Broughton Quarterly - Spring 2008 - (Page 24)

SANTA MONICA BEACH TALKING STORY WITH ERNEST MARQUEZ In 1933, The Georgian Hotel opened its doors to a vibrant Santa monica, a place whose character would come to define the Southern California lifestyle. By matt katz Photos Courtesy of the ernest marquez Collection and Santa monica Historical Society 2 Broughton Quarterly Spring 2008 B Southern California waS a Commodity, back when surfing was the sort of exotic pursuit you’d likely find on the pages of National Geographic and the West Coast was still wild, there were los ranchos—the land grants of Alta California. From a modern perspective, it’s difficult to imagine coastal California as a rural hinterland. But that’s exactly what it was: the literal and metaphorical edge of society. In 1839, the Mexican government granted ,5 acres of Santa Monica Canyon to two men, Francisco Marquez and Ysidro Reyes, who began cattle ranching on the land and raised their families there. Of course, the owners of Rancho Boca de Santa Monica had no way of knowing their rustic spread would soon feel the heat of the world’s spotlight. Since that time, Santa Monica has been wrapped in celluloid and presented to a world hungry for the California Dream. Its image has been used to sell everything from toothpaste to timeshares. Its character, though, is not defined by the movies and marketing campaigns. This is a cutting edge place—a place where limits are tested and pushed to the next level. Santa Monica is vital. It is original. To the outside world, it epitomizes Southern California. And no one can tell its story like Ernest Marquez. Ernest Marquez, great-grandson of both Francisco Marquez and Ysidro Reyes, grew up on what remained of Rancho Boca de Santa Monica. He is a living link to the past, and in an effort to keep his recollections pure we’ve stuck as closely as possible to the time honored oral tradition—story telling—limiting the editorial voice, stripping down our questions and allowing Marquez to share anecdotes and tangential remarks that reveal a true sense of time and place. Essentially, we set the beat and let Marquez riff on early Santa Monica like no one else can. efore

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Broughton Quarterly - Spring 2008

Broughton Quarterly - Spring 2008 Contents Contributors Plugged In Notes Destination 1000 Words Calendar Wine & Cuisine Of Gods and Monkeys Santa Monica Beach Chasing the Rain Donald Trump Marketplace Spotlight

Broughton Quarterly - Spring 2008

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