CALIFORNIA
26 slides: where California sits, why it is called that, and the facts students repeat. Short lines. Miles and km.
California at a glance
Statehood
31st · September 9, 1850
Capital
Sacramento · not Los Angeles
People
39.4 million · 1st of 50
Land
155,779 mi² (403,466 km²) · 3rd largest
Motto
Eureka · “I have found it”
High / low
Whitney 14,505 ft (4,421 m); Death Valley −282 ft (−86 m)
Time
Pacific Time
Bird
California quail
Flower
California poppy
Gold = oro. Valley = valle.
Where is California?
The far west of the Lower 48. The Pacific is the west wall. Mexico is the south wall.
Coast = costa. Border = frontera.
Where the name comes from
1 · A novel
Spanish readers knew a 1510 romance, Las sergas de Esplandián. It invented an island of gold ruled by Queen Calafia.
2 · Not an island
Explorers thought Baja was an island. The name stuck to the whole Pacific shore.
3 · Demonym + motto
People are Californians. Eureka points to the 1848 gold find at Sutter’s Mill.
Island = isla. Queen = reina.
Statehood day
31st state · skipped the territory wait
Gold rushed in 1848. Congress let California in as a free state in the Compromise of 1850. No long territorial pause.
1848
James Marshall at Coloma. The world ran west.
1850
Statehood. Capital later settled on Sacramento.
2024
Still the most populous US state.
Gold rush = fiebre del oro. To join = unirse.
Sacramento, the capital
A river city at the meeting of the Sacramento and American rivers. Gold boats stopped here.
1 · About 525,000 people
City proper (2020: 524,943). Metro is larger. Not the biggest city in the state.
2 · Why not San Francisco?
Floods, fires, and gold-camp politics moved the capital inland. Sacramento won for good in 1854.
3 · Farm and law
The valley feeds the country. The capitol dome is a classroom for water law.
Capital = capital. River = río.
Los Angeles, the giant
1 · 3.9 million (2020)
2nd largest US city after New York. County holds about 10 million.
2 · Hollywood
Film and TV grew here because of light, space, and cheap land a century ago.
3 · Water from far away
Owens Valley, the Colorado River, the State Water Project. The city is a desert that learned to drink.
City = ciudad. Film = cine.
San Francisco Bay
A small city (about 874,000) on a huge idea: a gate, a university belt, and Silicon Valley to the south.
1906 quake
The earth shook. Fire took most of the city. They rebuilt in stone and steel.
1969–today code
Fairchild, Intel, Apple, Google. The valley south of the city writes the world’s software.
Fog + hills
Summer can be 60 °F (16 °C) at the Gate and 95 °F (35 °C) inland the same afternoon.
Earthquake = terremoto. Fog = niebla.
The smallest city
187 people · Vernon (2020)
Vernon is an industrial city south of downtown LA: packing plants, rail, almost no houses. It is incorporated, so it counts as a city.
Industry, not lawns
Factories wanted their own rules. Families mostly live next door, not inside.
Amador City
A Gold Country town of about 200 sits at the other extreme: tiny and historic.
58 counties
Alpine County has only about 1,200 people in the whole county.
Factory = fábrica. Tiny = minúsculo.
Land: sierra, valley, fault
Sierra Nevada
A granite wall. Yosemite. Sequoias. Whitney is the high point of the Lower 48.
Central Valley
450 miles (725 km) of farm trough. Almonds, rice, milk, tomatoes.
San Andreas
A transform fault. Plates slide. The next big one is a when, not an if.
Mountain range = sierra. Fault = falla.
Weather: drought, then fire
Rain years and dry years
Most rain falls November–March. A failed wet season means empty reservoirs. 2012–2016 was a historic drought.
Fire season
Santa Ana and Diablo winds. The 2018 Camp Fire destroyed Paradise. Smoke can close schools 400 miles (644 km) away.
Drought = sequía. Fire = incendio.
Three days California remembers
Jan 24, 1848
Gold at Coloma
Marshall’s flake started a world migration.
Apr 18, 1906
San Francisco quake
Magnitude about 7.9. Fire did most of the killing.
Oct 17, 1989
Loma Prieta
World Series game, then the Bay Bridge failed. 63 dead.
Earthquake = terremoto. Gold = oro.
Person 1 · Cesar Chavez
1 · Fields
Born 1927 near Yuma, raised in California camps. He knew the short hoe and the short pay.
2 · The union
With Dolores Huerta he built the UFW. Grapes, lettuce, a boycott that reached kitchen tables.
3 · Sí se puede
Fasting, marching, nonviolence. His birthday is a state holiday.
Farmworker = campesino. Strike = huelga.
