A People's Guide to Orange County

by Elaine Lewinnek, Gustavo Arellano, Thuy Vo Dang

Overview

One of the Top Urban Planning Books of 2022, Planetizen

The full and fascinating guidebook that Orange County deserves.

A People’s Guide to Orange County is an alternative tour guide that documents sites of oppression, resistance, struggle, and transformation in Orange County, California. Orange County is more than the well-known images on orange crate labels, the high-profile amusement parks of Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, or the beaches. It is also a unique site of agricultural and suburban history, political conservatism in a liberal state, and more diversity and discordance than its pop-cultural images show. It is a space of important agricultural labor disputes, segregation and resistance to segregation, privatization and the struggle for public space, politicized religions, Cold War global migrations, vibrant youth cultures, and efforts for environmental justice. Memorably, Ronald Reagan called Orange County the place “where all the good Republicans go to die,” but it is also the place where many working-class immigrants have come to live and work in its agricultural, military-industrial, and tourist service economies.
 
Orange County is the fifth-most populous county in America. If it were a city, it would be the nation’s third-largest city; if it were a state, its population would make it larger than twenty-one other states. It attracts 42 million tourists annually. Yet Orange County tends to be a chapter or two squeezed into guidebooks to Los Angeles or Disneyland. Mainstream guidebooks focus on Orange County’s amusement parks and wealthy coastal communities, with side trips to palatial shopping malls. These guides skip over Orange County’s most heterogeneous half—the inland space, where most of its oranges were grown alongside oil derricks that kept the orange groves heated. Existing guidebooks render invisible the diverse people who have labored there. A People’s Guide to Orange County questions who gets to claim Orange County’s image, exposing the extraordinary stories embedded in the ordinary landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520299955
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	01/25/2022
Series:	A People's Guide Series , #4
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	289,934
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Elaine Lewinnek is professor of American Studies at California State University, Fullerton, and author of The Working Man's Reward: Chicago’s Early Suburbs and the Roots of American Sprawl.
 
Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, former editor of OC Weekly, and author of the books Orange County: A Personal History, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, and ¡Ask A Mexican!
 
Thuy Vo Dang is curator for the Southeast Asian Archive at University of California, Irvine, and coauthor of Vietnamese in Orange County.

