Misplaced Pages

Jesusita Fire

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an accepted version of this page

#955044

118-445: The Jesusita Fire was a wildfire that started on May 5, 2009, in the hills of Santa Barbara, California in the western United States. By the time the fire was contained on May 18 it had burned 8,733 acres (35.34 km), destroyed 80 homes and damaged 15 more before being 100% contained. The cause of the fire was ultimately traced to local contractors who had left gas cans and hot equipment unattended in dry brush after clearing part of

236-446: A $ 490 fine. Illenstine and Larsen were not charged with starting the fire - only a charge from a California Fire Code entitled "Welding and other Hot Work" and local civil attorney Kathy Johnson states the statue was not intended to be applied to brush clearing work. A year later, in July 2011, 60 of the owners of homes destroyed by the fire filed a civil lawsuit against Stihl Incorporated ,

354-449: A bachelor's degree or higher was estimated to be 38.9% of the population. 16.6% of the population was under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 29.4% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 20.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.5 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older, there were 105.7 males. The 2016–2020 5-year American Community Survey estimates show that

472-588: A considerable number of words from Arabic , as well as a minor influence from the Germanic Gothic language through the period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from both Classical Latin and Renaissance Latin , the form of Latin in use at that time. According to

590-517: A dramatic change in the pronunciation of its sibilant consonants , known in Spanish as the reajuste de las sibilantes , which resulted in the distinctive velar [x] pronunciation of the letter ⟨j⟩ and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic interdental [θ] ("th-sound") for the letter ⟨z⟩ (and for ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ ). See History of Spanish (Modern development of

708-476: A first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos ( Ilustrados ). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing. Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American administration after

826-471: A long history in the territory of the current-day United States dating back to the 16th century. In the wake of the 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty , hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers became a minoritized community in the United States. The 20th century saw further massive growth of Spanish speakers in areas where they had been hitherto scarce. According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of

944-470: A major employer. In 1975, the city passed an ordinance restricting growth to a maximum of 85,000 residents, through zoning. Growth in the adjacent Goleta Valley could be shut down by denying water meters to developers seeking permits. As a result of these changes, growth slowed down, but prices rose sharply. When voters approved connection to State water supplies in 1991, parts of the city, especially outlying areas, resumed growth, but more slowly than during

1062-536: A matter of hours the fire had grown to 150 acres (0.61 km) with 50-mile-per-hour (80 km/h) sundowner winds expected. Officials issued mandatory evacuations for approximately 1,200 homes in the hills above Santa Barbara. By Monday, May 8, the fire perimeter extended from west of Highway 154, in the hills burned in the 1990 Painted Cave Fire , across the front country of the Santa Ynez Mountains east through Mission Canyon , Rattlesnake Canyon, and into

1180-621: A mile up Refugio Canyon. The Mission was rebuilt by 1820 after the earthquake. Following the earthquake, the Mission fathers chose to rebuild in a grander manner, and it is this construction that survives to the present day, the best-preserved of the California Missions, and still functioning as an active church by the Franciscans. After the Mexican government secularized the missions in the 1830s,

1298-498: A primarily Hassaniya Arabic -speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its secondary official language, and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf ( Algeria ), where the Spanish language is still taught as

SECTION 10

#1732858084956

1416-481: A road called "Alameda Padre Serra" (shortened APS, which translates to "Father Serra's pathway"). According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 42.0 square miles (108.8 km ), of which 19.5 square miles (51 km ) of it is land and 22.5 square miles (58 km ) of it (53.61%) is water. The high official figures for water is due to the extension of the city limit into

1534-599: A second language features characteristics involving the variability of the vowel system. While far from its heyday during the Spanish protectorate in Morocco , the Spanish language has some presence in northern Morocco , stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media. According to a 2012 survey by Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES), penetration of Spanish in Morocco reaches 4.6% of

1652-518: A second language, largely by Cuban educators. The number of Spanish speakers is unknown. Spanish is also an official language of the African Union . Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During Spanish colonization , it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as

1770-416: Is cognate to the root word of satisfacer ("to satisfy"), and hecho ("made") is similarly cognate to the root word of satisfecho ("satisfied"). Compare the examples in the following table: Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent

1888-436: Is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French , it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world. Spanish is well represented in the humanities and social sciences . Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet by number of users after English and Chinese and the second most used language by number of websites after English. Spanish

2006-616: Is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California , of which it is also the county seat . Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting Alaska, the city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean . Santa Barbara's climate is often described as Mediterranean , and the city has been dubbed "The American Riviera". According to

