This book focuses on the often overlooked history of Latinx in Northern California from Spanish-Mexican settlers, to cannery and farm workers. Pitti takes a aim at historical myths, and misty-eyed romantic narratives of Californian history to the realities of discrimination, violence, and racism and the resistance of Latinx through activism and cultural ties. This book was primarily used for the Spanish Fantasy Heritage page, and the Muwekma and Ramaytush Ohlone page.

Cecilia Tsu’s “Garden of the World” provided a greater context of understanding agricultural work done by Asian immigrants in the 19th and 20th century in the Santa Clara Valley. Tsu focuses specifically on Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino workers and the similarities and differences in treatment and experience. The book, being the more recently published out of the books used in this research (published in 2013), also provided an updated overview of understanding the history of the Santa Clara Valley. From this, I used the book across various pages in this website including: Manifest Destiny, The Spanish Fantasy Heritage, The Virgin Land, and Anti-Chinese Sentiment.

The Ohlone Way, by Malcolm Margolin, is the oldest book I used, originally published in 1978, but with an afterword section included in 2003. This book was highly recommended in the “local history” section of the Palo Alto Books Inc. bookstore, and appeared to be the most popular book of choice to learn the native Ohlone people of the Bay Area. However, (as I have later found out) this book is listed as a book to “read with caution” on the Ramaytush Ohlone webpage, and so I believe that should also be noted. This book primarily covered the Ohlone way of life including: Housing, harvest and diet, marriage, and other cultural practices. This book was used in the sections: The Museification of the Ohlone, The Muwekma and Ramaytush Ohlone, and The “Virgin” Land.

“Palo Alto: A Centennial History”, is the most popular book about the history of the City of Palo Alto. It was also a very useful starting place for understanding Palo Alto’s history. Since the book’s publication in 1993, the City of Palo Alto has gone through quite a bit of change. As many cities across the United States, the City of Palo Alto has also become somewhat more aware of the local and national histories and realities of race and racism that are still very apparent in communities today. As this project is an exercise thinking critically about local history, I approached this book with a critical lens. The intent of this project is not to “cancel” or make irrelevant this book, but to analyze how history is told; what is included, what is excluded, and how history is framed.

I mainly focused on Part I of “California Dreaming” to better understand what exactly boosters and boosterism was. Through reading “The Devil In Silicon Valley”, “Garden Of The World”, and “Palo Alto: A Centennial History” the term “booster” was often used, and seemed important to understanding the historical context of California’s early years of statehood. I used this book in the webpage Manifest Destiny and How It Was Spread.

The “Color of Law” was highly recommended by multiple friends, and family to better understand the impact of geographic racism in the Bay Area and specifically in Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. Like the book “California Dreaming”, I used only a section of the book which focused specifically on East Palo Alto. I used this book in the webpages: The History of East Palo Alto, and Tinsley Program.