 Okay. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Angela Scott and I am the library assistant here at the Billie Jean King Library's Miller Special Collections Room. On behalf of our senior librarian of collection services, Jade Wheeler, our special collections librarian, Jeff Whalen, and all the staff here at the Long Beach Public Library, I'd like to welcome you to the second online event of the Miller Room's local history lecture series celebrating the history and culture of Long Beach and our surrounding regions. Today we are pleased to bring you a fascinating program entitled When Water Was Everywhere, a novel view of life in early California, presented by local author, Barbara Crane. This is one of a series of programs that will be featured periodically in the Miller Room throughout the year, in addition to our spoken words, spoken art series, our Art of Nature lecture series, our poetry and fiction writing workshops, musical performance programs, book club and short story reading group, art programming, and much more. Please keep an eye on our LBPL calendar and website for upcoming events, and we hope you'll join us again for more of these special programs as they become available. Now while we have you all here, we'd also like to mention some upcoming online programs coming to the Miller Room in February. On Saturday, February 20th, from 2.30 to 4.00 p.m., please join us for our next Miller Room book club meeting. We read a rotating selection of fiction and nonfiction books as well as short stories, focusing generally on themes relating to our Miller Room study topics, such as the arts performing arts, Asian cultural heritage, libraries and special collections, local and California history, and much more. This book club is currently meeting online via Zoom and is limited to a maximum of 10 to 12 people per meeting, so pre-registration RSVPs are necessary. For more information or to join the Miller Room book club list, please visit our LBPL website at www.LBPL.org and check out our calendar of events. You can also call the main library for more information or message me in the live chat after our program today if you do have more questions. The library has also begun a new 50 book challenge for 2021, so if you've made a resolution to read more books in the new year, this is a great way to do it. Check out our website at LBPL.org to learn more and have fun reading, earning prizes and checking goals off your list. Now getting back to our program for today, it is our pleasure to once again welcome and introduce our featured speaker this afternoon, Barbara Crane. Ms. Crane's novel, When Water Was Everywhere, emerged from years of crisscrossing the Los Angeles basin by automobile, sometimes putting 15,000 to 20,000 miles a year on her car in the course of her prior work as an independent writer and corporate trainer. Every time she crossed over the Los Angeles River, she saw it encased in its concrete channel and wondered what the river originally looked like when it ran free in its earlier days. She also got to thinking about the local landscape itself and how it might have looked during the time of the Tongva people who first lived here, as well as through the eyes of later generations of people from around the world who settled down in this area over the centuries. Having received her bachelor's degree in history with a minor in English from UC Berkeley, writing historical fiction has been a natural outgrowth of Barbara's academic and personal interests, and both of her novels and some of her short stories have required voluminous amounts of historical research, which she greatly enjoys. In today's program, Barbara will be presenting her research and selected readings from her book, as well as offering a fun, free giveaway prize to a first person who guesses the correct answer to a question at the end of the program. So stay tuned and stick around if you'd like to take advantage of that special opportunity. And at the end of the program, if there's time, we'll also have a Q&A that will be moderating through our chat. So if you have any questions, please type them into the chat bar. You'll see the chat button at the bottom of your screen and you can type and submit your questions there. And Barbara will answer questions as time permits. The program will officially end at 4 p.m. if you need to leave, but you're welcome to stay and continue asking questions or making comments via chat until about 4 p.m. We'll also be sending out an email soon with a link to the archived video recording of this program so you can watch it later at your leisure. Finally, just a reminder again that we are recording this program today. So if you don't want your face to be seen in the video during the program, please make sure to disable your video feed by clicking on the stop video button at the bottom of your screen. You'll still be able to see the presentation. We just won't be able to see you. If you're having difficulty with your audio or video, please let us know in the chat so we can try to assist you remotely. So thank you again for joining us today, everyone. And without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, the Miller Room is pleased to present our very special guest, Barbara Crane. Thank you, Angela. Thank you so much. And thank you and the library staff for hosting my presentation today. Some of you watching our live outside the Los Angeles Long Beach area. I'd like to ask you to please feel free to ask questions later because we want to have you be part of the conversation. I'm going to talk today about what I learned from local history when I researched and wrote the novel when water was everywhere. It takes place in the 1840s when Alta California was a territory of Mexico. I'll use the novel to tell you about local history, particularly the landscape. In the centuries before Long Beach was Long Beach. You might ask, why did I title the novel when water was everywhere? Or what does water have to do with it? The answer to the question is everything. If you ever saw the movie Chinatown, a classic film of the 1970s, you know that Southern California struggles with water go back a long time. However, there was a time when water was plentiful. It spilled out of the local mountains, thundered in rivers, meandered in streams, lay covered miles and miles of wetlands and lay under the ground hidden in plentiful amounts of groundwater. This novel then is about people. People you'll meet during this hour. But it's also about the land. What I'd like you to walk away with are images of what it looked like 200 years ago and what has changed. I hope it will inspire you to reflect on that difference and understand why people, many people, look at the Los Angeles River as a resource, not as a concrete drainage channel and why they fight to preserve and expand wetlands and why water dominates our conversation about Southern California today and will in many years to come. Let's begin by seeing how we look at our area. Do we live happily enough? Let's see. You can just hover over the bottom left hand corner of your screen, Barbara. You can pick up those little arrows. Excuse me for a second. While I advance the screen, which doesn't seem to want to do. You can just click on your screen and I'll work to you, Barbara. