Monterey to Santa Barbara Great American Railroad Journeys


Monterey to Santa Barbara

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I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of North America

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with my faithful Appletons' Guide.

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Published in the late 19th century,

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it will direct me to everything that's novel, beautiful,

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memorable and curious...

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-..in the United States.

-Yee-haw!

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As I travel through this vast continent,

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I'll discover gold and silver,

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movies and microchips, oil and oranges,

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and learn how America's most famous railroad

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conquered the wild landscapes of the West.

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Many of us have at least a vague knowledge of the history of the east

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of what is now the United States.

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The arrival of the pilgrims on the Mayflower, the Boston Tea Party,

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the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

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But I certainly know very little about the colonisation of the West,

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by the Spanish in the 16th century, and later by the Mexicans.

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I hope to learn more as I travel towards Southern California on

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the Coast Starlight.

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My route, which began at Reno in the Silver State, brought me over the

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Sierra Nevada mountains into California,

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and to the birthplace of American counterculture, San Francisco.

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From there, I headed inland,

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to explore awesome nature in Yosemite National Park.

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I'll continue down the Pacific Coast,

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stopping at Monterey and San Luis Obispo, bound for the city of stars,

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Los Angeles. I'll end my journey in San Diego,

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a few miles short of the Mexican border.

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On this leg, I'll start in the former fishing port of Monterey.

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I'll travel south to Paso Robles, to visit a Californian castle,

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and on to the fertile farmland around San Luis Obispo.

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My final stop will be the city of Santa Barbara.

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On my travels I'll explore a millionaire's mansion...

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We had the largest media empire in the United States

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in the mid-20th century.

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..learn the secret of the perfect guacamole...

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You want to just give it a little twist.

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Ah! I never knew that.

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..and discover a tragic American love story.

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It's like Romeo and Juliet, if they lived in Southern California in the 1860s.

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I'm alighting at Salinas,

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to spend the morning in the nearby seaside community of Monterey.

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Today, it's a colourful tourist destination,

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but this town has a significant past.

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The historic city of Monterey, says Appletons', was, until 1847,

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"the seat of government and the principal port of the Californian coast.

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"But, since the rise of San Francisco

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"its commerce has dwindled away,

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"and it's now one of the quietest places, warm in winter, cool in summer,

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"dry all year."

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Monterey means the mountain of the king, but here,

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those in authority were toppled, and brought down low.

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Down at the harbour-side, Michael Green, from the town's historic parks,

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starts his daily routine.

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-Hello, Michael.

-Good morning, Michael.

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-Very, very good to see you.

-And you.

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You're raising the flag! May I give you a hand with that?

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Yes, you can. If you'll take the bottom.

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So first, the American flag, then the Californian state flag.

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-The Californian state flag?

-Uh-huh. The bear flag.

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It's certainly a bear!

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So, Michael, two questions. Why a bear?

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And California Republic, that's an interesting expression.

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The grizzly is the symbol of California, it's the state animal.

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During the very beginning of the Mexican-American War,

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there was a revolt against Mexican authority.

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They designed a flag, and it was, just,

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sort of a hand drawn bear with a star in the corner that resembled

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the star of the Texas flag. They became a republic before they became part of the United States.

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They were their own country for a while. California was its own republic.

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The Bear Flag Republic was led by Captain John Fremont,

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the renowned explorer and military officer,

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but was quickly superseded.

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Within a month, the American Navy captured Monterey,

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and the grizzly bear was replaced by the Stars and Stripes.

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This is the very spot where the American flag was raised over California

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for the first time, on July the 7th, 1846.

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And this great building is what?

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This is Custom House.

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This was the most important building during the Mexican era.

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It represented both the centre of trade, the centre of commerce,

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and it was the social centre as well.

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It's the oldest government building in California,

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constructed in 1827 to collect taxes on goods entering the harbour.

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Ah, thank you.

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Michael, what a wonderful display. What does it represent?

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The kind of cargo that came into Monterey during the 1830s.

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The Mexicans were here, but before then, the Spanish.

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Tell me about the Spanish.

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Well, the Spanish arrived here officially in 1602,

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and actually named the bay "Monterey" after the Count of Monterrey,

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the sponsor of the expedition,

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but it was 168 years before the Spanish actually acted on that claim.

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It wasn't until 1770 that the Franciscans came in and created a mission.

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How did it fall into Mexican hands?

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Well, the Mexicans were living here under Spanish rule,

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and Spanish rule was kind of corrupt.

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Spain was thousands of miles away. They prohibited international trade.