2124-825: Is a list of neighborhoods with descriptions and comments on each. The 2020 United States census counted 88,665 people, 35,383 households, and 19,257 families in Santa Barbara. The population density was 4,545.3 people per square mile (1,755.0 people/km ). There were 38,208 housing units at an average density of 1,958.7 units per square mile (756.3 units/km ). The racial makeup was 58.47% (51,842) white or European American (51.75% non-Hispanic white ), 1.4% (1,238) black or African-American , 1.49% (1,320) Native American or Alaska Native , 3.59% (3,184) Asian , 0.09% (80) Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian , 17.62% (15,623) from other races , and 17.34% (15,378) from two or more races . Hispanic or Latino of any race

2242-449: Is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language , making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers . An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or foreign language , making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers. Spanish is also

2360-567: Is extremely rare in the city itself. The most recent accumulating snow to fall near sea level was in January 1949, when approximately 2 inches (5.1 cm) fell in the city. The city of Santa Barbara is situated on a coastal plain between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the sea. This coastal plain consists of a complex array of Holocene and Pleistocene alluvial and colluvial deposits, marine terraces , debris flows, and estuarine deposits. Soils are mostly well drained brown fine sandy loam of

2478-740: Is heavily influenced by Venezuelan Spanish. In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation of Mercosur in the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching in Brazil . In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President , making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil. In September 2016 this law

SECTION 20

#1732858084956

2596-567: Is located about 90 miles (145 km) west-northwest of Los Angeles , along the Pacific coast. This stretch of coast along southern Santa Barbara County is sometimes referred to as "The American Riviera", presumably because its geography and climate are similar to that of areas along the northern Mediterranean Sea coast (especially in southern France) known as the Riviera . The Santa Ynez Mountains , an east–west trending range, rise dramatically behind

2714-806: Is spoken by very small communities in Angola due to Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country's independence. Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands , located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (62 mi) off

2832-804: Is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico . The language has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles , Miami , San Antonio , New York , San Francisco , Dallas , Tucson and Phoenix of the Arizona Sun Corridor , as well as more recently, Chicago , Las Vegas , Boston , Denver , Houston , Indianapolis , Philadelphia , Cleveland , Salt Lake City , Atlanta , Nashville , Orlando , Tampa , Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration. Although Spanish has no official recognition in

2950-484: Is the official Spanish language of the State. ... The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities... The Royal Spanish Academy ( Real Academia Española ), on the other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language castellano . The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by

3068-585: Is used as an official language by many international organizations , including the United Nations , European Union , Organization of American States , Union of South American Nations , Community of Latin American and Caribbean States , African Union , among others. In Spain and some other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian),

3186-567: Is usually assumed to be derived from castillo ('castle'). In the Middle Ages , the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as Romance and later also as Lengua vulgar . Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as Romance castellano ( romanz castellano , romanz de Castiella ), lenguaje de Castiella , and ultimately simply as castellano (noun). Different etymologies have been suggested for

3304-478: The Americas and Spain , and about 600 million when including second language speakers. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries , as well as one of the six official languages of the United Nations . Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese ; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English , Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani ( Hindi - Urdu ); and

3422-531: The Gold Rush years and following, the town became a haven for bandits and gamblers, and a dangerous and lawless place. Charismatic gambler and highwayman Jack Powers had virtual control of the town in the early 1850s, until driven out by a posse organized in San Luis Obispo. English gradually supplanted Spanish as the language of daily life, becoming the language of official record in 1870. The first newspaper,

3540-496: The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); locally, outraged citizens formed GOO (Get Oil Out). Santa Barbara's business community strove to attract development until the surge in the anti-growth movement in the 1970s. Many "clean" industries, especially aerospace firms such as Raytheon and Delco Electronics, moved to town in the 1950s and 1960s, bringing employees from other parts of the U.S. UCSB itself became

3658-581: The Presidio . They were sent to both secure the Spanish claim to the region and to convert the indigenous peoples to Catholicism . Many of the Spaniards brought their families with them, and those formed the nucleus of the small town – at first just a cluster of adobes – that surrounded the Presidio of Santa Barbara . The Santa Barbara Mission was established on the Feast of Saint Barbara , December 4, 1786. It

Jesusita Fire - Misplaced Pages Continue

3776-802: The Santa Barbara Gazette , was founded in 1855. While the Civil War had little effect on Santa Barbara, the disastrous drought of 1863 ended the Rancho Period, as most of the cattle died and ranchos were broken up and sold. Mortimer Cook, a wealthy entrepreneur, arrived in 1871 and opened the city's first bank. Cook later served two terms as mayor. Cook founded the first National Gold Bank of Santa Barbara in 1873. The building of Stearns Wharf in 1872 enhanced Santa Barbara's commercial and tourist accessibility; previously goods and visitors had to transfer from steamboats to smaller craft to row ashore. During

3894-586: The Sisquoc Formation , and the Santa Barbara Formation. The Santa Barbara Formation is one of the main units in the aquifer underlying the city. Its coarse-grained freshwater-bearing portion, much of which is below sea level, is protected from seawater intrusion by the More Ranch Fault, which has shielded it by uplifting less-permeable rocks between it and the sea. The majority of water wells in

