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In trying to decide whether or not I feel I am a true Californian, I had to carefully think about what I think being a true Californian means. There are a lot of ways that people can identify with an area and California provides a wide variety. There are the farming regions, the vineyards, the entertainment industries and even just the people looking for the sun. In all these things, it is pointed out that California, maybe more than any other state, has an identity founded on hope. People come here hoping for something better than what they left behind, whether they are migrant workers trying to keep starving families alive, starlets hoping to be discovered for the big screen, or retired people looking for someplace warmer to live that still has a lot of fun things to do. At the same time, though, California is full of a lot of disappointments. Many people come to find gold in one form or another and never find what they’re looking for but they never seem to give up their hope that it can be found. I consider myself a Californian because I share this sense of hope for opportunity at the same time that I am aware things may not work out just as I hope.
The idea that the unique element of California identity is found in our hope for a brilliant future and understanding of the possibility for disappointment is introduced by James Quay.
He quotes Samuel P. Huntington, who says, “California is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope” (Quay 198). This idea is talked about by Cruz Reynoso in his interview. Even though he was born and raised in California, he always seemed to be aware that the promise of California was a disappointment because it wasn’t available to all people. He talks about how he had to go to segregated schools and often found himself trying to fight for the rights of some of the other kids who were being excluded. Even though he didn’t think he would ever be very successful because he usually fought for the little guy, this man earned a degree to be a lawyer and was eventually made a chief justice for the state. In this position, he was able to bring about a lot of positive change for the people, like ending segregation in schools, which makes him see the state as a place of hope where good things can happen. Although he was given a chance to be very well respected and achieved a lot of success and improvements for others, he still sees where the system is not fair for all people such as the farmworkers who have not seen a very large improvement in their state of living so there is still room for disappointment and improvement.
This is something I can understand. People who come into California are finding it hard to find jobs, and they are treated badly by other people who think they are trying to steal. But they are just looking for the same hope that all the other people were looking for. Even though the hope may be set too high, California still provides a chance to reach your dreams if everyone works together to help each other out. When everyone works together to make sure that the children are taken care of so that the parents can go to work and school, then the parents can still support the family and get an education to get a better job. It may not make them the millionaires they were hoping to be, but it can make them more comfortable and have more time with their kids in the future when the kids are older and need their parents more. I have seen this happen among my friends and the people in my neighborhood.
This makes it possible for the neighborhood to get better too, because the people who live there have a shared sense of hope that things can and will get better.
Works Cited
Quay, James. “Interviews.” California Uncovered: Stories for the 21st Century. Justice Divakaruni & James Quay (Eds.). Heyday Books, 2004.
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