Table of Contents

Land Acknowledgment xi

List of Maps xiii

Introduction 1

1 Anaheim, Orange, and Santa Ana 15

1.1 Anaheim Orange and Lemon Association Packing House

1.2 Anaheim Union High School District Headquarters

1.3 Carl's Jr.'s Former Headquarters, Anaheim

1.4 Disneyland, Anaheim

1.5 East Gene Autry Way Wall, Anaheim

1.6 Former Chinatown, Anaheim

1.7 Fricker Fertilizer Factory, Anaheim

1.8 Fujishige Strawberry Farm, Anaheim

1.9 Glover Stadium, Anaheim

1.10 Joel Dvorman Home, Anaheim

1.11 Little Arabia, Anaheim

1.12 Little People's Park, Anaheim

1.13 Melodyland, Anaheim

1.14 Pearson Park, Anaheim

1.15 Police Headquarters of Anaheim

1.16 Pressel Orchard, Anaheim

1.17 The Shack/Xalos Bar, Anaheim

1.18 Back in Control Training Center, Orange

1.19 Eichler SoCal, Orange

1.20 Lorenzo Ramirez Bust Orange

1.21 Orange Executive Tower

1.22 Theo Lacy Detention Facility, Orange

1.23 Alex Odeh Statue, Santa Ana

1.24 Anti-Chinese Violence at Gospel Swamp, Santa Ana

1.25 Black Panther Park / Sasscer Park, Santa Ana

1.26 Chicano Power Protests at El Salvador Park, Santa Ana

1.27 Cut & Curl, Santa Ana

1.28 Dr. Sammy Lee Home, Santa Ana

1.29 Esposito Apartments, Santa Ana

1.30 Gay Kiss-In at Centennial Park, Santa Ana

1.31 Islamic Center of Santa Ana

1.32 Lynching of Francisco Torres, Santa Ana

1.33 Parking Lot Soccer Fields, Santa Ana

1.34 Prince Hall Masonic Temple, Santa Ana

1.35 Santa Ana's Lost Chinatown

2 North Orange County 67

2.1 Campo Colorado. La Habra

2.2 Christy's Cambodian Doughnut Shop. La Habra

2.3 Neff Cox's Shoeshine Stand, Brea

2.4 Nike Nuclear Missile Site, Brea Hills

2.5 Alex Bernal Home, Fullerton

2.6 Bastanchury Ranch, Fullerton

2.7 The Black Hole, Fullerton

2.8 Kelly Thomas Memorial, Fullerton

2.9 McCarthy Hall at CSU Fullerton

2.10 Site of Police Killing of Juan Peña Diaz, Fullerton

2.11 Val Vita Factory, Fullerton

2.12 West Coyote Hills, Fullerton

2.13 Former Bracero Bunkhouse, Placentia

2.14 Harris Home Firebombing Site, Placentia

2.15 Melrose Elementary School, Placentia

2.16 Whitewashed Chicano Mural, Placentia

2.17 Nixon Library, Yorba Linda

2.18 Yorba Linda Community Center

12.19 Japanese Village and Deer Park, Buena Park

2.20 Studio K at Knott's Berry Farm, Buena Park

2.21 Rush Park, Rossmoor

3 Central Orange County 97

3.1 Continental Gardens Apartments, Stanton

3.2 Danh's Pharmacy, Westminster

3.3 Hi-Tek Video Community Protests, Westminster

3.4 Little Saigon Freeway Signs, Westminster

3.5 Vietnamese Bus Stop, Westminster

3.6 Advance Beauty College, Garden Grove

3.7 Cafe Chu Lun and Asian Mug Book Resistance, Garden Grove

3.8 Happy Hour Bar, Garden Grove

3.9 Orange County Koreatown, Garden Grove

3.10 Women's Civic Club of Garden Grove

3.11 Demolished Sergio O'Cadiz Mural, Fountain Valley

3.12 Masuda Middle School, Fountain Valley

3.13 Former Vons Supermarket, Tustin

3.14 Tustin High School Tennis Courts

4 Canyons 121

4.1 Aerojet, Chino Hills

4.2 Lynching Tree, Irvine Canyon Ranch

4.3 Olinda Oil Museum and Trail, Brea

4.4 Prado Dam, Chino

4.5 Santa Margarita High School, Rancho Santa Margarita

4.6 Silverado Elementary School / Library of the Canyons, Silverado

4.7 Tomato Springs Park, Irvine

4.8 Yorba Regional Park, Anaheim Hills

5 South Orange County 135

5.1 Experimental Farms at UC Irvine

5.2 Marine Corps Air Station El Toro / Great Park. Irvine

5.3 Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, Irvine

5.4 Mary Pham's Pride Flag Display, Irvine

5.5 Shyima Hall Human Trafficking Site. Irvine

5.6 University Community Park, Irvine

5.7 University High School, Irvine

5.8 Verano Place, UCI Family Housing

5.9 Darryn Robins Police Shooting Site, Lake Forest

5.10 Import Car Scene at Dynamic Autosports, Lake Forest

5.11 Serrano Creek Park, Lake Forest

5.12 Lake Mission Viejo Shopping Center, Mission Viejo

5.13 Mission San Juan Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano

5.14 Modesta Avila Protest Site, San Juan Capistrano

5.15 Putuidhem / Northwest Open Space, San Juan Capistrano

5.16 Swanner Ranch, San Juan Capistrano

6 Coastal Orange County and Camp Pendleton 161

6.1 Leisure World, Seal Beach

6.2 Motuucheyngna, Seal Beach

6.3 Red Car Museum, Seal Beach

6.4 Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station

6.5 Bluffs of Huntington Beach

6.6 Bolsa Chica Wetlands, Huntington Beach

6.7 Huntington Beach Pier

6.8 Huntington Continental Townhomes

6.9 Pacific Beach Club, Huntington Beach

6.10 Wintersburg Village, Huntington Beach

6.11 Cuckoo's Nest, Costa Mesa

6.12 El Chinaco Restaurant and Protest Site, Costa Mesa

6.13 Corona del Mar State Beach / Calvary Baptism Site, Newport Beach

6.14 Crystal Cove Cottages, Newport Beach

6.15 Boom Boom Room, Laguna Beach

6.16 Day Laborer Hiring Area, Laguna Beach

6.17 Sycamore Flats / Laguna Beach Great Happening

6.18 Richard Henry Dana Statue, Dana Point

6.19 Calafia Beach, San Clemente

6.20 Capistrano Test Site, San Clemente

6.21 Panhe, San Clemente

6.22 Brig, Camp Pendleton North

6.23 Combat Town, Camp Pendleton North

6.24 Rancho Santa Margarita IWW Torture Site, Camp Pendleton North

6.25 San Clemente Border Control Checkpoint, Camp Pendleton North

6.26 San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Camp Pendleton North

6.27 Southeast Asian Refugee Housing, Camp Pendleton North

6.28 Trestles Surf Spot, Camp Pendleton North

7 Thematic Tours 203

Cold War Legacies

Environmental Politics

LGBTQ Spaces

Orange County's Carceral State

Politics of Housing

Appendix A Tips for Teaching with A People's Guide to Orange County Nisha Kunte Mindy Aguirre 215

Lesson 1 Cognitive Mapping

Lesson 2 Analyzing Orange County in Popular Culture

Lesson 3 Close Reading A People's Guide to Orange County

Lesson 4 Create Your Own Guidebook Entry

Appendix B Selected Further Reading 225

Acknowledgments 227

Credits 229

Index 231

Editorial Reviews

"Their project applies political acumen to a practical regional guidebook featuring wayback machine–style micro-histories that reveal the county’s depth and breadth. . . . Meticulously, almost giddily cross-referenced, A People’s Guide to Orange County offers sources for every one of its 122 listings: scholars, journalists, poets, and activists. Entries include photographs, maps, archival materials, song lyrics, and protest chants. The idea is to uncover, piece by piece and location by location, the story of—forgive me—the real OC."

Alta Journal

"In the public imagination Orange County either has no history at all, or it consists of tract homes, Disneyland, and Republicans. All of those things are true. But, A People's Guide masterfully, and accessibly, demonstrates that Orange County's history runs far deeper—and that it matters."

Planetizen