My visions of California before taking this course is a sunny, beautiful, happy and carefree place and those visions are partly because I visited there nine years ago. Upon my visit I concluded that I would eventually move there when I'm ready to start a family. My visit to California had left a tainted image in my mind, an image of a place where I could leave all my cares behind in hopes of staring anew, but what has left me speechless is the fact that I have no memory of particular events that lead me to this strange obsession over the state. When I first visited California I was 13 years old, and at the age of thirteen there isn’t much you can do there, your options are very limited. My mom and I stayed at a hotel downtown LA for an event where we did the basic, sightseeing, but noting extraordinary so why is it that I’m so obsessed with the state?
Physically, California is a beautiful place with lots of space. Downtown Los Angeles was not like the typical downtowns in cities like Chicago, New York, or even Atlanta, but it was more spacious and “clean”. I didn’t see a lot public transportation around like the ones that frequently amass typical cities with high population rates, which means less traffic and noise. California, for many of us, is like the Promised Land to the Israelites, a place of complete bliss and delight and peace. While I was there, I found myself at peace and when I returned to Chicago, O’Hare airport, I felt as though my peace was disrupted, disrupted by loud horns honking at pedestrians and big busses taking up massive amounts of space. I found myself agitated and annoyed while wishing that I were back in California, where I was able to saver my peace. Strangely, I didn’t bring back eventful memories f...
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...areas and the economically deprived ghettos. These events are essential in order to understand how the US is quickly following in California’s wake while being a model for other nations. The residents who believed that they had arrived into their Promised Land quickly came to the realization that they were in hell because natural disasters started taking place, natural disasters like earthquakes, fires, and floods constantly plagued California and all other sorts of devastating tragedies like pollution, poverty, riots, tax limitations, spending limits, bans on affinitive action, harsh laws, and denying services to illegal immigrants. On the surface California seems to be a great place with endless opportunities but underneath it’s one of the biggest disappointments ever, and if we are following a state like California we will then become a disappointment as well.
James Howard Kunstler begins his work, “The Geography of Nowhere,” at a top speed and continues from there. He starts chapter one, Scary Place, by describing the story of Judge Doom from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”, which is the fictional character that is supposedly responsible for Los Angeles becoming taken over by the freeways. He then continues quoting Lewis Mumford, who was basically the dean of American urban academics in the beginning of the 1900s. He gloomily predicted, would completely demoralize mankind and lead to the nuclear holocaust (p. 10).
James J. Rawls perspective of the California Dream consists of promise and paradox. People from all over move to California in hopes of finding opportunity and success. However California cannot fulfill people’s expectations.
Through visiting La Plaza De Culturas Y Artes, I have learned a lot more interesting, yet, surprising new information about the Chicano history in California. For example, in the 1910’s and on the high immigration of Mexicans and other Chicanos, into coal mines and farms by major corporations, made California one of the richest states in the US. I also learned that most of California 's economy was heavily reliant on immigrants. Immigrants were the preferred worker for major corporations because they didn 't have American rights and were given the harder jobs for less pay.
Years ago, there was once a small town called Chaves Ravine within Los Angeles, California and this town was a poor rural community that was always full of life. Two hundred families, mostly Chicano families, were living here quite peacefully until the Housing Act of 1949 was passed. The Federal Housing Act of 1949 granted money to cities from the federal government to build public housing projects for the low income. Los Angeles was one of the first cities to receive the funds for project. Unfortunately, Chavez Ravine was one of the sites chosen for the housing project, so, to prepare for the construction work of the low-income apartments, the Housing Authority of Los Angeles had to convince the people of the ravine to leave, or forcibly oust them from their property. Since Chavez Ravine was to be used for public use, the Housing Authority of Los Angeles was able seize and buy Chavez Ravine from the property owners and evict whoever stayed behind with the help of Eminent Domain. The LA Housing Authority had told the inhabitants that low-income housing was to be built on the land, but, because of a sequence of events, the public housing project was never built there and instead Dodgers Stadium was built on Chavez Ravine. Although Chavez Ravine public housing project was the result of the goodwill and intent of the government, rather than helping the people Chavez Ravine with their promise of low-income housing, the project ended up destroying many of their lives because of those in opposition of the public housing project and government mismanagement.
