Prior to colonization what is now known as Santa Cruz County was inhabited by members of the Amah Mutsun tribe for thousands of years.
In 1769, Jose Francisco Ortega, scouting for the Portola-Serra party, became the first European to visit the fertile valley that later became known as the Santa Clara Valley. The area was inhabited by Indians who were named Los Costanos (the coast people) by the Spanish, and later were called the Ohlone.
Spain began colonizing California by establishing a string of 21 churches, called missions, that eventually stretched 600 miles along the California Coast from San Diego to Sonoma. The Franciscan padres (priests) selected the fertile valley discovered by Ortega to establish the eighth mission, Mission Santa Clara, named for Saint Clare. The mission was founded January 12, 1777
Junipero Serra Serra founded nine of Spanish California's 21 missions: closed communities for Native Americans. The Ohlone were brought to the mission for compulsory baptism and conversion to Christianity.
They were pressed into forced labor, mistreated and infected with diseases they had no resistance to. Those who were brought into the missions were not allowed to leave, and if they tried to flee, were severely beaten.
In an open letter to Francis, leaders of the Pechanga Band of the Luiseño Indians wrote that Serra's missions "killed between 9,000 to 13,500 of our ancestors," which "triggered a collapse of our Indigenous societal structure and way of life and set into motion the atrocities and hardships that our people endured for nearly two centuries."
In 1821 Spain signed the Treaty of Córdoba, which solidified Mexico’s independence and forced Spain to cede land throughout California to Mexican citizens. This included significant amounts of land including properties such as the San Jose Rose Garden
In 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed by the United States and Mexico, ending the Mexican-American war. Mexico cedes 55% of its territory to the United States. This treaty allowed Mexican settlers to become U.S. citizens. This also gave them the right to remain on the land they had been living on, such as Santa Clara County. Despite these promises outlined in the treaty, Mexican Americans living in these ceded territories were subjected to lynchings and other forms of mob violence from white Americans.
While Delegates to California's 1849 constitutional convention drafted a charter that created a non-slave state, yet they severely proscribed the civil rights of free persons of color. After admission to the Union, the California Legislature, in its first sessions, enacted further proscriptions in order to disenfranchise Black citizens. Black people had no right to: 1) testify in court against a White person; [1] 2) receive a public education; [2] 3) homestead public lands; [3] or 4) vote. [4]
In 1850, a law was enacted by the first session of the State Legislature, which set the tone for Indian-White relations to come. This law was widely abused with regard to the use of Indians as laborers.
Act for the Government and Protection of Indians
The act provided for the following:
During 1851 and 1852, the California Legislature authorized payment of $1,100,000 for the “suppression of Indian hostilities.” Again, in 1857, the Legislature issued bonds for $410,000 for the same purpose. While theoretically attempting to resolve White-Indian conflicts, these payments only encouraged whites to form volunteer companies and try to eliminate all the Indians in California.
In 1860, the law of 1850 was amended to state that Indian children and any vagrant Indian could be put under the custody of whites for the purpose of employment and training. Under the law, it was possible to retain the service of Indians until 40 years of age for men and 35 years of age for women. This continued the practice of Indian slavery and made it legal for Indians to be retained for a longer period of time and be taken at a younger age.
In 1862, the Alta California reported: “Little more than a hundred miles from San Francisco, in Mendocino County, the practice of Indian stealing is still extensively carried out. Only recently, George H. Woodman was caught near Ukiah with sixteen Indian children, as he was about to take them out of the county for sale. It is well known that a number of men in that region have for years made it their profession to capture and sell unfortunate juveniles, the price ranging from $30 to $150 depending on their quality.”
This was not an isolated situation. U.S. Agent George Hanson reported: “A band of desperate men have carried on a system of kidnapping for two years past. Indian children were seized and carried into lower counties and sold into virtual slavery. . . . The kidnappers follow at the heels of the soldiers to seize these children when their parents are murdered to sell them at the best advantage.” When there was no other way, there was “a class of whites who systematically killed adults to get their children.”
In 1877, San Jose had five Chinatowns, but the largest one was built in 1872. In 1877, The San José Mercury News featured front page testimony from city leaders including the fire and police chiefs, the street commissioner and the mayor with one message: Chinatown must go.
"It was of their opinion that the general condition of the locality in a sanitary point of view could not be worse and in an aesthetic or moral sense, it was revolting," the testimony read.
Then-Mayor Charles Breyfogle and the city council voted unanimously to get rid of the Second Market Street Chinatown. But before any official action was taken, the Chinatown was burned down. That made it the third Chinatown in San José that residents burned down.
According to Tuesday's resolution, hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed and around 1,400 people were displaced.”
In 1879 California adopted a new constitution that explicitly enabled the state to exclude Chinese immigrants from employment by corporations, state, county, and municipal governments.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited the immigration of all Chinese laborers, except merchants, diplomats, teachers, students, and travelers. This act built on the Page Act of 1875 which prohibited the immigration of Chinese women.
In 1885 the California Supreme Court case Tape Vs. Hurley found that it was unlawful to exclude children who have Chinese ancestry from public schools.
During the summer of 1885, David Kawananakoa, Edward Keli’iahonui and Jonah Kuhio, all Hawaiin Princes traveled to Santa Cruz and introduced surfing to the local people. They built surfboards from local Redwood trees, and were a big part of shaping the cultural identity of Santa Cruz.
In 1915 the racist film “The Birth of a Nation” was shown at local theatres throughout Santa Cruz. The NAACP tried unsuccessfully to prevent the showing of this film due to its offensive portrayal of African Americans and glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. This film is credited with supporting the revival of the Klan.
In 1924, more than 8000 Klan members gathered in the Oakland Auditorium. [Photo courtesy of Gary Mills]
“Race has always been central to the story of the Dust Bowl migration. Paul Taylor knew in 1935 when he wrote his first article about the "drought refugees" that their white skins and Anglo-Saxon names could win attention and sympathy that would not so readily attach to the Mexican and Asian farm workers who normally struggled in the valleys of California. Steinbeck too used the paradox, emphasizing in a dozen ways that Americans of their pedigree were not supposed to experience what the Joads experienced.”
In response to a national shortage of agricultural laborers caused by WWII, the Bracero Program was started in 1942. This program brought millions of Mexican Men to the United States on short-term contracts. The Bracero Program continued until 1946. While this program had created “protections” to prevent discrimination and poor wages; many of the Mexican men experienced lowered wages, excessive surcharges for housing, and exposure to deadly chemicals.
1960 the beginning of a decade of growing activism among a new generation of young Black adults. They joined with their elders to raise the political and social consciousness of the local African American population. The NAACP pushed for fair housing laws, and together with a new group called the Urban Improvement Organization, lobbied for low-income housing projects in Santa Cruz County. Their struggles were spearheaded by Erva Bowen and Sy Rockins, and met with varying degrees of success.
In 1970 the United Farm Workers (UFW) calls for a strike in the Pajaro Valley and Salinas lettuce fields, resulting in a series of bloody conflicts with the police and sheriff's departments.
In 1985 an 18 month strike lead by the Latinx workers (predominantly women) ensues they demand better treatment and fair wages.