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The Mexicans wanted to open up trade to the world,

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and so the Mexicans eventually revolted in 1821.

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-What was the Mexican administration like?

-In many ways,

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it wasn't much better than the Spanish administration.

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There were already many Americans living here in Monterey, and inter-marrying

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into Mexican families, and influencing these people into the idea of American governance.

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And they held the territory then,

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until the moment when the flag was raised on that flagpole which was 1846?

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-That's right.

-This really is the beginning of the modern Californian story.

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You know, it really is.

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We like to say that California history begins in Monterey.

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Following its distinguished role as a political capital,

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in the 20th century this town became decidedly less respectable.

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Monterey was famous for its fish processing industries,

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portrayed by John Steinbeck in his novel Cannery Row.

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It was shown as a stinking and decrepit place,

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full of whorehouses and doss houses.

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But like so many locations of its sort, it's cleaned up its act.

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It's now a tourist attraction, complete with aquarium.

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Fish stocks declined sharply in the mid-20th century,

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and the local economy collapsed.

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But this aquarium, which opened in 1984,

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has breathed new life into the town,

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attracting around two million visitors every year.

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The aquarium really is spectacular,

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with this lovely light penetrating the water,

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illuminating shoals of silverfish.

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These enormous panes of glass are restraining tonnes of water,

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and revealing some really mean-looking specimens.

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Up on the roof, one of the aquarium's directors,

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Jim Covel, has invited me to feed the fish.

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-Hello, Jim.

-Hello, Michael. Welcome to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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Well, I love it! I never suspected it was going to have an open top like this.

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This is critical to the health of the plants.

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We have over 40 kinds of seaweed in here.

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And all of those marine plants need to absorb sunlight in order to produce their food.

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I've got a glove here. You may want to put that on,

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just to keep the krill juice off your hands.

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Otherwise every whale in Monterey Bay will want to follow you home.

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-Wow! A quick response, eh?

-That's right!

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-They catch on very quickly.

-They certainly do.

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Are these fish in here reliant on what you feed them?

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No. We have water circulating out of Monterey Bay, directly into this exhibit, 24/7.

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So these fish can grab a snack,

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of the plankton which flows through the sea water, any time they want.

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Are there special features to Monterey Bay?

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Monterey Bay is one of the most studied parts of the ocean anywhere on the planet.

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There's a huge canyon beneath the surface here that's twice as

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deep as the Grand Canyon,

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and there's still so many mysteries to be revealed.

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How is it that this town has gone from the Cannery, from Cannery Row,

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-to an aquarium?

-It's quite a change up.

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There used to be 20 canneries up and down Cannery Row.

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For years and years, this was the sardine capital of the world.

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The fishery collapsed, and they were several decades of pretty hard times here.

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Right here, there used to be the old Hovden sardine cannery

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where they used to put fish in cans here, and sell them to eat.

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Now people come to see them swim around.

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Back on my Californian trail...

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Hello.

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..I'm heading 100 miles further down the coast.

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I'll leave this train at Paso Robles, where according to Appletons',

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"there are hot and cold sulphur springs in the beautiful valley of

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"the Salinas River. The climate is good, and salubrious,

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"and the accommodations for visitors, excellent."

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Which is good news. I was thinking of a place with maybe, 165 rooms,

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set in 127 acres?

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California has more than its fair share of mansions.

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But set up on a hilltop overlooking the ocean,

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the magnificent Hearst Castle is surely the most striking.

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The dream home of William Randolph Hearst,

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the greatest newspaper baron in American history,

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the inspiration for Orson Welles's masterpiece film, Citizen Kane.

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The flamboyant multimillionaire held lavish parties here,

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for movie stars and the rich and powerful.

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I arrive at the top of the steps, and I'm confronted by a Spanish cathedral,

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and it seems kind of absurd to recreate it in California.

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But, on the other hand, Hearst has done it with absolute skill and

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craftsmanship, and grace.

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This room has all the feel of a heavy, dark,

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sombre Spanish baronial hall.

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But its treasures, in particular these tapestries, are just exquisite.

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The castle became a museum in 1958. Scott Stec is my guide.

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Scott, hello. I'm Michael.

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-Michael, very nice to meet you.

-Well, as it were,

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against my better instincts, I'm hugely impressed.

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It is a formidable place.

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What was it that inspired Hearst to build a castle to look like this?

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I'll say it started at a very young age for William.

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He was taken on a tour of Europe by his mother, at age 11,

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and he fell in love with the art and architecture he saw.

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So when he finally had the means to build something,

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he took advantage of his knowledge of travelling to Europe.

