April 29 , 2011

 

The Mystique of California

 

California is not just another state on the map of the United States. It is unique, it stands out, and it is where the esoteric merges with the mundane, where myth often overshadows reality. It is a scintillating, brilliant collage of legends, tales and folklore, of fantastic fortunes, of dreams fulfilled and also of heartaches and disasters. It has, unlike any other state, a mystique of its own.

“Californians”, said one of America’s foremost writers, O. Henry, “are a race of people; they are not merely inhabitants of a state.”

Another writer, M.G. Lord, described it as a place “Where people come to make their fortunes … where beautiful women are ‘discovered’ in drug stores, and a man can turn a mouse into an empire.”

Shaped like a boomerang, it keeps coming back to you even if you passionately hate and repel it like actress Ethel Barrymore who said: “The people are unreal. The flowers are unreal, they don’t smell. The fruit is unreal, it doesn’t taste of anything. The whole place is a glaring, gaudy, nightmarish set, built upon the desert.”

Yet, all new comers to California fall under its spell whether they like the place or not. Therein lies its mystique.

Its very name originated in the fertile imagination of a Spanish novelist, de Montalvo, who produced a romantic confection about a mythical island, California, he referred to as the “celestial paradise on earth”, inhabited solely by seductive, dark–skinned women ruled by a queen, he called “Calafia”. This name was probably chosen by the writer as a feminine gender of Califa, the title of the Muslim ruler of a good portion of Spain till 1492. The grandeur of the empire inspired unmitigated awe and respect.

Published in 1510, the novel had drawn heavily on the romantic tales let loose by Columbus and his companions about the land they thought they had discovered in Asia, while in reality they had landed, on all four voyages, at the coast of Cuba which was inhabited then by primitives originating in Africa.

The book became an immediate hit and left such an abiding impact that even today one finds in Mexico many restaurants, hotels and businesses named Calafia.

Hernando Cortez, the Spanish conqueror of Mexico, provided the initial impetus for the discovery of California. By conquering the Aztec Empire, Cortez had acquired riches beyond the wildest dreams of most men. Yet, he had the insatiable lust for more. Besides its lure of gold, what Cortez was interested in was to occupy the legendary strait of Anian, which was supposed to provide sea passage through North America between the Atlantic and the Pacific at a point where California is located.

The territory his expeditions captured was called by him “ California” after Monalvo’s legendary island. And, this territory remained a part of Mexico until it was ceded to the US in 1848 just before the discovery of gold in the Sierra foothills.

The gold rush of 1849 has shaped California society. It brought a tidal wave of humanity from the older states in the East. The hardy dreamers who came to this place were not the sorts to live by ordinary rules. They were given to seeking challenges, excitement and taking chances. No mountain was rugged enough to block their march, no river turbulent enough to scare them off. Schemes and dreams became a way of life. That is the spirit that still dominates life in California. And, that spirit is kept alive by a continuing and pulsating immigration.

The pursuit of gold, symbolizing the intense zeal to labor and live well, has been the major contributor to the California dream. In a colorful eye witness account of California diggings, Frank Marrayat in his book“Mountains and Molehills”(1855) writes: “A turn of the road presented a scene of mining life, as perfect in its details as it was novel in its features. On the banks was a village of canvas…and round it the miners were at work at every point…All was life, merriment, vigor, and determinations, as this part of the earth was being turned inside out to see what it was made of.” These qualities still condition life in California and lie underneath the mystique of the place.

It was this spirit that made it possible for water to run uphill -towards money of course. The massive man-made plumbing that draws water down from the north, lifts it over the Tehachapi Mountains and turns arid Southern California into one of world’s great metropolises is a monument to human ingenuity and tenacity.

The severe drought of 1984-90 created such scarcity of water in Santa Barbara and adjoining coastal areas, which were not served by the canal network, that water rationing was imposed. The residents were forbidden to water their lawns. After a hard day’s work nobody wanted to reach home to a brown lawn. Their labor and ingenuity turned the brown grass to green by the use of vegetable dye of that color.

Although bulk of the people live in urban areas and it is generally regarded as a hi-tech, industrial state, California is also the nation’s leading agricultural state. It has the world’s oldest and tallest trees and the largest telescope. It sports the highest mountain, Mount Witney (14,494 ft), in all contiguous states and its lowest point, the Death Valley, which is 282 ft below sea level. Millions of fish died some time back in the Salton Sea, located in the valley, as summer heat depleted the oxygen in the water.

Walt Disney selected Anaheim as the locale for building the first “ Happiest Place on Earth” because of its sunny and wholesome weather. Anaheim is actually Disneyland surrounded by a city by that name.

It was again the year-round sunny climate of California that attracted moviemakers of East Coast to set up studios in a sleepy little town called Hollywood transforming it into the glamour capital of the world.

Then there is that beautiful city, San Francisco, where even in summer mornings and evenings are ‘sweater-weather’. Mark Twain, known for his wit, once described it: “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer I spent in San Francisco.”

Nestling almost in the lap of this city is the Silicon Valley, the birthplace of the personal computer revolution.

California society has been shaped by many kinds of people: native Americans, Spanish grandees, American gold and fortune hunters, railroad tycoons, and movie moguls. Entertainment is the number one export of America today.

Because of their distinctive lifestyle, the Californians were described by O. Henry as a race of people, not just the inhabitants of a state. In point of fact, California is a potpourri, a mix of various races interacting, intermarrying and adhering to their respective dreams but contributing in the process to the common cultural wealth and value system.

Traffic congestion, air pollution, street violence, berserk behavior of white supremacists, and earthquakes might have disturbed the sublime serenity of queen Calafia’s paradise, but her spell continues to condition undisturbed the general lifestyle and in particular of the typical woman of California. She is more equal than her spouse and is often the man of the house. That is perhaps in keeping with the spirit of California, but it also turns out to be the cause of many marital disasters whenever it became too assertive. Women of California given to such an attitude agree with Oscar Wilde who said: “Marriage is an institution but who wants to live in an institution.”

No doubt life in California is not free of its seamy side. Yet, its charm, its mystique, has turned it into the most thickly populated state in the U.S. and the seventh largest economy of the world.

arifhussaini@hotmail.com