Culture and Society in Southern California

C ERTAINLY the most obvious thing to be said about the culture and society of southern California is that both are products of migration. Marion Clawson has graphically described what it means to be a Californian by the simple statement that in 1945 two out of every three people in the state had been born in some other state or nation-a fact of overwhelming social and cultural significance. Unquestionably migration provides a real key to an understanding of the riddles and paradoxes of this state. Yet as soon as this statement is made, one is faced with the realization that to measure the impact of migration on southern California, one would need a breakdown for every set of statistics on migration to California-one set for the north, another for the south. For a sharp social and cultural cleavage divides the state at the Tehachapi line, a cleavage which is reflected with remarkable clarity in the folkways of the people

Geography · Political science · Latin American and Latino Studies