Posted on Sat, Mar. 26, 2005
By Jack Chang
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Something about the San Joaquin Valley entrances writer Gary Soto: The light and wind there, the farmworker culture, the small-town feel. The Berkeley resident has spent his life writing about the valley of his youth.
For former journalist Brad Rovanpera, central Contra Costa County is where it's at. He calls Walnut Creek, where he was born 50 years ago, "a suburban success story" and a place where city planners "made all the right decisions." He is the city's public information officer.
Angela Jones has lived all over the world, from Spain to Denmark, but always comes back to the intensely multiracial neighborhood in Los Angeles that she has called home for more than a decade.
"I get excited about California, especially when I go away," she said.
Over the next month and into May, thousands of people around the state will share their loves, hates and impressions of the communities they live in as part of "California Stories Uncovered," a campaign celebrating the state's rich spectrum of cultures and experiences.
The project, organized by the nonprofit California Council for the Humanities, has mobilized people at hundreds of libraries, schools, health clinics, community centers, apartment buildings and other locations to share their stories of what being a Californian is all about.
The council has distributed some $250,000 to help people around the state compile oral histories, host story-writing workshops and organize other events as part of the campaign.
Children in Pleasant Hill have interviewed people in their 70s to learn the stories of older generations.
Mexican farmworkers in Santa Barbara have shared tales of migration and poverty. Old-timers in Walnut Creek are digging out pictures and other artifacts that will bring the city's history to life in an April 20 event hosted by Rovanpera.
Running throughout, said humanities council executive director Jim Quay, is an appreciation for the state's uniqueness and diversity, a perspective that is sometimes lost in the daily bustle of modern life.
"We're inviting people to gather and tell the stories beneath the headlines, statistics and stereotypes out there," Quay said. "Communities are just more ever-changing than ever in California, so we feel a need to help everyone get to know each other's stories."
Since its conception in the early 1990s, the San Francisco-based council has used literature to teach Californians their own history and culture.
In 2002, thousands took part in a statewide reading of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," about Midwestern farmers looking for jobs in the state during the Great Depression.
For "California Stories Uncovered," the council published an anthology of California-themed stories and other writings by authors including Joan Didion, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Luis Rodriguez.
Reading groups are already meeting statewide to discuss the book.
Last week, about 20 people gathered at the Memorial Branch Library in Los Angeles to talk about the short story "Melvin in the Sixth Grade" by Dana Johnson and an excerpt from the book "The White Boy Shuffle" by Paul Beatty. Both selections address the interaction of white and black cultures.
"We're looking at the parallels of experience despite the ethnic differences," said Jones, who organized both events. "We had all kinds of people at the reading group -- blacks, whites, young and old. It was a true reflection of the neighborhood this library sits in."
White people made up less than half the state's population in 2000, and the anthology and the stories campaign make a point of representing a range of ethnic voices from various parts of the state.
A May 4 event at the Richmond Health Center will highlight the stories of Central American immigrants, such as San Pablo resident Arianne Lanzas, who settled in the East Bay.
The program will include a large bulletin board adorned with immigrant writings, including letters composed by Lanzas and others to loved ones in their home countries describing their new California lives.
A counselor at the health center, Lanzas addressed the young daughter she left in her native Nicaragua when she immigrated to the United States in 1985. That daughter has since joined her.
"I told her why I had to leave her behind," the 50-year-old said. "It just would have been difficult to bring her up with me. It's a very sad story."
On April 28 at the Silver Dragon Restaurant in Oakland, William Wong will present interviews of Chinese-Americans in their 80s and 90s that he conducted for an ongoing oral history project focusing on the city's Chinatown.
A former journalist who has chronicled the history of Asian-Americans, Wong said immigration and the backlash it inspires are a common thread to the state's history since the Gold Rush.
"The state has attracted people from all over the world from the very beginning, and they have suffered," Wong said. "For a person to really know California, it's important to go and sort out its ethnic history."
For Soto, the state and the San Joaquin Valley that he holds dear are marked by both beauty and ugliness. The writer will speak April 19 at the Walnut Creek Library and April 25 at the San Lorenzo Library.
Included in the anthology, his poem "The Elements of San Joaquin" juxtaposes images of nature with those of urban encroachment.
Yes, "strip mall" culture is transforming his beloved valley, he said, and the region's politics are not in tune with his own. But he grew up there, he said, and it's home.
# # #