The Dreamt Land Quotes

“At the counter sat the biggest fruit grower in the valley, a soft-spoken Lebanese-American named Ray Gerawan who knew my family and pulled me closer. Let me explain what seems like a paradox to you, he said. It isn’t a paradox at all. The farmer and the Mexican are engaged in a centuries-long game. As rich as the farmer might be, his workers can still bring him to his knees if they realize their power. The farmer doesn’t like feeling vulnerable. He supported the ballot measure because he knew that even if it went”
― Mark Arax, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California

“He wants to think of himself as pious, honorable, churchgoing, civic-minded. The bent-down Mexican can drive the farmer to madness, to drink, to whoring, to collecting Ferraris, to the roulette table to gamble it all away. That’s why the labor contractor came into existence. It’s not as if the farmer can’t”
― Mark Arax, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California

“We’d been shot out of Sutter’s cannon. Ever since the poor captain weighed the nuggets discovered by Marshall and found out they were twenty-three-carat gold, we’ve been stuck in the same gear. Because our beginning was supercharged, we never had a chance to catch our breath and correct our excess. The fever never left our System. It followed us down the mountain to the valley. It became our System. We built a state capitol where two rowdy rivers met. We spent a century trying to conquer the Sacramento River. When we finished conquering it (or not), we killed the San Joaquin. Of all the crimes of the System, this is the one that cannot be forgiven. The farms of Tulare and Kern Counties had rivers of their own to exploit well enough. That they aspired beyond those rivers should not have been a price the San Joaquin had to pay.”
― Mark Arax, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California

“Or they can draw a line around the whole, count it as one state and begin their infinite tinkering to even out the differences.”
― Mark Arax, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California

“When it came time to populate the one thousand miles of our nation-state, we planted 70 percent of the people at the southern end where only 30 percent of the water was made. This wasn’t misplaced people, we told ourselves. This was misplaced rain. In our resolve to move those molecules of water to where the crops and houses grew, California pulled off the ultimate sleight of hand.”
― Mark Arax, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California