Culture of California

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The culture of California is tied to the culture of the United States as a whole. However, there are features that are unique to California. With roots in the cultures of Spain, Asia, Mexico, and the eastern United States, California integrates foods, languages and traditions from all over the world.

California’s culture has also been greatly influenced by culture of Europe as well as by other large populations, especially immigrant groups from East Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America. California is an international gateway to the United States.^[1]

California has long been a subject of interest in the public mind and has often been promoted by its boosters as a kind of paradise. In the early 20th Century, fueled by the efforts of state and local boosters, many Americans saw the Golden State as an ideal resort destination, sunny and dry year round with easy access to the ocean, deserts, and mountains. In the 1960s, popular music groups such as the Beach Boys promoted the image of Californians as laid-back, tanned beach-goers.

In terms of current socio-cultural mores and national politics, Californians are perceived as more

The hippie movement began in San Francisco, California in the early 1960s and progressed into the late 1970s.

Language

English is the main language of California's inhabitants. Spanish is a common second language throughout the state.

California English is a dialect of the English language spoken within California. California is the home to a highly diverse populace, and this is reflected in many other languages, especially Spanish. As is in the case of English is spoken in any state, not all features of California English is used by all speakers in the state, and not all features are restricted in use only to the state. However, there are some linguistic features which can be identified as either originally or predominantly Californian.^[2]

As the nation's major

The Indigenous Farm worker Study of 2007–2009 found 23 languages of Mexico and Mesoamerica spoken in California.^[6]

California was once home to 300 Native American languages spoken by indigenous people.^[7]

Arts

Architecture

Apart from the

While Spanish architectural styles appear statewide, Northern Californian cities more prominently feature historic Victorian architecture, for which San Francisco is renowned, but which dominates the central historic districts of most Northern California towns. The towns of Eureka and Ferndale, in Humboldt County, are particularly noteworthy for their well-preserved Victorian building stock.

Today's architecture in California is a mixture of many other cultural influences that has resulted in groundbreaking modernist styles that have generated many other interesting and unusual building types.

Film

California is home to Hollywood (a district of Los Angeles), the center of the American film industry, which has given rise to the popular fashion movie-star image and stereotypical lifestyles such as beach-dwelling surfers.

Hollywood has had a profound effect on culture across the world since the early 20th century. During the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, which lasted from the end of the silent era in American cinema in the late 1920s to the late 1950s, thousands of movies were released from Hollywood studios. Spectacular epics, which took advantage of new widescreen processes from the 1950s, have become increasingly popular.

Today, in spite of fierce competition from other countries and even other states within the US, California still dominates the industry.

Music

The guitar was the instrument that the Mexican state of Alta California chose and two composers for the instrument are represented in the collection.^[8] Manuel Y. Ferrer's were collected in a book of 144 pages, called "Compositions and Arrangements for the Guitar" published in San Francisco in 1882, then reprinted in Boston by Oliver Ditson in 1915. Many of his pieces appear in the sheet music collection.^[8] An additional Californian artist, Luis T. Romero is represented by his 1889 arrangement for guitar of La Paloma by Yradier.

In 1898, a collection called "Characteristic Songs of the Spanish Californians" was published as Canciones del Pais de California" in Santa Barbara.

California is the birthplace of several internationally renowned music genres, including:

• Alternative rock/metal, e.g. Beck, Deftones, Hole, Jane's Addiction, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Tommy Collins
• WAR^[9]
• Cowpunk, e.g. The Blasters, The Gun Club, Social Distortion, X (band)
• Experimental music, e.g. Beck, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa
• WAR
• G Funk, e.g. Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Warren G
• Hardcore punk, e.g. Adolescents, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys
• Hyphy, e.g. Mac Dre, E-40
• Nu Metal, e.g. Korn, Papa Roach, P.O.D., Linkin Park
• Paisley Underground
• Psychedelic rock, e.g. The Doors, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Sly and the Family Stone
• Reggae fusion, e.g. Dirty Heads, Iration, Rebelution, Slightly Stoopid, Stick Figure
• Skate punk, e.g. Bad Religion, Blink-182, Descendents, Pennywise, Rancid, Suicidal Tendencies, NOFX, The Offspring
• Stoner rock, e.g. Sleep, Kyuss
• Soft rock, e.g. The Carpenters, The Doobie Brothers^[10]
• Surf rock, e.g. The Beach Boys, The Chantays, Dick Dale & The Del Tones, Jan and Dean
• Third wave ska with bands such as No Doubt, Reel Big Fish, Suburban Rhythm, Sublime
• Thrash metal/Bay Area thrash metal, e.g. Exodus, Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer
• West coast blues
• N.W.A., Too Short, Tupac Shakur
• West coast jazz

