Burial Plots in Santa Cruz County
mid 1800s-mid 1900s
Santa Cruz, Pajaro Valley, Watsonville
Forest Woodman
Image captures graves from the Pajaro Valley Pioneer Cemetery. I wasn’t sure where the segregated section for black people was in this cemetery. Luna once told me black people were usually buried on hills; this is because there wasn’t respect for the deceased bodies in case there were climate effects to cause damage to graves. These graves were near the segregated section of deceased Asian immigrants.
Methodology
Our class took many field trips to county and state offices. I visited with the class the Santa Cruz County Recorder’s Office, the California State Library, the downtown branch of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH). I called Watsonville cemeteries. I visited the Valley Public Cemetery in-person.
Results
Black people are buried all around Santa Cruz county. From the visit to Sacramento’s State Library, I found 17 African American or “NA race” people in the burial permit logs from 1905-1938. Twelve are in Santa Cruz Memorial Park, 1 person in the Mausoleum Santa Cruz, 2 people in Holy Cross Cemetery, 1 person in Oakwood Cemetery, and 1 person in Evergreen Cemetery. The Pajaro Valley Memorial Park Cemetery was established in 1932. When I called them, the person on the phone told me, “I’m pretty sure we have black people buried here. It doesn’t say the person’s race on the [burial/cremation] permit.” The Watsonville Catholic and Pioneer Cemetery was established in the late 1800s. The person I spoke with on the phone informed me there is a “small, little area for black people on the plot.”