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So it is absolutely his taste.

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Presumably, he was helped by an architect?

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Yes. He hired a singular architect, for this project.

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Her name was Miss Julia Morgan.

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She was one of the first licensed architects in California.

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And he worked with her, and only her, for 28 years on this project.

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I imagine then, that this is a combination of his collection,

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-and then some elements of pastiche?

-Absolutely.

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The majority of what you're seeing here are pieces that

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he collected, and then put together by himself and Julia Morgan.

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And the setting? It is a stunning setting.

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What was this place?

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Originally, this was just a blank hilltop.

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This was property, a ranch that his father,

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George Hearst, had purchased.

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As a young boy, William used to camp up on this hilltop with his parents.

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So it's called Camp Hill.

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Hearst used the magnificent collection of elegant rooms in the

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main building, the Casagrande, to entertain.

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But his private spaces were equally impressive.

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The Gothic Suite on the third floor includes two luxurious bedrooms,

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with views across the estate, and a vast private study.

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Scott, this room is rampantly Gothic!

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It's very elegant,

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and the man's clearly comforted by books. All around us, the books.

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Yes. A lot of his books have his handwritten notes in them.

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He loved books, and read furiously.

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His parents were clearly rich?

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His father was a miner and made a fortune in gold,

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copper and silver mines throughout the United States and he owned a

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newspaper called the San Francisco Examiner that was losing money and

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young William convinced his father, over time, to give him that newspaper.

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That was his first newspaper success.

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Hearst was inspired by Joseph Pulitzer,

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the newspaper publisher who went on to establish an annual prize for

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journalism in 1917.

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His first newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner,

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modelled Pulitzer's New York World.

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The model really was sensationalist journalism.

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He wanted the common man to purchase these newspapers.

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That is what Pulitzer was all about

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and Hearst followed in that same vein.

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Can you give me any measure of how successful, how rich,

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how influential Hearst was at his peak?

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He had 28 newspapers by 1935.

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He also had 13 magazines, magazines you would know today like Elle, Cosmopolitan.

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He also had radio stations and he produced over 170 movies.

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So he had the largest media empire

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in the United States in the mid-20th century.

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He died at the age of 88 in 1951.

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He was worth approximately 250 million at that time.

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You are so fortunate, you have the run of the castle.

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When you reflect upon the man who sat in here,

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what is it you feel about him?

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This was his Gothic study, he's bringing his business

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constituents up here, like Howard Hughes,

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other people of that ilk.

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So I always feel a sense of power when I walk in this room.

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That sensation of power, which I feel too,

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is very persuasive.

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After all that decadence, a moment of quiet reflection on the beach.

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This morning, I am continuing my journey down the Californian coast.

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My next stop will be 30 miles south.

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San Luis Obispo, says

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Appletons', "partially surrounded by hills of singular beauty

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"and by a fertile and well-tilled agricultural region.

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"Railroad connections, both north and south,

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"it's sure to become a flourishing city."

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And so it has proved to be,

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but who could have predicted the success of an imported fruit

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of which I am an advocate?

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San Luis Obispo, known as SLO to the locals,

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lies roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

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It's surrounded by rich, agricultural land

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and in the hills above Morro Bay,

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Jim Shanley has been running a fruit business for almost 20 years.

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-Hello, Jim.

-Hello, Michael.

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-Very good to see you.

-Nice to see you.

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-Harvesting your avocados?

-Yes.

-Can I give you a hand with that?

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Yeah, sure, grab a bag. Here's a cluster.

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Ah-ha. So I'd snip them right up close to the avocado, like that?

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Where does the fruit originate from?

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It comes from the Central American Highlands.

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The fruit was actually propagated by a large sloth that no longer exists.

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Do we know the origins of the word?

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Yes, the word is from the Aztec for a body part,

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the aguacate is a reference to the male testicle.

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That is how we get the name of the avocado?

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Yes, that is approximately the shape.

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Avocados are pretty big in California aren't they, Jim?

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Absolutely, consumption has been rising at an almost unbelievable

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rate for the last ten years or so.

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90% of America's avocados are grown in California on about 5,000 farms.

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The fruit was first brought here in 1871 by a judge,

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who discovered the trees in Mexico.

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And by the 1950s, 25 different types were being sold.

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There's been a lot of hybridisation.

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The most popular variety worldwide is the Hass,

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which actually originated in the back yard of a postman

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named Rudolph Hass in Pasadena, California.

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These trees seem very full of fruit, you get a good crop, do you?

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The trees themselves, on average,

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produce about 100lbs a year when cared for properly.

