13: California in Our Times
- Page ID
- 127028
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Main Topics
- A New Kind of California
- The Economic Roller Coaster
- A Faltering Infrastructure
- Politics in the New California
- Religious and Cultural Diversity
- Competing Visions: The History and Future of California
- Summary
Richard Rodriguez grew up in Sacramento in the 1950s, the son of immigrant parents from Mexico. He was acutely aware of race and ethnicity from an early age. “In Sacramento, my brown was not halfway between black and white,” he wrote. “My family’s shades passed as various. We did not pass ‘for’ white; my family passed among white.” He entered first grade speaking about 50 words of English and went on to earn degrees in English at Stanford University and philosophy at Columbia University. His acclaimed memoirs— Hunger of Memory (1982), Days of Obligation (1992), and Brown (2002)—explore American race relations through the lens of his personal experiences. In Brown, he considered the contradictions of race from his perspective as a “queer Catholic Indian Spaniard at home in a temperate Chinese city [San Francisco] in a fading blond state in a post-Protestant nation.”
Rodriguez embodies several of the contradictions and complexities of contemporary California. His adopted label “brown” speaks to his mixture of ethnic, racial, and cultural heritages. A political nonconformist, Rodriguez has angered many Latinos and liberals for his opposition to affirmative action and bilingual education. He is openly gay and devoutly Catholic. “Of every hue and caste am I,” he has written. In California in the 1990s and early 21st century, ethnic and cultural categories often blurred and clashed.
The state also encountered serious challenges. “The land of golden opportunity is becoming a land of broken promises,” proclaimed Time magazine in 1991 in an issue devoted to California’s “endangered dream.” Nonetheless, California continued on the cutting edge of high-technology industries, especially in communication, entertainment, and innovative uses of the Internet. At the same time, the state also became increasingly identified with environmental and social problems and with a political dysfunctionality that came to have serious negative effects on education and public services.
In 1997, Richard Rodriguez said, "After the LA riots in 1992, my sense was not that the city was dying, as the expert opinion had it, but that the city was being formed. What was dying was the idea that LA was a city of separate suburbs and freeway exits.... In the LA of the future, no one will need to say, 'Let's celebrate diversity.' Diversity is going to be a fundamental part of our lives.... I want to live my life in the center of the world. I want to live my life in Los Angeles."
California continues to grow—by more than 25 percent between 1990 and 2010, to more than 37 million people, nearly one-eighth of all Americans. In 20 years, the state’s economy moved through two complete economic cycles of recession and expansion only to be brought down again in 2008. Nonetheless, its gross domestic product (GDP) reached $1.9 trillion in 2010, making California the world’s eighth-largest economy, somewhat smaller than Britain and Italy. Tourism, trade, entertainment, agriculture, and high-tech industries flourish. The most populous state, California is also one of the most ethnically diverse. With its varied and productive economy, multicultural population, urban problems, political divisiveness, and edgy cultural expression, California embodies the hopes—and fears—of the wider nation and the world.
Questions to Consider
- How have California’s demographics changed since 1990? What implications do these changes have for the state’s future?
- What are the most important changes in California’s economy since 1990? What implications do these changes have for the state’s future?
- What are the most important changes in education, health care, housing, transportation, and the energy situation since 1990? What implications do these changes have for the state’s future?
- What are the most important changes in California’s politics and government since 1990? What implications do these changes have for the future?
- What are the most important changes in California’s religious life and cultural expression since the 1990s? What implications do these changes have for the future?