California has long lured dreamers. People looking to reinvent themselves. To find a better future for their children. To have a home with a palm tree in the front yard.
But we know that dream is also increasingly out of reach for many people. And some are beginning to question whether the California Dream is worth it, or whether it’s even still alive.
To that end, KQED’s The California Report Magazine in November hosted “Dreaming the Golden State,” a night of live storytelling about California dreams found … and lost. The event, at San Francisco’s Brava Theater, featured some of KQED’s own radio reporters, transferring their stories from the airwaves to the stage, along with five listeners who shared their own California dreams.
Here is part one of highlights from the event.
How My Parents Found a Place to Love in LA
The California Report Magazine’s host Sasha Khokha kicked off the evening with her own family’s California dream story. (Courtesy of Alain McLaughlin)
To kickoff the evening, TCR Magazine host Sasha Khokha shared her family’s California dream by reciting a letter she wrote to her parents. A rebellious Irish Catholic girl and a skinny Indian engineer, the two met and fell in love at a time when interracial marriage was still illegal in some parts of the country.
Letter to My California Dreamer: Searching for New Beginnings on ‘Gold Mountain’
Tiffany Eng, of Oakland, performed her ‘Letter to my California Dreamer’ to her great great great grandparents. (Courtesy of Alain McLaughlin)
In our ‘Letter to My California Dreamer‘ series, we asked listeners to send us compositions written to the first people in their families who arrived in California. One of the first submissions we received was from Tiffany Eng of Oakland. On stage, she recited the letter she wrote to her great-great-great-grandparents, who settled in Oakland’s Chinatown in 1906. Six generations later, Eng said, her family’s roots in Oakland have grown deep.
‘Pet Sounds’ at 50: What Ever Happened to Those Goats?
Los Angeles-based reporter Peter Gilstrap had a musical take on the California dream with a story about The Beach Boys’ album, ‘Pet Sounds.’ (Courtesy of Alain McLaughlin)
In the early 1960s, The Beach Boys, to many people, perfectly represented California. On every album cover, they sold the idealized version of life on the beach in sunny Southern California. But that changed in 1966, when The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds, with an album cover that featured the very unbeachy image of the band feeding goats. The album was a collection of 13 groundbreaking songs that redefined pop music. In the decades since, critics and fans have scrutinized and analyzed every single aspect of the album, including the mysterious cover. One of our favorite reporters from Los Angeles, Peter Gilstrap, helped unearth the story behind the album.
Letter to My California Dreamer: A Mother’s Brave Journey to Citizenship
Listener Javier Cervantes shares his ‘Letter to My California Dreamer’ about his mother, who crossed the Mexico-United States border illegally in search of a better life. (Courtesy of Alain McLaughlin)
Defying expectations to marry a farmer and have children, Maria Mojarro Cervantes fled Zacatecas in Central Mexico to find a better life in San Francisco. Listener Javier Cervantes of San Jose, wrote a letter to Maria, his mother, about her brave journey to becoming a U.S. citizen.
On Teaching for Nearly Five Decades at a West Oakland High School
From left: Education reporter Vanessa Rancaño, Dr. LuPaulette Taylor, and Sasha Khokha discuss what keeps Dr. Taylor motivated after 50 years on the job. (Courtesy of Alain McLaughlin)
For many, a big part of the California dream has been the promise of a good public k-12 education — and two world-class public university systems. At a time when so many teachers are leaving the profession, education reporter Vanessa Rancaño introduced us to Dr. LuPaulette Taylor, who recently began her 50th year on her feet teaching at McClymonds High School in West Oakland, a school that has long struggled with teacher retention.
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