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Great. Okay. So do we, you might think you might ask yourself, do we live in a desert? I certainly thought we did until I researched this novel. Contrary to popular belief, we in the Los Angeles Long Beach area do not live in a desert. A more accurate view is this one. In this map drawn by the artist Lee Motus and used by the Aquarium of the Pacific for their watershed exhibit, this is how our area appeared less than 200 years ago when this novel takes place. Where we live had all this water because we are part of a 1500 square mile watershed. In fact, it's a double watershed. Think about that 1500 square miles. Being part of that watershed meant that we had lots of water in rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands. You can see how large this area is that the watershed, the watershed stretches as far west as the Topanga Canyon, as far north as the Semihills, as far east as the San Gabriel River, and as far south as our own Long Beach. You can also see why this is considered, we call this a basin because all of the water from these sources drains into the river, which ultimately drains into the Pacific Ocean. Knowing there was a lot of water here, you can understand why the LA River didn't always look like this. In fact, during the time period that my novel takes place and even until the 1920s and later in some parts of the river, the Los Angeles River looked like this. Willows and cottonwood trees grew along its banks. Their roots helped to hold back the floods during the rainy season when water spread over the land. This photo was taken at the El Dorado Nature Center, a place that you probably know if you live in Long Beach. It's one of my favorite places to walk in Long Beach. The staff there and the volunteers have worked very hard to create an environment of indigenous trees and plants, which gives us a chance to look at what our early environment actually looked like. Now take a good look at this slide because the next slide you'll see captures the river as it truly looked in 1900. It's courtesy of Friends of the Los Angeles River, an organization that's working to save or to transform the river. And you can see that the real and the imagined are pretty much the same. I hope that you're beginning to see this area as I do. Water everywhere. Well, more or less, we are a semi Mediterranean climate subject to the whims of nature. Sometimes we have a lot of rain. Sometimes we have too much. And sometimes there are years of droughts. But our landscape 200 years ago held far, far more water than it does today. Into this landscape then comes my characters. I'm going to read to you some short segments from the novel so you can see how the land looked. You'll also get an idea of how people interacted with the land. The novel's main character is Henry Scott, a young man who has made his way west, crossing mountains and deserts from his home in St. Louis to escape a brutal childhood. In this selection from the novel, Scott is crossing the Los Angeles River in the early 1840s. Willow and cottonwood trees lined the banks, their heavy foliage shaded the shore and hung low over the water. The piebald obeyed the pressure of Scott's knees and entered the river, venturing forward until the river trailed along its belly. The animals who sounded hollow against the rock strewn river bottom upstream, the river swirled around a small island of cattails and tulies. Scott guided his horse through a whirlpool where the water reached its breast. Still, the animal retained its footing. In the middle of the river now, the sun shone directly down on him. The animal moved quickly toward the shallows on the opposite shore. As Scott removed the kerchief, he wore around his neck. The water low, his horse proven trustworthy. Scott dared bend over to dangle the cloth into a rock rimmed pool. Light flicked the water's surface. Beyond his fingertips, a school of steelhead trout swam upstream. He swung himself upright and dripped cold water on his face while the animal carried him forward. The Los Angeles River plays a big part in this novel, but let's leave it for a moment and look where Henry Scott comes from. This is a painting of St. Louis when Scott lived there, a busy bustling city. Would you agree? Imagine his dismay when he arrived in the Pueblo and saw this. Barely 2,000 residents lived in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in the early 1840s. A closer look shows you the Pueblos layout. In the next segment, I read you'll meet Don Rodrigo Tillman. I fashioned Tillman after John Temple or Don Juan Temple as he was known in the Pueblo. Do you recognize the name Temple? It's the reason for Temple Avenue in Long Beach, the reason why they named it that. He's also a street in downtown Los Angeles is named Temple Street. The reason that Temple Street bears his name in downtown Los Angeles is that he became the wealthiest man in the Pueblo. Very influential. He had arrived in the Pueblo in the 1820s. He opened the first store in the Pueblo. He made a fortune. So he, of course, they're going to name a street after him. Now, the scene that I'm going to read occurs at the beginning of the novel. Henry Scott is coming into the Pueblo. After his long trip west, he meets Don Rodrigo Tillman on the road. The Los Angeles River on at that time was known as the Rio de Porciuncula, the Spanish name. The presence of a horse and rider on his left roused Scott from his stupor. Don Rodrigo Tillman, the man