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The San Joaquin Valley is the part of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the San Joaquin delta. It is predominantly rural, however it does contain the cities of Stockton, Modesto, Fresno, and Bakersfield. It includes the counties of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Kern.
Culture
Culturally, the San Joaquin Valley is distinct from most of California. This is in part due to the influx of people with Southern descent due to the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. People in the San Joaquin Valley are very conservative. For example, signs can be seen around Visalia supporting leaving the United Nations and opposing abortion. Due to the agricultural interests in the San Joaquin Valley, many of the people also feel strongly against environmental interests.
The central valley is also the home to a few colleges in California. The colleges are the University of the Pacific, CSU Fresno, and CSU Bakersfield. Most of the counties in the San Joaquin Valley also have at community colleges. Most of the people in the San Joaquin Valley attend one of these schools. For example, about 3 out of 100 UC Berkeley students come from the San Joaquin Valley, while the San Joaquin Valley accounts for 9% of California's population.
Ethnic Background
While the San Joaquin Valley does have a large number of ethnic groups, many of them are found in majorities in specific cities, and hardly anywhere else in the San Joaquin Valley. For example, the Dutch are focused in Ripon, the Sikhs in Stockton, and the Yugoslavs in Delano. Ethnic groups found in a broader area are the Portuguese, Mexicans, and dust bowl "Okies" who migrated to California from Texas and Oklahoma.
The cultures of the San Joaquin Valley are the result of established ethnic communities and groups of immigrants coming to the United States at once. This is in part due to the founding of religious groups in the San Joaquin Valley. For example, the first permanent Sikh Gurdwara was made in Stockton in 1915. These communities in the San Joaquin Valley are quite large. For example, there are more Azoreans in the San Joaquin Valley than there are in the Azores.
The dust bowl migrants to the San Joaquin Valley are one of the more well-known groups in the Central Valley, in part due to the novel The Grapes of Wrath, and the movie based on the book. These farmers left Oklahoma and Texas when farming became near impossible due to poor soil. They left en masse, taking Route 66 to the San Joaquin Valley. There, they continued the farming life they had lived in Oklahoma, and they contributed to the creation of the large agriculture industry in the San Joaquin Valley.
Transportation
The San Joaquin Valley is transversed by interstate 5 and California state highway 99. As a result of this, the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley is focused more on the Los Angeles area, while the northern part is closer to Sacramento. Other than Amtrak, this is the only form of transportation spanning the length of the San Joaquin Valley.
The main international transportation from the central valley is the port of Stockton. The port is primarily cargo, and it ships agricultural products from the San Joaquin Valley all across the world.
Cities with more than 20,000
List of Counties
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