Sandy Lydon on Chinese (and other) immigrant history in Santa Cruz

For those who haven't yet read Sandy Lydon's Chinese Gold, there's a new short piece on his website, titled Hate Speech, Santa Cruz Style (1879), that gives some concise but broad perspective on the history of anti-immigrant politics in Santa Cruz County and beyond. The Chinese who came to California to mine for gold and stayed to build railroads and work the farms were just one of many immigrant groups to feel the wrath of scapegoaters, nativists, exploiters and political opportunists.

Lydon's brief survey gives a wider historical and political setting to Santa Cruz Once Had a Chinatown.