11.5: Cultural Geography

The Central Valley has a tremendous cultural history that dates back for thousands of years; however, the author wanted to spend some time discussing the cultural groups that migrated to the Central Valley at the turn of the last century who influenced the agricultural shift that leads California to this day.

After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese immigrants were recruited to work in the fields of California. They were initially welcomed because they did not replace white workers and were willing to do the most difficult jobs. The Japanese were instrumental in establishing new crop industries, such as rice, which is now a $600 million industry in California.

Figure 11.16: Mexican Workers Heading to Harvest Peas Near Bakersfield, California, 1936. Image is in the public domain.

By 1910, Japanese workers made up nearly 42% of the farm labor force in California. However, they soon faced competition from other immigrant and emigrating groups, including South Asians, Greeks, Mexicans, Koreans, Filipinos and African Americans from the Southern States of the US.

Waves of African Americans came to Central California in search of a better life. They often arrived in boxcars, old buses, and flatbed trucks, hoping to escape the economic and social repression of the South. However, the reality of life in California was often harsh. African American workers faced discrimination and exploitation, and they were often paid lower wages than other workers.

Following World War I, a large influx of Mexican migrants began to supply labor to California farms. The Bracero Program, which allowed Mexican workers to come to the United States as temporary guest workers, was established in 1942. Braceros were not allowed to organize or demand better wages, and they were often subjected to poor working conditions and discrimination.

Figure 11.17: An Auto Camp in Bakersfield in 1940. Image is in the public domain.

The civil rights movement of the 1960s brought attention to the plight of farmworkers, and Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong led a successful movement to organize farmworkers and improve their wages and working conditions. However, the gains made by the farmworker movement have been eroded in recent years, and farmworkers continue to face low wages, poor working conditions, and discrimination.

Case Study - Bakersfield

Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, situated near the southern "horseshoe" end of the San Joaquin Valley. The city is surrounded by mountains, including the Sierra Nevada to the east, the Greenhorn Mountains to the northeast, the Tehachapi Mountains to the south, and the Temblor Range to the west. The Temblor Range is about 35 miles (56 km) from Bakersfield across the valley floor. Bakersfield is located about 110 miles (180 kilometers) north of Los Angeles and about 275 miles (443 kilometers) southeast of Sacramento. The city is served by the Bakersfield Municipal Airport and the Bakersfield Amtrak station.

The city has a total area of 143.6 square miles (372 square kilometers), of which 142.2 square miles (368 square kilometers) are land and 1.4 square miles (3.6 square kilometers) are water. The city's population was 385,783 at the 2020 census.

Bakersfield has a hot arid climate (Köppen BWh), with very hot, dry summers, and winters that consist of mild days with chilly/cold nights. Rainfall is low in the city, averaging only 6.36 inches (161.5 mm) annually, with most of it falling in the winter. Bakersfield averages about 191 clear days a year. The climate makes the region suitable for growing crops ranging from carrots to citrus and almonds. Aside from agriculture, Bakersfield is also known for its oil and gas fields, (which is a primary factor in the air quality of the region).

Cultural Geography - The Bakersfield Beat

The Bakersfield sound is a subgenre of country music that emerged in the mid-to-late 1950s in and around Bakersfield, California. It is characterized by its influences of rock and roll and honky-tonk style country, and its heavy use of electric instrumentation and backbeats. The Bakersfield sound was a reaction against the slickly produced, orchestra-laden Nashville sound, which was becoming popular in the late 1950s. The culture influence of the Bakersfield Beat came from the people that migrated to Bakersfield during the Dust Bowl. Bakersfield, known mainly for agriculture and oil production, was the destination for many Dust Bowl migrants and others from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and parts of the Midwest. The mass migration of "Okies" to California also meant their music would follow and thrive, finding an audience in California's Central Valley.

