Here's a link to my story about the town of Cortez, as published in The Modesto Bee several years ago. My sincere thanks to editor Dan Day and online vice president Eric Johnston for making the story available online.
Though the story says it was updated today, it was actually published March 21, 1999. Eric and Dan posted it today as a favor to me so you could read the story.
I promise, I will move on from this subject. I have a Mexican-pizzaria and at least two more teriyaki donut joints in my sites.
2 comments:
Inky,
what a great story! I love the novelistic feel of Cortez's history, at least partly because it's much better written than the average newspaper profile. (I'd never heard of the place until you brought it up and my stepfather was a Japanese farmer in the valley) The eventual "integration" of the cooperative fascinates me. I've long been interested in "ethnic" self-contained towns because they were an alternative model to the melting pot that American history generally tries to ignore. I'm not sure they're an alternative I would have chosen or promoted, but the stories of these places are really fascinating.
I remember passing through more than a handful of Mexican towns in New Mexico and all black towns in Oklahoma and the Carolinas. I also have very strong memories of a black farming cooperative in west Tennessee built around a boarding school/vocational training institute inspired by Booker T. Washington. These places deserve to be preserved and remembered.
Thanks for getting it re-linked. I was about to hit the Modesto Bee's archives.
Anomie-atlanta; wish I had talent.
Chance; ethnic towns fascinate me. I think they are formed partially as a collective defense mechanism against the inherent racism in the United States.
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