said, Asus Ordinus. At the sound of the man's voice, the horse stumbled, throwing Scott off balance. He righted himself and looked at Tillman. He saw a man well over twice his age and half his size. Scott couldn't tell whether the man was an American or a Mexican. You are going to the Pueblo? Tillman asked in unaccented English. Yes. Scott fixed his gaze on his saddle's pommel. And you are doing? Scott couldn't answer this question. His reasons for traveling so far would take more breath than he had to explain. Night would come upon them soon. He was either going to have to bed down off the road or find a place to sleep in town. He took a deep breath. Any rooms in town? Tillman showed no surprise at the man's quick rush of words. Not in any senior. My man is off buying horses from one of the ranches. You can have his bed in the barn for a night or two. Scott nodded. Yes. I'm going to ride ahead then in a mile or so you'll pass the Plaza Church. I live in a white washed house a little farther on. Go around back to the barn. Think you can find it? Another nod. Good. Tillman's horse had barely started off before Tillman turned halfway around to face Scott again. I assume you're going to look for work. Tillman didn't wait for an answer. Come around to my office in the morning down the street from the barn above the store early. Each word was precise. Each thought conveyed with purpose all lost on Scott. He was thinking of hay for his horse to eat for him to lie on. Tillman turned toward the Pueblo once again and this time rode away. He crossed the Rio de Porceuncula, which flowed out of the valley northwest of the Pueblo. He passed the Zanahmadre, the mother ditch, an aqueduct dug 40 years earlier to bring water from the river to the Pueblo's small band of settlers. Passed grapevines planted by an early French arrival and fields scattered here and there over the landscape. By and by he came to the Pueblo Center. Two men pulled a large cart empty through the plaza. Women converged on the church. Dark shawls covered their heads. They looked like shadows in the dusk. A few children played on the steps. Scott made his way past the plaza at the same dogged pace he had kept for 2000 miles. One story buildings, the color of earth flanked the road. Dust swirled around him as a wind rose. Warm September wind. This is how he'd remember his first evening in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. Let's look at this slide for a moment. In the at the bottom, you can see the Zanahmadre or mother ditch and it carries water into the Pueblo. From the river here, which is the the Rio de Porcianquila or the Los Angeles River as we know it. You have the plaza. You have Alvera Street, which as a tourist or a resident of this area, you probably have seen. And here's the Plaza Church. Tillman buys Rancho Los Cerritos. In this novel, I renamed it, just for the purposes of the novel, Rancho de Los Rios. Because at that time, the San Gabriel River flowed into the Los Angeles River or the Rio de Porcianquila. And it flowed into the into the Los Angeles River just north of Rancho Los Cerritos. So in honor of that, I renamed it Rancho de Los Rios for the two rivers. Tillman, Hire Scott, will look at the Rancho in a few minutes. But first, I'd like to introduce you to a third character. She's a Tongva Indian woman who lives in a village about a mile east of the Los Angeles River. The Tongva or Tongva Gabrieleno people were the first inhabitants of this area. They lived here for thousands of years before the Spanish explorers and missionaries came to our shores. The Tongva Indian, in the character in my novel, is named Big Headed Girl. And of course, she lives in the village, so there are other Indians there also. So her name is Big Headed Girl, but she doesn't have a big head. If you want to know why she's named that, ask me later in the question part. By 1840, many of girls' people, the Tongva, had died from disease and life in the missions. Those who were left struggled to hold on. They are the foremothers and forefathers of the people of indigenous descent and their communities who live in Southern California today. Big Headed Girl lives in a village that's close to a creek. There's other features also, which I'll tell you about in a moment, but it's hidden. The creek is hidden by trees and brush toward the lower center of the slide. The creek is here. I'll read a short selection that describes her village from her perspective when she's a child. And then I'll tell you something you may not know about this place today because it is actually a place in Long Beach today. Girls' village lay in a canyon a half days walk upriver from the sea. A spring rose from the earth at one end of the village offering limitless fresh water. The springs runoff created a small wetland home to nesting birds, cattails, and tall grasses. Atop the steep hill that rose above the spring, acorns grew with abundance on ancient oak trees. At the base of the hill below the wetlands lay the village. On the other side of the stream rose another hill, then another. Girl could walk for a long time along the spine of those hills, but she was a mother with children of her own before she took that journey. The landscape I just described exists in Long Beach today. It looks a little different than the way I described it and I'll tell you why. First of all, the hill you can see in the background would have been covered with oak trees, not palm trees. The important, most important part of the slide is where the arrow points and that is where the spring runs out, comes out of the ground, and it forms a wetlands next to it, just adjacent to it. In modern history, this spring, the wetlands becomes a reservoir and that's why you see it in concrete here. This is Willow Spring Park in Long Beach. The reservoir has a lot of importance for Long Beach, especially early Long Beach. After I heard a lecture about Long Beach geography given by Larry Rich, who is our city's chief sustainability supervisor, I used Willow Spring Park as the setting for Big Headed Girls Village. It would have been a hospitable place for a village and it also has an important history for Long Beach in respect to water. The spring was a source for Long Beach. Pardon me, I'm gonna say that again because it's so important. That spring that you see denoted by the arrow was the water source for Long Beach until 1931. The water