Agricultural Roots

Many elder locals who grew up here can often be heard reminiscing of those times where “back in the day, this region use to all be filled with nothing but dirt roads and orchards.”

Undepicted, past the imagery flowering orchards and pastoral settings are the working hands and faces of the Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino immigrant farmworkers who were brought over to the United States and have significantly contributed to the growth of the Valley’s farm industry.

These questions of “What does the Valley of Hearts Delight mean to you” and “Whose narratives does this phrase include” became a throughline across our research and community engagement efforts to uncover those stories.