Education Long Ago Long Beach, An Artful Storytelling Adventure In alignment with our new educational master plan and continued Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility initiatives, the Rancho is expanding our award-winning Long Ago Long Beach program in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic by implementing the digital Long Ago Long Beach: An Artful Storytelling Adventure program which will complement our new exhibit, “Roots in California: Concepts of Home” opening in March 2022.

New Exhibit Opening in 2022 National Endowment for the Humanities Initiative “A More Perfect Union: Exploring America’s Story and Commemorating its 250th Anniversary” is supporting Roots in California: Concepts of Home which relates the key role that Mexican and Mexican American people have played in shaping our national landscape during the United States’ transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Roots in California exhibit will feature recorded oral histories, artifacts of the people who lived and worked at the Rancho, and photographs that highlight their stories from the Rancho Los Cerritos collections.

Supporting the Rancho

For the first time in the Rancho’s history, the Opening Doors Campaign Committee has developed a recognition program that allows donors to choose meaningful ways to leave a lasting legacy and enhance restoration and interpretation at Rancho Los Cerritos through gifting opportunities that support campaign projects.

This exhibit will share the oral histories of Mexican Americans living at Rancho Los Cerritos between the 1890s and 1930s and will also connect them to five stories of Mexican and Mexican Americans currently living in California. The exhibition will examine the complex concept of home through these stories.

Margie and Frank Newell The Rose Arbor in the Ralph D. Cornell Historic Backyard Garden

Support provided by the RuMBa Foundation of Long Beach, the Miller Foundation and the Bess J. Hodges Foundation.

A special thank you to David Fernandez for his pro bono architectural services to re-design the Visitor Center to make our exhibit space more accessible as part of our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility Initiatives.

Stephen and Nancy Dudley The 1930s Sunporch in the Historic Adobe Home. Pictured is Stephen Dudley as a baby in the Sunporch circa 1942.

Additional gifting opportunities available upon request

The Junior League of Long Beach The Renovation of the Rancho’s Interpretative Herb Garden. Pictured current JLLB President Jaylene Eatherly Westfall and past JLLB President Ashleigh Ruhl.