Although the Bakersfield sound was pioneered by Wynn Stewart, who was known for his energetic live performances and his use of electric guitars and drums, artists such as Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and Tommy Collins helped to popularize the Bakersfield sound, which became one of the most popular and influential country genres of the 1960s.

The Bakersfield sound influenced a wide range of country and music artists, including later country rock and outlaw country musicians, as well as progressive country artists. Another iconic musical group hailing from Bakersfield, California, was Korn. Forming in 1993, they emerged as pioneers of the nu-metal genre. Nu-metal blended elements of grunge, heavy metal, and hip-hop, creating a unique and often aggressive sound. Korn's signature style featured downtuned guitars, Jonathan Davis's anguished vocals that shifted between rapping and singing, and a focus on dark themes like alienation and anger. Their music resonated with a generation grappling with similar emotions, propelling them to mainstream success in the late 90s and early 2000s.

The California ‘Okie’

An Okie is a person identified with the state of Oklahoma, or their descendants. This connection may be residential, historical, or cultural. For most Okies, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Oklahoman. While not an official demographic used or recognized by the United States Census Bureau, Okies, due to various factors, have developed their own distinct culture within larger social groupings both akin to and separate from Midwestern and Southern influences. Included are their own dialect, music, and Indigenous-derived folklore.

Figure 11.18: Migrant ‘Okie’ Youth in a Kern County Potato Field. 1940. Image is in the public domain.

In California, the term came to refer to very poor migrants from Oklahoma coming to look for employment. The Dust Bowl and the "Okie" migration of the 1930s brought in over a million migrants, many headed to the farm labor jobs in the Central Valley. A study in the 1990s indicated that about 3.75 million Californians were descendants of this population. By 1950, four million individuals, or one quarter of all persons born in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, or Missouri, lived outside the region, primarily in the West.

Prominent Okies included singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie and country musician Merle Haggard. John Steinbeck wrote about Okies moving west in his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, which was filmed in 1940 by John Ford.

Buck Owens

Buck Owens and his band, the Buckaroos, further developed the Bakersfield sound by incorporating different styles of music to fit Owens' musical tastes. The resulting music style is characterized by its use of twin Fender Telecasters, a big drumbeat, fiddle, and pedal steel guitar. The Telecaster was originally developed for country musicians to play Texas/Western swing music, and the Bakersfield sound is a continuation of this tradition. Buck Owens and is Buckaroos had 21 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, more than any other artist in the history of the chart. Some of his most popular songs include: Act Naturally, Under Your Spell Again and Together Again.

The Bakersfield sound is a more raw and rebellious style of country music than the Nashville sound, which was popular at the time. It is also more dependent on the individual talents of the musicians, rather than the elaborate orchestral production of Nashville-style country music.

Buck Owens was not only a pioneer of the Bakersfield sound, but he also helped to preserve its history. In 1996, he opened the Buck Owens Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, which served as both a nightclub for country music performers and as a museum of the history and sound of country music, including the Bakersfield sound. Owens regularly performed at the Crystal Palace until his death in 2006.

Figure 11.19: Jimmy Dean, (Left) & Buck Owens (Right) Singing on the Jimmy Dean Show, in 1965. Image is in the public domain.

Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard, a Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, was one of the most well-known artists involved in the development of the Bakersfield Sound. He was born into a family of Dust Bowl migrants, who lived in a boxcar in Oildale, and spent his childhood listening to country music. His music often reflected his own experiences and those of the people he grew up with. He sang about outlaw living, the struggles of working-class people, and the pride of being an Okie. His most famous song, "Mama Tried," is based on his own experiences of being a rebellious child and going to prison.

Haggard's music is considered to have kept the spirit of the Central Valley alive. Bakersfield author Gerald Haslam said that Haggard "is most a representative of The Other California" because he "offers glimpses into lives lived out of the mainstream." Haggard's music gave voice to the people who were often ignored or forgotten, and he earned the nickname "The Poet of the Common Man."

Figure 11.20: Merle Haggard, Circa 1971. Image is in the public domain.

