Bittersweet Roots: The Chinese in California’s Heartland (2002)

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The California Delta is the only place in America where the Chinese community has maintained a sustained presence for nearly a century and a half. Here, immigrants from China transformed swampland into one of the richest agricultural regions on earth. Bittersweet Roots is their story, about how they came and thrived despite hardship and racism. It begins in the 1850s, when thousands of Chinese fortune-seekers rushed to California’s gold fields. After the mines played out, Chinese workers faced the arduous task of completing the transcontinental railroad, then reclaimed the Delta by building a complex system of levees. Learn about the families who worked the land and meet some of their descendants who are still producing crops today