The flag: a bear and a star
1846
American settlers in Sonoma raised a homemade “Bear Flag” for a short republic.
The animal
A California grizzly. The last wild one in the state was killed in 1922. The bear remains on the cloth.
The line
“California Republic” stays under the bear. One red star. A red stripe at the bottom.
Bear = oso. Flag = bandera.
Four-moment timeline
1769
Spanish missions begin at San Diego. Indigenous nations already live everywhere.
1848
Mexico cedes the land. Gold is found the same year.
1906
The quake remakes San Francisco.
1930s–now
Hollywood, then silicon, then the world’s 5th-largest economy if it were a country.
Mission = misión. Economy = economía.
Industry
Tech
Silicon Valley: chips, phones, search, cars that try to drive.
Entertainment
Film, TV, music, games. Still centered on Los Angeles.
Ports + planes
Long Beach and LA ports. Aerospace in the south. Wine in Napa and Sonoma.
Chip = chip. Port = puerto.
Farm: the nation’s kitchen
Almonds + milk
California grows most US almonds and is a top dairy state. Trees drink a lot of water.
Salad bowl
Salinas and Imperial valleys: lettuce, berries, broccoli, year-round.
Wine
Napa, Sonoma, Paso. Grapes followed Spanish missions, then a global market.
Almond = almendra. Wine = vino.
Food: three plates
Mission burrito
San Francisco: rice, beans, meat, salsa, foil. A full meal in a wrap.
Sourdough
Bay fog feeds a wild yeast. A loaf with a sour bite, born in Gold Rush ovens.
In-N-Out / taco trucks
Drive-through burgers and night tacos. Both are local languages of hunger.
Bread = pan. Truck = camión.
Game day
College gods
USC vs UCLA. Cal vs Stanford (the Big Game). Rivalry is a holiday.
Pros
Lakers, Dodgers, Warriors, 49ers, Rams. Championships travel with the weather.
Surf as sport
Malibu to Santa Cruz. A board is a weekend plan, not only a postcard.
Rivalry = rivalidad. Surf = surf.
Three Californians
CESAR CHAVEZ
1927–1993. Farm labor, boycotts, a national holiday in the state.
STEVE JOBS
1955–2011 · San Francisco / Cupertino. Apple put a computer in a pocket.
DOLORES HUERTA
Born 1930. Co-founded the farm workers’ union. The phrase “Sí se puede” is hers.
Inventor = inventor. Organizer = organizadora.
Real rules, and one fake one
1 · Real · Plastic bags
Statewide limits on single-use bags. Bring cloth or pay.
2 · Real · Carpool lanes
HOV diamonds. One person in a Tesla may still be a ticket if the lane rule is occupancy, not battery.
3 · Real · Earthquake kits
Schools drill. Water heaters must be strapped. This is code, not folklore.
4 · Myth · “It is illegal to keep a goldfish in a bowl”
San Francisco talked about animal housing; there is no statewide goldfish-bowl felony.
Law = ley. Myth = mito.
Slang you will hear
The 405 / the 5
Freeways take “the.” “I’m on the 101.” Not “on 101.”
Hella
Bay Area: very. “Hella cold in the fog.”
June gloom
Low cloud in early summer on the south coast. The beach can wait until 2 pm.
Freeway = autopista. Fog = niebla.
Death Valley: the low, hot floor
−282 ft (−86 m) at Badwater
1 · Hottest
134 °F (56.7 °C) at Furnace Creek in 1913, a world-class mark still cited.
2 · Next to Whitney
Highest and lowest of the Lower 48 sit about 85 miles (137 km) apart.
3 · Still a park
Wildflowers after a rare rain. People come in winter, not July.
Desert = desierto. Below sea level = bajo el nivel del mar.
The bridge that should not have worked
4,200 ft (1,280 m) main span
1 · 1933–37
Joseph Strauss, Irving Morrow, and engineer Charles Ellis. Art Deco orange (International Orange).
2 · Fog and wind
The Gate is a wind tunnel. Workers built a safety net. Nineteen men fell in and lived. They were the Halfway to Hell Club.
3 · Still the postcard
Tolls, bikes, a moving deck. The color is not gold. The name is the strait, not the paint.
Bridge = puente. Fog = niebla.
Five questions
1. What is the capital of California?
2. What does Eureka mean?
3. Which is the lowest point in North America here?
4. Who built the UFW with Dolores Huerta?
5. Why is the Golden Gate orange?
Question = pregunta. Answer = respuesta.
Thanks · Next: Colorado
California, episode 05: gold, granite, 39 million people, and a silent fault.
Answer key
1) b 2) a 3) c 4) b 5) a
Thanks = gracias.