• Bolero, e.g. La Santa Cecilia^[11]
• Cumbia, e.g. Ozomatli
• Hard Rock, e.g. Van Halen
• Heavy metal: Blue Cheer, Guns N' Roses, Van Halen, Mötley Crüe
• Latin rock: Santana, Ritchie Valens
• Mariachi e.g. Mariachi los Camperos^[12]
• Metalcore, e.g. As I Lay Dying, Atreyu, Of Mice & Men, Pierce the Veil, Secrets, A Skylit Drive, Stick to Your Guns, Wovenwar
• Norteño, e.g. Los Tigres del Norte
• Pop, e.g. Tiffany
• Punk, e.g. Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Green Day
• Ranchera, e.g. Ángela Aguilar, Linda Ronstadt,
• Rock: Eagles, Counting Crows, Jane's Addiction, Journey, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Byrds, Rage Against the Machine

There are many songs that mention the name of the state in some way, one of the most popular is the song Hotel California by the Eagles.

Literature

Notable authors who were either native to California or who wrote extensively about California include:

• Mary Hunter Austin, novelist, poet, critic and playwright. Austin is best known for her 1903 nature book The Land of Little Rain, a portrait of the people, flora, fauna and landscapes between the Sierra Nevada and the Mojave Desert.
• Richard Brautigan, countercultural novelist, poet and short story writer. In 1967, he was the poet-in-residence at the California Institute of Technology.
• Charles Bukowski, poet, novelist and short story writer.
• Octavia E. Butler, science fiction writer.
• James M. Cain, novelist, journalist and screenwriter, widely regarded as a progenitor of the hardboiled school of American crime fiction.
• Raymond Chandler, novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. He wrote about the darker aspects of mid-20th century Los Angeles.
• Emma Cline, novelist, short story writer and essayist.
• Ina Coolbrith, poet and librarian.
• Richard Henry Dana Jr., lawyer and politician who recounted aspects of Californio culture which he saw during his 1834 visit as a sailor in his memoir Two Years Before the Mast.
• Philip K. Dick, science fiction writer.
• Joan Didion, essayist, novelist, screenwriter and journalist. Considered one of California's emblematic writers, she wrote extensively about 1960s and 1970s California culture and the state's founding myths.
• Bret Easton Ellis, novelist and screenwriter. Much of his work is set in Los Angeles.
• James Ellroy, crime novelist and essayist. Most of Ellroy's novels are set in Los Angeles.
• John Fante, novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Italian descent.
• Robert Frost, poet, born and raised (until age 11) in San Francisco.
• Dashiell Hammett, author of hardboiled detective novels and short stories.
• Gerald Haslam, novelist, short story writer and essayist. His work is set mainly in the Great Central Valley.
• James D. Houston, novelist, poet and editor. His historical novels depict California's early history.
• Helen Hunt Jackson, poet and novelist. Her 1884 novel Ramona gives a portrayal of Californio culture.
• Jack Kerouac, novelist, poet and pioneer of the Beat Generation.
• Ken Kesey, countercultural figure and author, best known for his 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
• Frederick Kohner, novelist and screenwriter. His 1957 book Gidget, together with the TV series and movies it inspired, was seminal in the global dissemination of the Southern California beach and surf culture.
• Jack London, novelist, journalist and activist.
• Ross Macdonald (Ken Millar), crime fiction writer. Macdonald's post-World War II work helped refine the noir novel in California.
• Armistead Maupin, novelist, best known for Tales of the City, a series of novels set in San Francisco.
• internment of Japanese Americans
  during World War II.
• Yosemite
  to international prominence.
• Frank Norris, journalist and novelist. Several of his novels are set in California.
• María Ruiz de Burton, the first female Mexican-American author to write in English. She wrote The Squatter and the Don under the pen name "C. Loyal".
• Wallace Stegner, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist and historian, known as the "Dean of Western Writers".
• John Steinbeck, novelist and short story and travel writer. Steinbeck set most of his work in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the Coast Ranges region.
• George Sterling, poet and playwright. Sterling was a prominent figure in San Francisco and Carmel-by-the-Sea's bohemian communities in the first quarter of the twentieth century.
• Amy Tan, novelist.
• Miguel Venegas, Jesuit administrator and historian. He published "Noticia de la California" in 1757, which was subsequently translated into English (1759), Dutch (1761–1762), French (1766–1767) and German (1769–1770), becoming the standard source for information about the early Californias.