source for Long Beach until 1931 and there were 130,000 people here in 1930. So you know the spring held a great deal of water. It's an example of the copious amounts of groundwater that we once had and incidentally we still use a lot of our own groundwater for our city's water supply. But there's not that much as there was. As a young woman, Big Headed Girl walks over the hills to work at Rancho Los Cerritos. She doesn't want to leave her village but she must get work in order to feed her children. This map shows Big Headed Girls Village here and Rancho Los Cerritos here so she's walking over these hills. Rancho Los Cerritos, by the way, it lies directly next to the Los Angeles River at that time. And then the most important reason I'm showing you this slide is that you can see how much water there was. This is a map that the U.S. Geological Service produced in the around 1900 and there was still so much water here. In rivers, this by the way is a San Gabriel, in lakes all over Dodding here in wetlands. To give you an idea of how much water there was, if you look down at the bottom lower right of the slide, you see Alamedos Bay, Mies Long Beach, and the wetlands that comes from that bay or derives from that bay stretches 24 square miles. 24 square miles, it went all the way up to the VA hospital. So we're talking about a very large section of Long Beach at one time was wetlands. And then if we look at the left side of the screen, you can see Long Beach in about 1900, just a few streets. And most of the area was still ranchos. So you have Rancho Los Cerritos here, and you have Rancho Los A, which would be Rancho Los Alamedos here. As I said, big headed girl takes this walk from her village as to Rancho Los Cerritos because she must find work in order to feed her children. Here's what happens when she goes, when she takes that journey. The sky over the mountains was a pale blue when Tion Reyes stopped. He waited for girl to catch up to him. This is as far as I can go, he said. Look there. He pointed to a sycamore tree in the distance. Beyond that tree is a river the Mexicans call the Río de Porciuncula. You will meet a trancha above the riverbank. Go there now. The sun rose as girl walked on alone. She noticed men and horses in the distance on the far side of the sycamore. She avoided the tree and headed for the riverbank as Tion Reyes had directed. The sun was moving quickly in the sky. She must find a trancha and start breakfast. A trancha, she called softly. A wall of willows and cotton woods hid the river from view. She cried out again louder. A trancha, where are you? The river's roar drowned out her voice. Girl ran toward the sycamore tree. The men would soon be there wanting breakfast. She grabbed a poker lying next to the fire and prodded the wood. Sparks rose. The fire blazed hotter. When she looked up again, she saw the vicaros approaching. One took off his hat to stare at her more freely. The men of her village would never look at her like that, revealing their lust so nakedly. She gripped the poker so tightly that her neckles paled. The men began to come toward her. A man limped forward, his eyes fixed on the ground. The man was Henry Scott. The tallest vicaro didn't reach his shoulders. He was the largest person girl had ever seen and had the lightest color skin. Girl feared he was coming for her. She tensed her body, ready to run if he took one more step in her direction. Instead, Henry Scott stopped midway between girl and the vicaros. He turned around slowly to face the men. It was then girl noticed he held a long branch in his hand. He drew the branch across the dirt from east to west, etching a line into the wet ground. Girl understood the line meant, do not cross. So too did the vicaros. Disappointment and anger sounded in the breaths they released through their pursed lips. The vicaro who had removed his hat stepped forward. The big man raised his stick. Another vicaro, one she hadn't noticed earlier, came up behind the men. Then gonna key yelled at them. No one moved. Then gonna key, the man yelled again. See, Felipe, see, the men did as they were told. Awareness to the oaths, they repeated to each other. Girl peered into the fire, the poker still held tightly in her hand. When she dared to raise her eyes, she saw the men gathered around their leader under the sycamore tree. She threw down the poker turned and ran toward the river. She had been a child the last time she ran this fast. Her bare feet made no sound on the wet ground. She broke through the wall of willows and cottonwoods, ignoring the branches that cut into her arms and legs. She didn't stop until she reached the riverbank. The water raised along black and turbulent, carrying rocks and large branches in its rush to the sea. Pausing only a moment, she ran down the muddy shore following the river's course until she spied a bramble of willows thick enough to hide her. She crawled into the bramble and sat. After a long time, her body stopped shaking. She listened. She heard only the rush of water. Praying to the creator that the willows tangle of branches would hide her from view. She remained in the thicket all day, all night. The fourth and final character you'll meet from this novel oversees the mission San Gabriel on the east section of the watershed. Like the others, his life is shaped and influenced by the water he lives near and uses, although he doesn't recognize the gift it is to him. This Padre, his name is Padre Jose. If you're looking at this picture of the mission that was drawn, painted probably in the 19th century. And it's a lot different than the terrain surrounding the mission today. If you had a child who was a fourth grader, you know that you've probably been to the mission, because they had to do a mission project. But what you saw was a lot different than this. The building was there and is there. But the terrain is dry and dusty. Not green and verdant, as you see in this picture. And it is so beautifully green, because as an artist, the artist, Mike Hart, shows us here in this map, hand drawn map, by the way, are all the water that comes off the San Gabriel Mountains that will be able to be used by the mission. So all of this in gray and green, and brown kind of all of this is water that flows from the San Gabriel Mountains. This water was then channeled into Zanjas or ditches. They were dug by the Indians who were the unpaid labor