This site was created as a class project for Professor Sandy Lydon's Monterey Bay Regional History Class at Cabrillo College, Spring 2000.
What’s the point? I put this photo essay on the web as a way to share it with my classmates, and anyone else who might find the lessons interesting. Those lessons, I found, are not about the past, but the present. The monopolistic behavior of the 19th century SP Railroad is being litigated at the start of the 21st century—with a software giant from Redmond, WA. The discrimination the Chinese endured in the 1870s is now directed at Latinos. The web of history ensnares us all, and those who are unaware of the past repeat it most slavishly of all.
The Contents of this site are woefully incomplete. Any attempt to be thorough, or even fair, was necessarily doomed to failure from the start. So I didn’t even try. Photographic coverage is limited to those places and subjects that I had on file, or was able to visit during the past year or so. As I'm able, I’ll add more images. A particular apology is due the good citizens of Watsonville: omission of images from that community is a consequence, not an intention. This North County residens just hasn't spent much time with a camera in that town—yet.
Vocabulary used here was in some cases, problematic. Particulary, the choice of "Indian" to refer to the first human inhabitants of this land that the Spanish called Alta California. “Indian” was a misnomer from the time Christopher Columbus used it to refer to the inhabitants of Caribbean Islands. “Indigenous” or “aboriginal” would be more accurate, but contrary to the common usage. So I’ve gone with the more commonly used term. I’d welcome guidance, especially from members of the group I’m referring to, as to whether a preferable term exists.
Thanks go to all my classmates, especially those who posed for pictures or took my camera to click a picture with me in it. If your picture is here, and you'd like proper name credit just send me an email. Likewise if your picture is here and you don't want your face on the web, send a comment and it will be removed promptly. Thanks to Chris Greenwood, without whom I would not have learned the history of Seaside or included images from that city. Thanks most of all to Sandy Lydon, “The History Dude,” for being an infectiously inspirational teacher. The class for which this site was built was Sandy’s last full-term course at Cabrillo. He’s now retired. “That dude is history!”
