wants to spruce it up a bit to make it a destination spot, he said.

Toward that end, a five-year, $2 million economic development package passed by the Alexandria City Council a year ago includes plans to line the streets with trees, place festive banners on light posts and put sidewalk furniture in front of restaurants and bicycle racks on corners.

A community policing program has drastically decreased the neighborhood's crime rate in the past few years, which should make it more attractive to outsiders, city planners say. The city plans to market Little Chirilagua by holding such community events as street festivals. A local business group plans to hold a pupusa cook-off this summer, inviting people from outside the neighborhood to come to Arlandria to try the traditional Central American dish of cornmeal dough filled with pork or beef and cheese.

Brambrut said the city's plan will draw diners and shoppers from more affluent areas to the Hispanic establishments.

"They want to create beautiful, beautiful Arlandria. Okay, we are with you," said Paula M. Coleto, the owner of Huascaran Restaurant, a local Peruvian eatery. But Coleto said she was concerned the effort might cause rents to increase.

Hector Rodríguez Jr., a Guatemalan who manages the Chirilagua Unisex Salon for his father, also said he was nervous about rising rents. "Rent is already so high," he said.

Salvadorans started several businesses in Arlandria in the late 1980s, and Uruguayans, Guatemalans and Peruvians followed suit.