A ‘California book’ doesn’t have to adhere to the surf-and-sand stereotype (though those books have their place). Instead, the best California books complicate the narrative, bringing to light the state’s immense cultural, historical, and geographic diversity. They tell stories about the people who call this place home—farmworkers, dreamers, immigrants, transplants, and everyone in between—and explore the dynamic, messy realities that lie beyond the Golden State’s glittering image.”•
This article appears in Issue 31 of Alta Journal.
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Natalia Molina is a distinguished professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. A 2020 MacArthur Fellow, she is the author of How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts; Fit to Be Citizens? Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879–1939; and A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community.