Visual arts

Several notable art movements have arisen in California. California Impressionism (also called California Plein-Air Painting) arose in the early 20th century as a regional variant of American Impressionism characterized by artists who worked outdoors directly from nature.^[13] It influenced the California Scene Painting movement, which flourished from the 1920s to the 1960s.^[14]

In the mid-20th century, the Bay Area Figurative Movement rejected the dominant abstract expressionism of the period.^[15] In the 1960s and 1970s, the Bay Area was the epicenter of the funk art movement, another figurative movement with an anti-establishment bent.^[16]

The Light and Space movement originated in Southern California in the 1960s. It is characterized by a focus on perceptual phenomena, such as in James Turrell's skyspace installations that frame the sky.^[17]

• 
  Poppies, Antelope Valley, a

  Benjamin Chambers Brown
• 
  Dividing the Light (2007), a skyspace by James Turrell at Pomona College

Museums

California has notable museums:

• The California Museum in the state capitol of Sacramento, California is the official museum of the California State Archives. Originally named the Golden State Museum, it opened in June 1998 under the development of the Secretary of State's office to display contents of the state archives. Soon after her husband Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as governor in 2003, First Lady Maria Shriver began working with the Secretary of State and California State Parks to expand the Museum. In 2006, The California Museum became home to the California Hall of Fame, the most notable and diverse of all The California Museum's permanent exhibits.
• The
  Oakland
  . The Museum is dedicated to the history, natural sciences and art that define the people, history and the future of California.
• The Getty Center in Los Angeles. One of the wealthiest art museums in the world.
• The Getty Villa in Malibu.
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
• The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles.
• California Science Center, the West Coast's largest hands-on science center, in Los Angeles.
• The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the largest natural and historical museum in the Western US.
• California Palace of the Legion of Honor
  in San Francisco. A fine art museum.
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.
• The Exploratorium in San Francisco. A hands-on museum of science, art, and human perception.
• railroads
  in California.
• California Constitution
  .
• California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. One of the ten largest museums of natural history in the world.

Cuisine

California's many immigrants bring their culinary traditions to the state. Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Vietnamese, and Indian food, as well as many other foreign foods, can be found throughout California. In 1903, The Landmarks Club Cookbook (which was published as a fundraiser to restore California's Spanish missions) claimed that Los Angeles had the most diverse cuisine of any city.^[18]

Produce plays an important role in California cuisine. California encompasses many diverse climates and therefore is able to grow many types of produce. Additionally, California's Central Valley contains some of the most fertile soil in the world. California is the number one U.S. producer of many common fruits and vegetables, including broccoli, spinach, tomatoes and avocados, amongst others.^[19] A health-conscious culture also contributes to the popularity of fresh produce. Fruit festivals, such as the National Orange Show Festival in San Bernardino County, are common throughout the state.

Avocados play a special role in California cuisine. Many popular California dishes integrate avocados and/or guacamole. Avocados were unfamiliar to most Americans until the mid-20th century, when growers of the subtropical fruit successfully convinced many Americans to try it. In California, avocado is commonly used in sandwiches, hamburgers, salads and even on pizza, in addition to tacos, and other Mexican foods.

California is also an important producer of tomatoes. California tomatoes have become a staple ingredient in ketchup, though ketchup was originally made with everything from plums to mushrooms.^[18]

With

Veganism is popular in California.^[20]

California has a reputation for environmentalism. Californians, especially those living on the coasts, are viewed as being advocates of environmental issues. The environmental culture of California can be partly attributed to public outrage at the major oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969. The influential social conditions resulting from this oil spill are explained in detail by environmental sociologist Harvey Molotch.^[22]

In 1965, California became the first state to regulate vehicle exhaust by setting limits on hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions. In 1967, the California EPA set the nation's first air quality standards for total suspended particulates, photochemical oxidants, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and other pollutants. The United States Congress has allowed California to set its own pollution standards, and the state's legislators have responded with some of the strongest environmental laws ever passed.^[23]

Some Californians are concerned about the rising water levels that will be caused by

Public universities and colleges

California offers a unique three-tier system of public postsecondary education:

The preeminent research university system in the state is the

Los Angeles

), and a number of specialized campuses in the UC system.

The

Doctoral

degrees.

The

California Community Colleges system

provides lower division courses. It is composed of 115 colleges, serving a student population of over 2.9 million.

Private universities and colleges

California is also home to such notable private universities as Stanford University, the Claremont Colleges, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the University of Southern California (USC). California has hundreds of other private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions.

Public secondary education consists of high schools that teach elective courses in trades, languages, and liberal arts with tracks for gifted, college-bound and industrial arts students. California's public educational system is supported by a

Beach culture

In the 1960s, surfing became immensely popular due to

Although unified as a single state, northern California and southern California share a rivalry. "NorCal" or "SoCal" pride is a part of many residents' culture.^[28]

The rivalry also manifests itself in professional sports, such as rivalries between the following teams:

• San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers in baseball
• Oakland Athletics and the Los Angeles Angels, also in baseball
• San Jose Sharks and both the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings in hockey
• soccer
• Both the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings and the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers in basketball
• San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams in football

Sureños and Norteños are rival groups of gangs that, except in rare exceptions, strongly follow a northern-southern divide in territory

See also

• History of California
• California Myth
• Cuisine of California
• Music of California
• California Mille
• Cannabis in California
• List of California state symbols
• Indigenous peoples of California#Society and culture
• Demographics of California
• Hispanics and Latinos in California
• Asian Americans in California

References