source for the missions. I'm going to take you to the fields now where we'll walk with Padre Jose and see the bounty of the missions of the fields up close. Before I do, there's one thing you should know about Padre Jose. He's a man of God who has lost his faith. He believes in nothing except plant that he grows in a corner of the mission garden. Next to the vineyard now empty of workers began the fields in spite of the heat at midday, the Padres pace quickened. He panted with the effort of walking under the hot sun, but for once didn't complain. The garden was neatly sectioned off by vegetables. Corn tassels hung limply squash and watermelon ripened on the warm earth in one area. Tomatoes hugged their vines in row upon row of towering plants. Chili's grew long and green or small and red on low bushes. Padre Jose noted the level of water in the Zanja low. Water was not as plentiful as had been when he first arrived at the mission. Each year there had been less. Thousands of cattle, their herds increasing exponentially every spring at the areas missions and ranchos depleted a supply all had seen as endless. Beyond the kitchen garden lay the pens holding the missions pigs sheep and goats bordered on the east by a row of corn. The corn stalks created a wall that blocked from sight everything beyond it. The Padre walked to the hut behind the corn row. The farthest point within walking distance from the mission. For the Padre, the plants he nurtured beyond the corn row were a kind of magic, passion flowers, the only living things that made him happy. When he was working in the garden he had created to cultivate them. His stomach pains ceased. His anger quieted. This is his beloved passion flower. I have to admit I love the passion flower too. I think it's gorgeous. I'll read one more short passage before I answer questions. Here's a chance for you to win a copy of When Water Was Everywhere. All you have to do is identify where Don Rodrigo Tillman and Henry Scott are in this selection. Write your answer in the chat. The first person who writes the correct answer wins a book. And I know if you're living outside of the area outside of the Los Angeles, Long Beach area, you probably will not know this and I'm sorry. Just to set the scene, Scott and Tillman have written to Rancho Los Cerritos to check out the land and the boundaries before Tillman signs the deed that makes the land his. They are nearing the end of their day. A shallow arc took them back toward the low hills where they had started in early morning. This time, however, they avoided the Casa Grande's future site and continued riding south. The hills became more prominent until Scott saw Tillman urging his horse up a hill that dwarfed all the others around it. Scott, too, urged his horse up the steep hill, reaching Tillman as his employer looked due south. Toward the west, the sun rose above a haze obscured horizon. Now we'll have some fun, Tillman said. The next moment Tillman was galloping full speed down the hill toward the horizon. The haze deep into fog, as Scott did his best to keep up. They reached the plane till and far ahead. As Scott rodey heard a boom and crash, he would only have described as cannon fire. A regular pattern, the sounds came quickly one after the other, followed by a short period of quiet that soon erupted again. The farther south they galloped, the louder the sounds became. Scott concentrated on catching up with his employer. He glimpsed Tillman ahead, then looked past him to a wide sand beach. Through the gloom, he spotted low rolling breakers. Beyond those waves gathered to crash full force onto the shore. The boom of cannon fire be damned. This was a Pacific. Scott chuckled. His laughter rolled like the waves expelled from his large mouth engulfs and gasps. And finally, an unfettered sound that he imagined later, could be heard from the decks of approaching ships if any had been near. He couldn't remember laughing like this before. Perhaps he never had. There was nothing to laugh about in St. Louis. Here in this landscape composed of endless hills, high mountains, a wide plain, and rivers both shallow and deep, there was something more to see. An endless ocean that carried the waves and winds from distant shores. Not even among the tallest trees had he felt so insignificant and so free. This ends our tour of local history on when which I focused on water and landscape in our history. Like you, I thought we lived in a desert. Little did I know until I researched this novel, not that not so very long ago, water was everywhere. Angela, that's wonderful. Barbara, thank you so much. Everybody we're giving you a big hand. I had a question from the audience. Just if you could repeat the question that you asked before reading the selection. What was your question that you wanted them to guess the answer to? Ah, yeah. Okay, sure. We're we're this last scene. Where does it take place? Tillman and Scott are somewhere in the Long Beach area. Where where is that? Okay, so we have some answers rolling in. And then should I tell you? Oh, no, wait until I guess we'll give everybody maybe a minute or so and just enter your your guesses now. And then the first person who enters the correct guess will get the prize and then we will send you Barbara's email address so or and get yours as well so that we can make sure you guys can swap information for getting the book to you. In the meantime, actually, while we're getting those answers coming in, I'm going to start with a few questions that we had Barbara and then if anybody has questions for Barbara based on the her her talk, please enter those questions into the chat right now. Barbara, where did you get the ideas for your characters? I know you mentioned Don One Temple, John Temple was the the inspiration for Tillman. But where did you get the idea for the rest of your characters? The the first character came to me 20 years before I started the book. And I was it was new to Long Beach. It was 1981. And I was in Bixby Knowles, but I didn't know it was Bixby Knowles then. And I was writing another novel. I had no interest in California history. I had no interest in the West zero. And I always have a journal with me. So I had a moment I was waiting for an appointment. And I had a moment I picked up the my journal, and I wrote, I'm headed to the ranch house. I hope I can get there before it gets dark. And I saw somebody