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May I ask how many trees you have?

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-I have 4,000.

-That's a lot of avocados.

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So, they need very particular growth conditions, I assume?

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Yes, frost-free is the most important thing.

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Jim, I can't help noticing that

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I'm carrying the avocados for both of us.

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Yeah, that wasn't an accident.

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-Do you mind if I empty my sack?

-Please.

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-Wow, look at that! We have been productive.

-Oh, yeah.

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-Sorry.

-That's all right.

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Jim and his family have invited me to their farm to try one of their

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favourite avocado recipes.

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Here we go.

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Hello, everybody.

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My name is Michael.

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-Hi, Michael.

-Hi, Michael.

-I'm Megan.

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-Hello, Megan.

-Nice to meet you.

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Megan joined her father

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as a director of the business nine years ago.

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She's offered to teach me how to make guacamole.

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Right, tell me what to do.

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So, slice this avocado in half

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and then careful when taking out the pit.

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We'd like you to leave with just as many fingers as you came with.

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-Split the avocado.

-Let me show you how to do that.

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-OK.

-All right, you want to just give it a little twist.

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Ah, I never knew that!

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Scoop it all out. Fairly kind of roughly, or does it need to be...?

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It doesn't need to have any consistency,

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it's all going to get mashed.

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Lovely, ripe avocado.

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-Let me see whether I learnt my lesson.

-Good so far. OK.

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-Think you got it.

-Wow!

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-I'm really proud of myself.

-You make me a little nervous there.

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This is our secret ingredient in our guacamole.

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Called a finger lime. Slice this in half.

0:20:280:20:30

It's filled with little pearls of citrus juice.

0:20:300:20:34

So you just take that and sprinkle it over the avocados.

0:20:340:20:38

Next, grab a jar of our favourite salsa.

0:20:380:20:42

Then I like to sprinkle some garlic powder over.

0:20:420:20:44

Right, mash it up.

0:20:440:20:47

I think we are ready for a taste test.

0:20:470:20:49

-Wow.

-Perfect, Michael.

0:20:530:20:55

Ladies and gentlemen, a toast to guacamole and margaritas.

0:20:550:20:59

Yay! CHEERING

0:20:590:21:02

I'm continuing my route south along America's west coast

0:21:090:21:13

on the last leg of my Californian journey.

0:21:130:21:16

Santa Barbara, says Appletons',

0:21:230:21:25

"has grown out of an old Spanish mission

0:21:250:21:28

"which gradually drew around it

0:21:280:21:30

"the native cultivators of the adjacent lands.

0:21:300:21:34

"The town contains a Spanish quarter,

0:21:340:21:37

"which will prove interesting to strangers by its tumbledown

0:21:370:21:40

"picturesqueness."

0:21:400:21:42

It seems that race is about to raise its ugly head again,

0:21:420:21:46

but in a novel form.

0:21:460:21:48

Today, Santa Barbara is an affluent beach community.

0:22:060:22:10

But its hilltop mission is still run by Franciscan friars.

0:22:100:22:14

East of here lies another monument to the state's colonial past.

0:22:160:22:21

This beautifully-preserved cattle ranch, Rancho Camulos,

0:22:210:22:24

was established in 1835

0:22:240:22:27

by a prominent Hispanic family, the Del Valles.

0:22:270:22:31

The Rancho sits in magnificent landscape.

0:22:310:22:35

The buildings have verandas where you could enjoy the shade in the

0:22:350:22:40

evenings. There are tall trees and flowers.

0:22:400:22:44

It's really delightful.

0:22:440:22:46

It was built on the site of a former Native American village,

0:22:470:22:51

whose local population came to work for the Mexican owners.

0:22:510:22:55

Now a national historic monument, it became part of literary folklore.

0:22:550:23:00

Museum guide Maria Christopher plays

0:23:000:23:03

the part of the novelist who made it famous.

0:23:030:23:06

-Hello.

-Good afternoon, sir.

0:23:060:23:08

May I introduce myself, I'm called Michael.

0:23:080:23:10

Hello, Michael. I'm Helen Hunt Jackson.

0:23:100:23:14

A great pleasure to greet you indeed.

0:23:140:23:15

What was it that made you want to come to this part of California?

0:23:150:23:18

Well, I was working as a travel writer

0:23:180:23:20

and so I wanted to come and see one of the beautiful old ranchos.

0:23:200:23:24

But also I became enamoured with the Native American cause.

0:23:240:23:28

Why so? Why were you interested in them?

0:23:280:23:30

Well, I had become concerned about

0:23:300:23:33

the Government's mistreatment of Native Americans.