Physical Geology

The Kern River Beds Formation is a crescent-shaped belt of non-marine sedimentary rocks that crops out in the Kern River area of the San Joaquin Valley. It is about 12 miles wide and 50 miles long, and ranges in thickness from 500 to 2,600 feet. The formation is composed mostly of pale-yellow to light-brown sandstone and conglomerate, with interbeds of greenish-gray or greenish-brown siltstone and mudstone.

The Kern River Beds Formation was deposited during the Neogene Period of the Cenozoic Era, and preserves fossils of plants and animals that lived during that time. The formation is an important source of oil and gas, and wells in the Kern River Oil Field are located on a section of the formation north of the Kern River Bluffs and Bakersfield.

The formation is divided into two units: the upper Kern River Beds Formation and the lower Chanac Formation. The wedge of the Etchegoin Formation is found in the central and western sections of the formation.

The producing interval in the Kern River Formation of the Kern River oil field has been divided into two zones separated by water-bearing sand lentils. The lower producing zone is called the China Grade Zone, and the upper is the Kern River Zone.

The Kern River Beds Formation is a valuable resource for understanding the geology and history of the San Joaquin Valley. It is also an important economic resource, providing oil and gas that is essential to the region's economy. Want to learn more? Visit the West Kern Oil Museum in Taft, 1168 Wood Street in Taft, California.

Economic Geography

Bakersfield's economy is historically and primarily based on the oil and agriculture industries. Kern County, of which Bakersfield is the county seat, is the most oil-productive county in the United States. The county is also a major agricultural producer, ranking in the top five most productive agricultural counties in the nation. Major crops grown in Kern County include grapes, citrus, almonds, carrots, alfalfa, cotton, and roses.

Bakersfield is home to the corporate and regional headquarters of many companies involved in the oil and agriculture industries. Two of the top four employers in Bakersfield are farms, each employing between 2,000 and 3,000 people.

In recent years, Bakersfield has also seen growth in its manufacturing and distribution sectors. Several companies have moved to Bakersfield due to its inexpensive land and proximity to international ports in Los Angeles and Oakland. Other companies have opened regional offices in Bakersfield because of the city's business-friendly policies, such as no local utility or inventory taxes. Products manufactured in Bakersfield include ice cream (the world's largest ice cream plant), central vacuums, highway paint, and stock racing cars.

The city's economy is diverse and continues to grow; however, it seems the oil industry is weakening. Due to increasing state regulations, the oil and energy sectors are seeing a decline in production, jobs, and investments. California today has six times more clean-energy as oil-related jobs.

Environmental Issues

Air quality in Bakersfield is generally poor, especially in the fall and winter. This is due to a combination of factors, including the California wildfire season, the formation of inversion layers, and emissions from agriculture, industry, rail freight, and road traffic.

An inversion layer is a meteorological phenomenon in which warm air is trapped beneath cooler air. This can happen in the winter in the San Joaquin Valley, when the air temperature in the foothills is warmer than the air temperature in the valley floor. This traps pollutants in the valley, where they can accumulate to unhealthy levels.

The extraction of oil and gas is also a contributor to air pollution in Bakersfield. This is because the burning of fossil fuels, to generate electricity, releases pollutants into the air, including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide. One of the largest is the Kern River Cogeneration Facility, a 300-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant. These pollutants can cause a variety of health problems, including respiratory problems, heart disease, and cancer.

Figure 11.21: The Kern River Oil Field in Bakersfield Was is the 5^th Largest Producer in the U.S. 2006. Image by Wikimedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

According to the EPA, Bakersfield had 28 days of "Unhealthy" and 1 day of "Very Unhealthy" air quality in 2015. This ranked 6th in the United States. In 2016, the city had 14 days with "Unhealthy" air quality, ranking 9th in the United States. And in 2017, Bakersfield had 23 days with "Unhealthy" air quality, 14 of which were caused by the Thomas Fire.