Reading Notes Week 2 General Introduction, Part A

California was once known as a little-known province of Mexico, far from the centers of trade and government. Baja California is not a Spanish word. Gold was discovered in California in 1848. The Gold Rush was to become California's formative event, economically, politically, symbolically, mythologically. California is really the Land of Two Promises, where fertile possibilities and the potential for disaster coexist in the elements themselves. California is a type of borderland where the continent meets the sea, where Asia meets America, where cultures and subcultures touch, collide, ignite, and sometimes intermingle. For a century and a half writers have been drawn to California by the action, or by the climate, or by the movies or a campus job. 


Editors: John Hicks, James D. Houston, Maxine Hong Kingston, Al Young. "General Introduction" pgs. 1-13.