In May 1991 a female police officer shot and wounded a young immigrant from El Salvador in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in Washington DC. It sparked several days of disturbances in the largely Hispanic area, as the population vented its frustrations at years of feeling sidelined by city officials.

Shops were burnt down, cars overturned, and dozens of people were arrested before the police took back control of the streets. But for the first time, it gave visibility to a community that had been largely ignored.

Mike Lanchin has been hearing from musician and former resident of Mount Pleasant, Victor ‘Lilo’ Gonzalez. He says the area has changed dramatically since the riots and that many people living there at that time “now cannot afford it”. But he adds: “Mt Pleasant is still the heart of the Latino community.”