on a horseback. And I had no idea who it was. And 20 years passed. I can't tell you the kinds, all the things that happened to me in 20 years. But in the meantime, just he this man, this, I guess I didn't refer to him as a cowboy, I really didn't know what he was. He didn't seem like a cowboy to me. But he was definitely from another time period. And he kept coming back to my thoughts. And when I was ready, I started to research, you know, who could he be? And I went to the rancho. And I saw his room, the foreman's room. Well, that tells you something about the book. But anyway, and there there was Henry Scott, I knew that this was the man who would come to me on horseback. So yeah, that was that was the first. Oh, wonderful. We do have a few questions that have come in. Let's see. So Diana asks, where did all the water go? Was it all channeled into the concrete riverbeds? Oh, that's a really good question. Yeah. Um, yes, the before there were before the the the river was con concretized, or I think that's a word anyway, water would seep into the ground in groundwater. And that's why we had so much groundwater, because we have a porous soil. Because our whole plane is made up of the rocks and gravel that have come for, I think, 10 million years off the mountains. So it makes for a very porous plane. And the water just seeped into the ground. And any that didn't flow down into the into the rivers. But then the concrete channel, and then little by little, all the other channels of water were were put into concrete, and they all head toward the river. So that's that's our water. And it all goes down the river to the ocean about gosh, let's say billions of gallons a year, billions of gallons. Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you. Barbara, we have another question from William Uselman. Forgive me if I'm pronouncing anyone's names incorrectly. Barbara, is the Tongva language still spoken? Do you know? And how many descendants of the Tongva still survive? Are you do you have any information on that or any resources that we can forward people to? More information. Yeah. The the Tongva language is being learned, being taught and being learned by people who are interested. And I don't know how many descendants there are, but I this gives me a chance to say something that I want to say during the talk. And that is that the when I approached this book, another character that I knew I knew I had a Tongva Indian woman, a grandmother, actually, she does appear in the book, in my mind. But I knew I didn't know anything or very, very much about the Tongva. And I didn't, I didn't feel qualified to write about people that I didn't know anything about. And very early on, I met Cindy al-Vitre, who was a full time lecturer at Cal State Long Beach in the American Indian studies program. And she was getting her PhD at UCLA at the time. And we talked. She said she would help me. And sure enough, when I was ready with the draft, she read the draft and told me all kinds of wonderful things. Just, you know, our discussions were just wonderful. She read the second draft and again, came back with terrific information. And then and also books and things like that. I think I could get you in. I think I could get the gentleman who asked the question in touch with her. If you want to send me an email at Barbara, when water was everywhere.com, I would be pleased to try to do that. Or you could contact her directly through Long Beach, Cal State Long Beach, I'll give you her email address. That's wonderful. I'd also like to mention, me again, Aguirre in the chat, the director of education over at Rancho Los Cerritos, and she's joining us today. And she has mentioned, for more information related to the Tongva, you can access their online exhibit at Rancho Los Cerritos. And she left the email address there in the, sorry, the web address in the chat, www.RanchoLosCerritos.org forward slash exhibits, they do have a big Tongva exhibit that they put on there. Sarah Fitzgerald, their curator, was one of the people who was in charge of that. And they did work with other tribal elders and people from the Tongva community here in Long Beach and elsewhere, to put that information in that exhibit together. So, and then we also have Rancho Los Alamedos that also has exhibits and interpretation, programming with regards to the Tongva. And so those are two excellent places. And Cindy Albitre and Craig Torres are two people who work very closely in the community with both Ranchos to develop their Tongva programming. So that is, I'm really glad that that question was asked and we can forward people to those excellent sources in our community museums and research sites and people. All right, so let's see, we have another question from Dina. Were the Tongva Gabrielino people part of a larger nation? Do you know anything about that? Also were there other indigenous people in the region as well? If so, what were they? And if you don't know the answer to this, or if there's more, again, we can refer you to those sources and we have books in our collection as well. So okay, now I there were lots and lots of they were their own people. But there were and they occupied most of the area of the watershed that I showed you to to Panga Canyon to in the West. I maybe the Simi Hills and I think I believe, and the San Gabriel Mountains to the San Gabriel River to the to the east. So, and of course, Long Beach, so that that's pretty much the territory that the the Tongva people have occupied. But there were many, many other groups around. Because I did the the research for this novel about eight years ago. I let's say I published it five years ago. I took me about two years to prepare a manuscript and get published. So let's say seven or eight years ago, I cannot remember all the groups, but definitely every, every part of this area and every part of the United States, because I've seen maps of indigenous people and where they lived. Every part was occupied by people, everything. So yes, the answer is absolutely. Yes, there were many other groups that that lived in in close proximity to the Tongva. And people got along, they they traded. There were sometimes disagreements, all kinds of things that happened between people. But yeah, wonderful. Thank you. Let's see. Katie is asking why why did you use Big Headed Girl as a name and what was the story behind that? Oh, all right. Okay. Well, I