When we look at photographs of California from the middle of the last century, we might not think that all that much has changed. Certainly the cars are smaller today – well, except for the SUVs – and there are more of them. There are more people driving those cars and there are more homes and stores to cater to those people and so there is less of everything that was once here when California was wild. But still, the land and the place seem very much like each other.
But in fact a great deal has changed in this state that lies at the heart of so many stories about dreams come true and dreams gone bust. By interviewing my uncle, Rocky Carvajal, who was born on May 5, 1956, in Compton. He has seen a California that is not transformed since he was a child – “You can still see where I grew up, and it’s still the same place. It’s still there” – but that is fundamentally changed.