0:23:330:23:37

I wrote a book called Century Of Dishonour.

0:23:370:23:40

It detailed every atrocity that I could uncover.

0:23:400:23:44

I even sent a copy to each member of Congress. Nobody paid attention.

0:23:440:23:48

I came here and I spoke with the people

0:23:480:23:51

and I learnt their stories and I learnt their history.

0:23:510:23:55

And so I decided I was going to write a romantic novel.

0:23:550:23:58

I called it Ramona and it's like Romeo and Juliet if they lived in

0:23:580:24:03

Southern California in the 1860s.

0:24:030:24:06

What was it that divided these two star-crossed lovers?

0:24:060:24:09

Ramona is this beautiful young lady.

0:24:090:24:13

She's being raised as a senorita in the Hispanic culture

0:24:130:24:18

in a very wealthy rancho, and she had everything.

0:24:180:24:22

And Alessandro was an Indian, a Native American,

0:24:220:24:25

and he had come to work on the rancho.

0:24:250:24:28

They run off and they get married.

0:24:280:24:30

These are people from two cultures, two economic classes.

0:24:300:24:34

The Native Americans, the Indians, were living in poor housing.

0:24:340:24:37

Health care was not being provided.

0:24:370:24:39

There were doctors, but they were in the cities, not in the villages,

0:24:390:24:42

not where the Indians lived.

0:24:420:24:45

Published in 1884,

0:24:450:24:47

Helen Hunt Jackson's tale of romance and injustice was a bestseller and

0:24:470:24:53

readers were fascinated to learn about the old rancho way of life.

0:24:530:24:56

The popularity of Alessandro and Ramona

0:24:580:25:01

caused the first tourism boom to California.

0:25:010:25:04

It coincided with the arrival of the trains,

0:25:040:25:07

and so in Chicago the posters went up, "Come see the home of Ramona."

0:25:070:25:12

And so they came by train cross-country

0:25:120:25:14

even though Ramona was a fictitious character.

0:25:140:25:18

How would you sum up Helen Hunt Jackson's achievement?

0:25:180:25:22

She is still in print today, four movies were done on the story.

0:25:220:25:27

She captured old California, but she also opened up to people's minds the

0:25:270:25:34

horrors and the inequalities.

0:25:340:25:36

Every year since 1923 a pageant has been held telling the story

0:25:380:25:44

of Ramona and featuring popular dances from the period.

0:25:440:25:48

TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS

0:25:480:25:50

APPLAUSE

0:26:010:26:03

That was marvellous. That was lovely.

0:26:050:26:08

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

0:26:080:26:10

Oh! HE LAUGHS

0:26:100:26:12

-Me invita a bailar?

-Por supuesto.

-Pero que privilegio. Gracias.

0:26:120:26:16

What an elegant sombrero.

0:26:160:26:18

-And what shall I do with this? Maybe...

-Yes.

0:26:180:26:21

-Like that, do you think?

-Ah-ha.

0:26:210:26:22

Cinco. Uno, dos.

0:26:280:26:32

APPLAUSE

0:26:500:26:53

Spain, which had made ill-gotten fortunes looting Peru and Mexico,

0:27:050:27:11

was slow to realise the potential of California

0:27:110:27:14

and failed to discover the gold and silver here.

0:27:140:27:18

It allowed these fertile territories to slip through its grasp.

0:27:180:27:22

They passed first to Mexico.

0:27:220:27:25

For a few days in 1846, there was here a self-proclaimed

0:27:250:27:30

independent California Republic.

0:27:300:27:33

The shrewdest thing that the United States

0:27:330:27:35

ever did was to hoist the Stars and Stripes at Monterey

0:27:350:27:39

and then to admit California as a new state

0:27:390:27:42

with unprecedented haste,

0:27:420:27:44

because otherwise it might today face a formidable

0:27:440:27:48

Californian competitor to its west.

0:27:480:27:51

Next time, I bring Christmas to LA.

0:28:010:28:04

-Pretty cool, huh?

-Ha-ha! It's cool indeed!

0:28:040:28:10

Discover the Metro's plan to tempt Angelinos from their cars...

0:28:100:28:14

You're going to be able to go from Downtown to Westside in 25 minutes.

0:28:140:28:18

That's unheard-of during the rush-hour period.

0:28:180:28:21

..and become an all-action Hollywood hero.

0:28:210:28:24

PUNCHING SOUND EFFECTS

0:28:240:28:27

-WOMAN SHRIEKS

-And cut!

0:28:270:28:30

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