told you she thanks for asking, Katie. I told you that I had a grandmother or rather, I saw a grandmother as a Tongva Indian and Big Headed Girl emerged later, literally, because the first time that Big Headed Girl is mentioned in the novel, she's being born and it's taking her a little time to come down the birth canal. And there, the grandmother, that is her mother's mother, is worried and thinks, Oh, no, she has a big head. And that's why it's taking her so long. But of course, when she emerges, she's in perfect shape. And but the name sticks. So she calls her Big Headed Girl. That's wonderful. Let's see. So we do have a few other questions. What is your writing process? Do you make an outline for a novel and follow it? Or do you have some other method that you use? I don't know if we have any folks in the audience who are interested or are currently working on works of historic fiction, but you know, just in terms of the process itself, like, what can you tell us about your process and how it works for you? Yeah, I think every writer has a different process. But for me, I don't outline I let the characters and the story emerge. And it takes a long time. I've written two novels and they've been shaking 10 years. And I'm hoping this one doesn't take as long. I'm working on a novel right now. And I'm hoping it won't take 10 years. But the characters emerge, I'm always surprised. I'd be very bored if I knew what was going to happen to them, I wouldn't stick with it. I want to be as surprised as, you know, I don't, I don't even know if the reader's surprised, but I'm always surprised at what they do, and how the story becomes becomes something and then more and then more and then more. That's yeah. That's awesome. Well, we are just a little bit a few minutes after four. I don't know, Barbara, if you had any parting thoughts that you wanted to share with the group, and then we will stick around for another 10 minutes or so for anybody who has any additional questions or wants to comment, but I'll let Barbara offer her parting thoughts now. Thank you. You know what, Angela, I wonder, did you did anyone guess about the Oh, yes, sorry, we did have guesses. What was the answer? Well, the answer is Signal Hill. Oh, great. So we did have a guess of Signal Hill. That was, let's see, Diana Martyr. Okay, Diana, if you're still here, send us your email address, send it to me privately in the chat. My name is Angela. And see if you can do that or send me your email address, and we'll make sure to get your information. Oh, there's Diana. There she is. Okay, so Diana, send me your email in the chat, and we will get that to Barbara so she can communicate with you. All right, and Katie was our second runner up. Good for you. Okay, so, um, okay, so Yeah, yeah, I was just I'm planning this talk and I came across I was reading the Sierra Club magazine, and I came across this quote, which I just think is wonderful. And I wanted to end with that. To appreciate written by a man named Jason Mark, to appreciate a landscape through the lens of the past can be at its best an act of acknowledgement memory becomes a gesture of gratitude toward those who came first. I really love that. And I so I appreciate your and I'm very grateful to you for tuning in today and hearing this. And I wish you good fortune and all of us good fortune as we go forward in this very strange time. Thank you so much, Barbara. Thank you so much. That was wonderful. And if anyone needs to leave right away, we wanted to thank you again for joining us. If you can't stay any longer, but you do have a question, you're also welcome to submit your question in the chat with your email address. And then Barbara will be able to follow up with you at a later time by email to answer your questions. Otherwise, we're going to hang around until 415. And then we will conclude the program at that point. Let's see, we have comment. Thank you, everybody. Again, thank you. Let's see. So I just wanted to go through. Thank you, everybody. Just a few remaining questions. If we had any in the chat. Okay, so Megan at Rancho Los Cerritos also mentioned, oh, this is a great point you can raise. And I did want to mention it as well. If you're interested in the story of water, there has been a lot of research going on in the area at different historical organizations, Rancho Los Alamitos just produced a film not long ago that you can see on their website. And it's called Rancho Los Alamitos and the Story of Water. And there was a big collaborative project with Rancho Los Alamitos and Rancho Los Cerritos and the city of Long Beach and the water department just a bunch of different people getting to I think I'm saying the right groups. That was a big project that brought together the in depth history behind the story of water as it developed and in Long Beach in connection with Rancho Los Cerritos. The historical society. Yes, the historical society. Thank you. So you can see that in the chat there if anybody's interested Megan did include the YouTube link. So you can right click on that link right now and pull it up in your your search engine, your your browser and and you can watch that there. Thank you so much Megan for that. We have comments from the audience everybody. Maureen Neely, thank you so much. Maureen presented for us on our WPA art architecture and artists of Long Beach back in October and thank you for joining us. We do have also a comment that the writer's workshop at Los Altos library is also going on. So if anybody's interested in writing and writing historical fiction or nonfiction and this talk has inspired you, you are welcome to join the writer's workshop at Los Altos Library and you can send an email to the senior librarian over there. Erica lands down. Well, I think right now we have someone else we have Lauren Wynn who's who's there but Erica can hook you up to or you can email me and I can get you that information. Let's see. We also have let's see comments. As far as the recording is going, we have a question about the recording. When we have a final editing and everything done on this video, we will be submitting it to the big contact list of all you guys who signed up. So that will be coming out shortly. Give us a week or so. It takes a little bit of time to get things done, but we will get that out to you soon. All right, lots of thanks from the audience. Also Megan did include