For half a century, from Boyle Heights near downtown into East L.A., past the pawn shops and muffler garages and
taquerias along Whittier Boulevard, Angelenos have been cruising their cars at a pace that would embarrass a glacier in an internal - combustion riff on the traditional Mexican paseo — where young men and women would gather in town squares to eye each other and mingle, the more determined men arriving on horses decked out like parade floats.