Yorba Linda
Star
Serving Yorba Linda since 1917
AN EDITION OF
THURSDAY, JULY 1 1, 20 1 3
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OCREGISTER.COM/YORBALINDA
I want my grandchildren, my family, my friends to know how we lived (and) this is how it was.” EDDIE CASTRO D O C E N T F O R S U S A N N A B I X B Y B R YA N T M U S E U M A N D B O TA N I C G A R D E N
PARADISE on the RANCH
KEVIN LARA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Eddie Castro is a docent at the Susanna Bixby Bryant Museum on former Bryant Ranch land in Yorba Linda. When his family’s Placentia home was flooded in 1 938, they moved to Bryant Ranch, where his father worked as a ranch hand. Today, Castro gives talks to children touring the museum and shares his stories about life on the ranch.
Eddie Castro of Placentia makes history come alive at Susanna Bixby Bryant Museum, on land where he once lived. BY DANIEL LANGHORNE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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ddie Castro and his twin brother, Leo, lived like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn on Bryant Ranch in the late 1930s. There were bullfrogs to hunt with slingshots, a canal to swim in and a clubhouse in an ancient sycamore tree. For a poor Latino boy from the La Jolla colony of Placentia, the rural ranch was paradise.
Now 85, Castro is retired, living with his wife in their quiet suburban home in Placentia, but he still goes out to the Susanna Bixby Bryant Museum in Yorba Linda to talk to elementary school pupils about his childhood on the ranch before it was transformed by subdivisions. Castro and the museum are more than just a low-budget field trip site, though. Castro is an example of the living history of Yorba Linda and Placentia that is unknown to many who moved into the area during the housing boom over the past few decades. “He wants to let the children know how it was and he is proud of that,” said museum curator JoAnn Ardanaz. “He’s the one that expresses his pride for being a part of that history.” Castro’s family originally lived on Gonzales Street in the La Jolla colony. In the 1990s the street became notorious for drive-by shootings and drug deals. On a recent walk down his old street, Castro was happy to learn from one local, who lives next to the house he grew up in, that such problems are gone. In 1938, the Santa Ana River flooded more
Susanna Bixby Bryant Museum and Botanic Garden Address: 5700 Susanna Bryant Drive, Yorba Linda Hours: 1 -4 p.m. Sundays, except holiday weekends Phone: 7 1 4-694-0235 Admission: Adults are $2 and children ages 5-1 2 are $ 1 Source: Susanna Bixby Bryant Museum
than 68,000 acres in north Orange County and killed nearly 60 people. Placentia wasn’t spared. About three-quarters of Castro’s wood-framed family house was destroyed. With the citrus industry decimated by the flood, the Castros moved 12 miles to Bryant Ranch, where Eddie’s father worked as a ranch hand. The Castros lived in a house with a woodburning stove, much like the rest of the workforce in the ranch. Castro, his four siblings S E E C A S T R O ● PA G E 1 0
COURTESY OF EDDIE CASTRO
From left, Leo, Armando, Mary Helen, Lupe and Eddie Castro lived with the rest of their family on Gonzales Street in the La Jolla Colony around 1 933.
Music shop to help kids rock Plan to limit temporary signs BY DANIEL LANGHORNE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Some local children will rock for free on Main Street. Victor Delgado, the owner and chief executive of The Music Lab, and a couple of his instructors have volunteered to host free guitar lessons for children from low-income families. The parents of the prospective musicians will just have to show proof the family’s income is less than $40,000 a year. “I was that kid that couldn’t afford any lessons,” said Delgado, who founded his guitar shop at Main Street and Lemon Drive 20 years ago. “All we ask is that the kid wants to be here.”
live audience are included. Delgado admits not every family can afford this, though. At The Music Lab, guitar students should expect that instructional books have been thrown out. Delgado thinks that children should know basic theory, but he thinks the instructor should always first ask students what they want to learn. “Everybody that comes COURTESY OF THANH DANG here is taught differently,” Victor Delgado, owner and he said. “Kids don’t want CEO of The Music Lab, is more homework.” starting Kids Rock Free at There will be 10 seats his store on Main Street. per class and they will be The Music Lab has a available on a first-come, School of Rock for $100 a first-serve basis starting at month. A professional stu- 4 p.m. July 27 at 4805 Main dio, a CD recording and a St. Classes will be held on performance in front of a Saturdays.
quashed with vote by council Some council members and residents raise concerns about the proposal’s impact on political campaigns. BY DANIEL LANGHORNE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The City Council killed a proposed change to the zoning code that would have limited the use of temporary signs on public property, largely because of its potential impact on political campaigns. City staff and the Planning Commission proposed the amendment to address complaints from residents about sign clutter along public roads – an issue that crops up particularly during election seasons. Staff attempted to calm fears
that the change would limit political speech by proposing a “content-neutral” ordinance. This would have meant signs for City Council campaigns, real estate agents’ open houses and youth sports leagues would have all been treated equally. Several residents who spoke at last week’s City Council meeting and some council members objected to this idea. Veteran Councilman Mark Schwing was the council’s most vocal opponent of any attempt to limit
residents’ ability to run for public office. “To take that right way is abhorrent to me,” Schwing said. “I’m just offended by the language of the way this was written.” The proposed changes to the zoning code included a limit of four of the same sign, a minimum of 500 feet between copies of a sign on the same side of the street and signs would only be allowed to be up between sunrise and sunset from Thursday to Sunday. S E E S I G N S ● PA G E 2