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How have Diverse People Worked to Build California?

In 1870, 38% of California residents were born in a nation other than the United States, compared to 14% of residents of the United States as a whole. They had come here to participate in the Gold Rush and to help build the transcontinental railroad. Many had also come to be farmers, to work in factories and to pursue opportunities in business. In spite of restrictive land laws and policies of exclusion, they continued to come — and to overcome.

In the 21st century, the historic pattern continues, with 27% of California residents born in a nation other than the United States, compared to 14% of residents of the United States as a whole. According to a 2016 Public Policy Institute of California report, Orange County is one of seven counties in the state where the percentage is greater than 30%.

As California historian and former State Librarian Kevin Starr wrote, “If there is such a thing as DNA codes for states — and there may very well be! — then crucial to the sociogenetic heritage of California would be ethnic diversity.”

People of Native American, Spanish, Mexican , African, Asian, other Latin American and European descent all meet in this rich and geographically diverse state, all seeking a better life. Together they forge a California that is strong and prosperous, and that strives to live up to the American principles and put those principles into practice.

Through generations of striving, and failures of government policy and social tolerance, Californians of every ethnicity have together built the most populous and most productive state in the nation. California is the richest of all 50 states. If California’s economy were considered independently of the rest of the United States, it would be the world’s fifth largest economy.

The Mendez and Munemitsu families, and scores of others who have come to Westminster, to Orange County, and to the rest of California, have worked tirelessly to build our state. That work continues today.