Founded as a labor camp for agricultural workers, the small community of Pajaro has long languished in the shadow of nearby Watsonville.
For years, experts had been warning Monterey and Santa Cruz County that the levee along the Pajaro River could fail.Pajaro residents who found themselves barred from re-entering their homes to gather belongings and supplies were troubled . The fact that the levees breached on the Monterey County side of the river, and not into Watsonville, added to their frustration.
“Pajaro became kind of Monterey County’s Siberia,” and Watsonville’s “fief,” he said — a place to house farmworkers. “Let’s be candid about it. Towns that have lots of agricultural laborers don’t want them living in downtown.” “Right? In a county where 70% of the population is people of color?” he said. “There is a deep history of marginalization.”
Part of his role was to draw county lines and choose county seats — the place where courts and law enforcement would be based. When the border committee finished its work, the county line was drawn down the center of the valley. On Feb. 18, 1850, the counties were established — cutting the Pajaro River Valley in half. A decision, Lydon said, that has resulted in “nothing but trouble since.”
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