Long Beach Historical Society's Water Changes Everything. They do have an exhibit that was produced over there. Thank you very much for that Megan as well. So everybody can access that too in the chat. Let's see. Okay. All right, so we got Diana here. We did submit your email, Diana Martyr. We got your email address. Thank you so much for submitting that and we'll get it. I'll send you Diana to Barbara this week. Wonderful. Okay, we had just a few last questions. Did you have any favorite authors that have inspired you? Or that you just like in general? Oh, gosh. Alright, my my most favorite author is Zora Neil Hurston. She was a writer during the Harlem Renaissance. She wrote, you really have to read this book. Our eyes were watching God. You just absolutely it's one of the most beautiful books you will ever read. And so yeah, she's my absolute favorite. But I have many, many I love I love some of Barbara Kingsolver's books. I love some of Louise Erdrich's books. I got Toni Morrison. Gosh, she's so inspiring. Who else? You know, I always I should have a list at the top of my head, but I don't I read a lot. But I gosh, who else? I bet somebody here who knows me can tell me what I love. I'm looking at my bookcase. I said recently, those are those are some of the people that I really admire. Oh, love. That's wonderful. Speaking of books and authors, we have Bill in the audience who's asking, where can we get a copy of your book, Barbara? Oh, thank you. Besides the library, if you buy a copy. Yes, absolutely. You can there's a couple of copies in the in the library. Just go online and reserve a copy and you'll you'll get a time to pick it up. If you want to buy it, you can go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble. You can get it in ebook or or paperback whatever you'd like. So just yeah, wonderful, wonderful. You already said it. But yeah, if people do have questions about or want to be able to read the book, you can access it through our library's online catalog at www.LBPL.org and you can go in and request the book there. You can also call us over the phone to have a copy reserved for you and then you pick it up through our Long Beach LBPL to go at our participating branch libraries. And then you can also get a copy from Barbara or through Amazon. Let's see, we do have other books on historical fiction writing, you know, writing novels in general, and other books and resources relating to these topics that Barbara discussed today, if you're interested. And we've got about two minutes left. We have just one more question. Let's see, Barbara, are you working on a sequel for this book? If people are interested in learning more? Oh, I've been asked that question. I really want to know what happens to them in the future, but I am not. And part of it is that I, I don't that I'm not interested in the next period of history of Southern California history. I've been I've thought, well, maybe I should take him to another part of the state, Mr. Scott, but I just I don't know. I think I have, I do something once and I exhaust it. And that's it. I want to move on to something else. I would though, really like to know what happens to them all in the future. So they're still with me. It's always a possibility. Thanks for asking. Well, that brings up. Do you have any other? Do you have a new some new research that you're working on for any books coming that you're trying to put together for the future? I am I'm working on a novel. It takes place far into the future. But it's not exactly science fiction. I'm not exactly sure what it is. But I am working on it. And I'm trying to stop myself from doing any research. Because I really did a lot of research for this. But at every turn, I want to do more research. So we'll just see what happens. Research has a funny way of taking you down lots of different rabbit holes. And you can just keep going and never stop. So it's satisfying. It's satisfying. It is. But at some point, you have to pull the plug and just say, Okay, now I have to pull it all together. So that's part of the process as well. Okay, one last question. The Rancho House described in the book, is that one of the actual remaining ranchos along beach? It sounded like it was much larger. That question came from Diana. Yeah, no, no, it is actually the Rancho Los Cerritos, the ranch house. And I as I go through it, I describe it being built but not kind of being finished, but not exactly. Yeah. So it is the it is the Rancho, the ranch house. Wow. So that served as a big inspiration for you to and I highly encourage everyone to visit our local ranchos. They're wonderful. They are. They're wonderful that operated by private foundations, but the land itself and the houses are owned by the city. But they're wonderful resources in our community. And and I understand Rancho, I think the the gardens are still available for people to walk through. You can call the ranchos to double check on that or go to their websites. But just wonderful places to take some rest and relaxation and and step back in time. Just wonderful resources in our community, a lot of great people who are doing a lot of work, great work there. So I really encourage everybody and our local historical society, historical society Long Beach, Long Beach Heritage, all of these organizations that are community are just doing an incredible job. Bringing together the the history of Long Beach for us. So with that, we're now at 415 and we need to conclude our program. But I'd like to thank Barbara for her time and generous support of the educational enrichment of our Long Beach Public Library community and people from so much further field now they're joining us online via zoom when we have this online opportunity available to us. So I'd like to thank all of you, all of our guests who have joined us today for this local history lecture series program. I'd also like to thank our library administration and staff, friends of the library, the Long Beach Public Library Foundation and many other local contacts for helping to promote our event, as well as the ranchos. Thank you. And our sincere thanks and appreciation to all of you. So have a wonderful evening, everyone. Stay safe and healthy. And we look forward to seeing you again soon for more upcoming programs with the Miller Room and the Long Beach Public Library. Thanks again. And good night, everyone. Thank you. Thank you.