Editing Placentia, California (section)

== History ==

[[Indigenous peoples of California]] referred to by the Spanish as [[Gabrieleno|''Gabrielenos'']], known as the [[Tongva]], lived in the area for thousands of years. One estimate wrote that the native population in what was to become northern Orange County was at least 1,000.<ref name=":2" /> The large village of [[Hutuknga]] was closely situated to the area that is now Placentia.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last1=Koerper |first1=Henry |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/745176510 |title=Catalysts to complexity : late Holocene societies of the California coast |last2=Mason |first2=Roger |last3=Peterson |first3=Mark |date=2002 |publisher=Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA |others=Jon Erlandson, Terry L. Jones, Jeanne E. Arnold, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA |isbn=978-1-938770-67-8 |location=Los Angeles |pages=64–66, 79 |oclc=745176510}}</ref>

In 1837, the Mexican government granted the area that is now Placentia to Juan Pacifico Ontiveros as part of the [[Rancho San Juan Cajón de Santa Ana]] land grant.<ref name=":1" />

In 1865, American pioneer [[Daniel Kraemer]] arrived and purchased {{convert|3,900|acres}}. Many other American pioneers soon followed, and the community developed.<ref name=":1" />

The local school district was originally named the Cajon School District. In 1878, the school district's name was changed to Placentia School District by Sarah Jane McFadden, Placentia being derived from a Latin word meaning "pleasant place to live". She was the wife of William McFadden, who was the second White settler to arrive in Placentia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The McFadden Letters {{!}} Placentia Library |url=https://www.placentialibrary.org/articles/mcfadden-letters |access-date=December 4, 2022 |website=www.placentialibrary.org}}</ref> The town eventually took its own name after the school district.<ref name=":1" />

The first commercial orange grove was established in 1880, worked by mostly Mexican and English laborers.<ref name=":2" />

=== 20th century ===
[[File:Old Mission orange crate label.jpg|left|thumb|178x178px|Orange crate label of the Placentia Orchard Company]]
From a handful of scattered ranches, the core of the town was developed around 1910. It functioned as a major railroad stop along the [[Santa Fe Railroad]] for processing oranges. Later, during the [[Great Depression]], a brief strike of citrus workers occurred in Placentia.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Gardner |first1=Jeanette |title=Early Placentia |last2=de Graaf |first2=Lawrence |last3=Placentia Historical Committee |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=9780738547282 |pages=7–11}}</ref>

Oil was found in 1919, which led to the development of numerous oil wells in eastern and northern Placentia. The town of Richfield, which later became [[Atwood, Placentia, California|Atwood]], was built to house oil workers. Mexican laborers formed the majority of the labor force in the oil industry. The neighboring town of [[La Jolla, Placentia, California|La Jolla, Placentia]] was constructed for a similar reason as a segregated ''colonia''.<ref name=":2" />

Several schools were constructed in Placentia from the 1910s to the 1930s that were [[Racial segregation|segregated]] between White and Mexican students.<ref name=":2" /> Isabel Martínez was the first student of Mexican parentage to graduate from [[Fullerton High School (California)|Fullerton High School]] in 1931, being celebrated in the ''Placentia Courier'' as an "exceptional" Mexican. Within six years, the number of Placentia students graduating high school numbered only six.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gonzalez |first=Gilbert G. |title=Labor and Community: Mexican Citrus Worker Villages in a Southern California County, 1900-1950 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=1994 |isbn=9780252063886 |pages=111}}</ref> 
[[File:La Jolla Colony, south of Placentia, after the flood of March 3, 1938.jpg|left|thumb|220x220px|[[La Jolla, Placentia, California|La Jolla, Placentia]], a predominately Mexican ''colonia'', after the [[Santa Ana River]] flood of 1938]]
The predominately Mexican areas of Placentia were heavily hit by the [[Santa Ana River]] [[Los Angeles flood of 1938#Riverside and Orange Counties|flood of 1938]], which destroyed everything in the area but "the La Jolla School Building and three brick structures." The flood left 3,700 refugees and 1,500 homes uninhabitable, and "caused more than 50 deaths, most from the Atwood area."<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 28, 2013 |title=From the Placentia History Room Archives: 1938 Flood, 75 years later |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2013/03/28/from-the-placentia-history-room-archives-1938-flood-75-years-later/ |website=Orange County Register}}</ref>

Mexican-American [[war veterans]] from [[World War II]] worked to end school segregation in Placentia in 1948.<ref name=":2" /> This campaign was led by Alfred Aguirre, who noted that some white ranchers believed Mexicans were good fruit pickers, but that "the White kids are too advanced" for Mexican students to keep up in the classroom.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Rosales |first=Steven |title=Soldados Razos at War: Chicano Politics, Identity, and Masculinity in the U.S. Military from World War II to Vietnam |publisher=University of Arizona Press |year=2017 |isbn=9780816532445 |pages=189–190}}</ref>

The Mexican-American community in Placentia developed its own political power base in the 1950s. This resulted in the election of Aguirre to Placentia's city council from 1958 to 1962 and the registration of hundreds of [[Chicano]] voters in the city.<ref name=":3" />

In July 2020, Placentia organized and established its own fire department, Placentia Fire and Life Safety Department, leaving the [[Orange County Fire Authority]] as the first city to ever disband from the OCFA.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.placentia.org/178/History-of-Placentia|title = History of Placentia &#124; Placentia, CA - Official Website}}</ref>