Farm Land in Guatalupe by Diana Sainz
by Diana Raquel Sainz
Title
Farm Land in Guatalupe by Diana Sainz
Artist
Diana Raquel Sainz
Medium
Photograph - Photography - Digital Photography
Description
FEATURED IMAGE: Barn Lovers Group ~ FAA ~ 12/30/2013
FEATURED IMAGE: Out West ~ FAA ~ 12/29/2013
FEATURED IMAGE: Starving Artist Photographers ~ FAA ~ 12/26/2013
FEATURED IMAGE: Old and Used~ FAA ~ 12/26/2013
Guadalupe is a small city located in Santa Barbara County, California. According to the U.S. Census of 2010, the city has a population of 7,080. Guadalupe is economically and socially tied to the city of Santa Maria, which is about ten miles to the east.
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Rancho de Guadalupe was established in the 1840s as part of a Mexican land grant and was settled by pioneers of many unique backgrounds, such as European, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and Mexican. The small town was incorporated as the city of Guadalupe on May 19, 1946. The city name honors Our Lady of Guadalupe, the title given to the Virgin Mary.
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Guadalupe is a small town. In addition to the Dunes Center, the town contains an art museum, the Rancho de Guadalupe Historical Society, a public library, veteran's memorial, the Masatani Mansion, and an old Buddhist temple. The historic building occupied by city hall and the police department used to be a high school. There is a very small historic jail building at the park near the train tracks where the water tower stands. Every year on September 16 there is a parade on Guadalupe St. to celebrate Mexico's independence from Spain.
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There is a beach near Guadalupe at the end of Main St. that is part of the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes. Oso Flaco Lake is also a part of this dunes complex and is a few miles north of Guadalupe; it features a boardwalk that goes over the lake and leads to the beach. If you go south of Guadalupe on Highway 1 and turn right on Brown Rd. you will reach Pt. Sal Rd. The road is now closed due to heavy storms in the past years, but it has now become a very scenic hiking trail through the coastal mountains. At the end of the 5 mile trail which passes through Vandenberg Airforce Base, is the isolated Pt. Sal Beach. Between Guadalupe Beach and Pt. Sal Beach is the even more isolated Paradise Beach, near Mussel Rock.
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Parks in the area include Jack O'Connell Park, where the Bulldogs youth football team practices, and Leroy Park near the town's northern city limit. The Guadalupe Wrestling Club was established in 1979 for the youth and has produced numerous state champions over the years. The Guadalupe Police Department runs the Gladiator's club, which provides peer-to-peer mentoring for fifth and sixth grade youth.[7] The Boys and Girls Club and the Riverview apartment tutoring program provide places for children to go after school.
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MORE on Guatalupe
Located nine miles west of Santa Maria on historic Highway 1 in Santa Barbara County is the small town of Guadalupe with a dramatic Nikkei history. Gradually replacing the Chinese in the sugar beet fields, the Japanese labor force grew to nearly 600 with the expansion of the Union Sugar Mill Company of Betteravia in the early 1900s. By the 1910s, a cooperative, renamed the Guadalupe Japanese Association, supporting Japanese farm operations, included branches in Santa Maria, Oceano, Pismo and San Luis Obispo; and the Japantowns of Santa Maria and Guadalupe became commercial centers. While some Japanese ventured out as sharecroppers in the sugar beet fields in 1916, others began to farm other crops because of the decline in the industry. Upon visiting from Los Angeles and noticing the lush valley, Ryoichi Ninokawa began experimenting with lettuce and peas. He soon built a packing operation in Oceano and rented a warehouse in Guadalupe. Although Ninokawa was not experienced in operations, other Japanese farmers followed his lead and farmed vegetables with more success. Due to its mild temperature and westerly winds in the summer, the climate and rich soil proved ideal for produce production.
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With the Southern Pacific Railroad linking the state, Guadalupe had become the principal agricultural center of North County by the 1930s, providing a majority of the lettuce grown in California. The vitality of Japantown communities in Guadalupe and Santa Maria was reflected in a 1935 report by Hisagoro Sako on the Santa Maria Valley, "There are more than 50 independent farmers tilling over eight thousand acres of land, four packing houses, twelve grocery stores, eleven restaurants, eight hotels and boarding houses . . . The total investment was said to be about two million dollars." After World War II, produce production in Santa Maria continued, while Guadalupe remained, nearly frozen in time, as it was over 60 years ago.
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Issei pioneers H.Y. Minami of Minami & Sons and Setsuo Aratani of Guadalupe Produce Co left an indelible mark on the valley. Known as the "Lettuce King", Minami expanded his business in parallel with the valley's growth, starting as a laborer in 1905, as a bookkeeper for Union Sugar Company, and later as a sugar beet sharecropper. By 1917, he was farming 1,200 acres of lettuce; and by 1940 had an annual gross of three million dollars. After operating strawberry farms in Arcadia and Moneta, Setsuo Aratani established a produce company in Los Angeles, primarily supporting Japanese farmers, and supplying them with farm equipment, seeds, and fertilizer. In the 1920s, Aratani leased 500 acres of farmland in the San Fernando Valley; and by 1927, he set up a branch office in Lompoc, overseeing 3,000 acres. Starting Guadalupe Produce Company, Aratani was the first grower to ship lettuce from Guadalupe.
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Guadalupe became the town to visit for Japanese migrant workers who followed the crops from north to south, and for dignitaries from Japan who were intrigued by the small, but thriving agricultural town. Baseball enthusiast Setsuo Aratani proudly sponsored a team from the region in 1928 to compete in Japan. His son George Aratani, traveled with the goodwill team; and continued after the war to promote business between the two countries through his highly revered trading companies, Mikasa, and Kenwood Electronics. Both the Minami and Aratani pre-WW II family homes remain in tact - a bungalow style home owned by the Minamis, and a Spanish colonial style home owned by the Aratanis, with arched entryways and stone remnants of a Japanese garden. Photo courtesy of Tets Furukawa of the Guadalupe Buddhist Church.
http://californiajapantowns.org/guadalupe.html
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December 24th, 2013
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