CHAPTER 9: LOCALS ONLY
After a man found gold in the American River…and at its close there were twelve thousand.
Bragg, Melvyn. “The California Gold Rush.” In Our Time, BBC Radio , 2 Apr. 2015, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nxgdd
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.
Ehrmann, Max. “Desiderata,” poem, 1952
She is the Lady, the Mother, the savior who appeared to an Indigenous man…”…like drips in a cavern…”
Rodriguez, Richard. “India,” Days of Obligation: an Argument with My Mexican Father. Penguin, 1995
“I defy anyone who tries to unblend me,”
Rodriguez, Richard. Brown: the Last Discovery of America. Penguin Books, 2003
…asked for blessings before going after pinyon nuts in trees usually harvested by neighbors.
Steward, Julian H. “Autobiography of Two Owens Valley Paiutes.” University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnography , vol. 33, no. 5, 3 Feb. 1934, pp. 241
Between the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Rafael Hills stood a mission older than the city of Los Angeles.
“San Gabriel Arcángel.” California Missions Foundation, http://californiamissionsfoundation.org/mission-san-gabriel/
…diaries tell us the ground did shake in the first days the Spaniards saw this part of California.
U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper. vol. 1515-1517, United States Geological Survey, p. 156
The suburbs of Los Angeles were built on ranchos originally granted to Spanish-blooded Californios by the Mexican government.
Cowan, Robert G. “Ranchos of California.” The Americas, vol. 14, no. 2, 1957, pp. 215–216., doi:10.2307/979365
Also:
California, State of. “Grants of Land in California Made by Spanish or Mexican Authorities.” CA State Lands Commission, https://www.slc.ca.gov/land-types/grants-of-land-in-california-made-by-spanish-or-mexican-authorities/
…the mountains pale with chaparral, the floodplains virulent with California brome, purple needlegrass, chamise, manzanita, silk tassel.
Information on California native plants and their range:
“Search for Plants.” Calflora, https://calflora.org//
Information on brome:
Bromus Carinatus Var. Carinatus, Calflora, https://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=1196
Needlegrass:
Stipa Occidentalis, Calflora, https://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=12061.
Chamise:
Adenostoma Fasciculatum, Calflora, https://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=97
Manzanita:
Arctostaphylos Glandulosa, Calflora, https://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=548
Silk tassel:
Garrya Flavescens, Calflora, https://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=3749
…in July 1953 Life magazine published a photo essay…a photo of moving vans and identical houses stretching out of sight.
“…And 400 New Angels Every Day,” Life, 13 July 1953
…a community gets the name “park poor”…the LA city center has 1.6 park acres per thousand people.
Lenox and Inglewood neighborhoods specifically:
Inglewood & Lennox Green Planning. Tree People, 2016, https://www.treepeople.org/sites/default/files/pdf/publications/Inglewood%20Lennox%20Greening%20Plan_Digital.pdf
…eight times less than the national average.
On average, American cities have thirteen park acres per thousand folks.
City Park Facts. The Trust for Public Land, 2016, https://www.tpl.org/sites/default/files/2016%20City%20Park%20Facts_0.pdf
Wallace Stegner said, “I may not know who I am, but I know where I am from.”
Stegner, Wallace. Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier. Penguin, 2013, p. xx
…the place where a young Mulholland planted a seedling oak beside a water ditch.
Exact location of Mulholland’s shack from:
Spriggs, Elisabeth Mathieu. “The History Of the Domestic Water Supply Of Los Angeles,” masters thesis, History Department, University of Southern California, 1931 pp. 69-70