Los Angeles is a place with a dynamic history. It has grown to be one of the most diverse cities in the world as a whole. Despite the diversity for which it is known for, the city has always had a striving conflict due to racial and class tension. The social stratification of its past continues to take its toll as dividing lines persist in contemporary Los Angeles. Furthermore, these dividing lines redefine place in Los Angeles, whether geographically or personally, to be subject to race and class. Fluidity has become evident recently however it is more common for the identity of people to be fixed in society. Through the novel Southland, by Nina Revoyr, and various means of academic sources, one is further able to explore the subject of race, place, and reinvention in Los Angeles.
This paper will discuss the many unique aspects of Oakland, California. Divided into five major parts, Oakland is a very diverse city. The five major parts include: Downtown Oakland which is located in the heart of the city, East Oakland which consists of the majority of the city, West Oakland, North Oakland, and the Oakland hills where the terrain is quite different from other parts of the city. While many may perceive the population to mainly consist of African Americans and Whites, there is a significant growing population of Latinos, and Asians. The topics covered in this paper will shed light on the city of Oakland itself, and discuss the unique city that it is. I will also give my personal experience and perception on the city, after living there for 16 years of my life.
During the late 1840's California did not show much promise or security. It had an insecure political future, its economic capabilities were severely limited and it had a population, other than Indians, of less than three thousand people. People at this time had no idea of what was to come of the sleepy state in the coming years. California would help boost the nation's economy and entice immigrants to journey to this mystical and promising land in hopes of striking it rich.
...he rest of the world views California as the “ideal place to live.” However, if California continues to infringe the negative, discriminatory political view its immigrants, the “California Dream” will no longer subsist.
...nding life skills to pursue the better life by themselves. I can see that the newcomers spent their effort to reach their California dreams as work hard as they could. During the time, they transformed the beginning as a gold miner to explore different kinds of business then developed to the agriculture with the good weather condition. Even though women just used their hands to do the simple works to get rich. Through their creativity business mind, the people aggressive ……………. to look for a fortune and luck in California.
Starr, Kevin. Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
There was a massive earthquake in San Francisco during the year of 1906. The country of United States went through great loss because of this massacre. Nearly 250,000 people had become homeless as the result of this great earthquake. Winchester pointed out the question: How unprepared was America when this disaster hit? He compared the San Francisco earthquake to the Katrina hurricane in 2005.
The motivations of both the East Bay African-Americans and the Los Angeles Native-Americans in relocating to California were very much the same. For Native-Americans, the motivation was one of economic opportunity, where during WWII, there existed significant prejudice, discrimination and racism, and where reservation life, offered very little to no upward social or economic mobility. The reservation provided very little hope of obtaining economic or social freedom, and was plagued with alcoholism, poverty, and limitation, all issues that were very well known to those Na...
California society, and people as individuals, could not decide whether they relished their newfound freedom or despised it. Some people attempted to recreate the lives they knew at home, while many others threw off the shackles of their old proper lives. Victorian culture emerged in the 1820’s and 1830’s in America. At 1850, the time of the Gold Rush, it was at it’s high point. Anyone who came to California from the states, no matter what their position, would have come from a place influenced by the Victorian way of life. This included strict ideas about the roles of men and women, taboos on drinking and gambling, high value set on hard work, Christian ethics, and ethnic prejudices.2 People who came to California experienced something quite different.
They arrived in beat-up, run down vehicles; after traveling thousands of miles into California, often losing children and older family members along the way (pg 22), they arrived with dreams of a brighter future, one with the hope of land for their own and jobs to support their loved ones. The scene they came up...
...chnology. The aspects of California are idolized by many Americans as well as various people worldwide. The ideas first introduced by California sparked imaginative minds worldwide creating not only a more developed America, but an extremely progressive world. Without the leadership of California pointing America in the right direction, the modern world would not exist as we know it. The aspects of California are implemented throughout different locations in an attempt to simulate the perfect paradise. California is “a place irresistible to visionaries from all walks of life who come to innovate, create, entertain, and accomplish feats that, in turn, go on to change the world. But dreams don’t just happen – they are made” . California is an extremely diverse state with various natural features, world-class cities, and attractions. California is the Land of Dreams.