4012-557: The Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. Spanish has historically had a significant presence on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao ( ABC Islands ) throughout the centuries and in present times. The majority of the populations of each island (especially Aruba) speaking Spanish at varying although often high degrees of fluency. The local language Papiamentu (Papiamento on Aruba)

4130-562: The Spanish–American War but was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s. Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English and Filipino , a standardized version of Tagalog . Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under

4248-533: The University of California, Santa Barbara , Santa Barbara City College , Westmont College , and Antioch University Santa Barbara . The city is served by Santa Barbara Airport and train service is provided by Amtrak , which operates the Pacific Surfliner , which runs from San Diego to San Luis Obispo . The Santa Barbara area is connected via U.S. Highway 101 to Los Angeles 100 mi (160 km) to

4366-526: The misdemeanor of not obtaining the proper permit for hot work. The hot work charge is somewhat unusual, as hot work typically refers to welding and soldering, not necessarily trail clearing with a weed whacker. In July 2010, Ilenstine and Larsen pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor violation of county-code. The code states that anyone performing work that could spark a fire must have a shovel or fire extinguisher on hand. The two were each sentenced to 250 hours of community service, three years probation and

4484-588: The "Riviera", and the Mesa Fault defines the northern boundary of the band of hills called the "Mesa". These two faults converge near the Five Points Shopping Center at Los Positas and State Streets. Neither is well-exposed, with their locations being inferred from topography, springs, seeps, and well logs. The Mesa Fault continues southeast offshore into the Santa Barbara Channel; the portion of

4602-409: The "most beautiful public building in the United States." In 1907 in northern Santa Barbara county a horrific train accident claimed the lives of 37, the exact cause of which is still unknown. It is still the deadliest disaster in the Santa Barbara history. During World War II, Santa Barbara was home to Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara , and Naval Reserve Center Santa Barbara at the harbor. Up

4720-411: The 1870s, writer Charles Nordhoff promoted the town as a health resort and destination for well-to-do travelers from other parts of the U.S.; many of them came, and many stayed. The luxurious Arlington Hotel dated from this period. In 1887 the railroad finally went through to Los Angeles, and in 1901 to San Francisco: Santa Barbara was now easily accessible by land and by sea, and subsequent development

4838-406: The 1925 earthquake destroyed much of the downtown commercial district. Residential architectural styles in Santa Barbara reflect the era of their construction. Many late-1800s Victorian homes remain downtown and in the "Upper East" neighborhood. California bungalows are common, built in the early decades of the 20th century. Spanish Colonial Revival-style homes built after 1925 are common all over

Jesusita Fire - Misplaced Pages Continue

4956-402: The 2020 U.S. Census , the city's population was 88,665. In addition to being a popular tourist and resort destination, the city has a diverse economy that includes a large service sector, education, technology, health care, finance, agriculture, manufacturing, and local government. In 2004, the service sector accounted for 35% of local employment. Area institutions of higher learning include

5074-404: The 2021–2022 school year alone. The local business process outsourcing industry has also helped boost the language's economic prospects. Today, while the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population, a new generation of Spanish speakers in the Philippines has likewise emerged, though speaker estimates vary widely. Aside from standard Spanish,

5192-574: The 20th century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara , and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City . For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language . Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it

5310-550: The 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in the 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas. As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary

5428-639: The Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business. Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes estimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish. The proportion of proficient Spanish speakers in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the proportion of proficient speakers in other West and Central African nations of their respective colonial languages. Spanish

5546-700: The Franciscan Order to various families in order to reward service or build alliances. These land grants to local notable families mark the beginning of the "Rancho Period" in California and Santa Barbara history. Fernando Tico was one of the first settlers who received land grants for the local area. Fernando led the Native Americans against the Argentinian pirates in the 1800s. The population remained sparse, with enormous cattle operations run by wealthy families. It

5664-691: The Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Proto-Basque , Iberian , Lusitanian , Celtiberian and Gallaecian . The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era , the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages — Mozarabic ( Andalusi Romance ), Navarro-Aragonese , Leonese , Catalan/Valencian , Portuguese , Galician , Occitan , and later, French and Italian . Spanish also borrowed

5782-484: The Jesusita Trail using a weed wacker without any permits or the permission of the landowner. The fire began at approximately 1:45 p.m. on May 5, along the Jesusita Trail just below Cathedral Peak in the Santa Barbara foothills. Despite being alerted to the fire within minutes of its ignition, no fire department officers or equipment were on site until after 17:00 giving the fire over three hours to expand. Within

5900-535: The Milpitas series. Rapid geologic uplift is characteristic of the entire region, as evidenced by the coastal bluffs and narrow beaches that are present along most of the coastline. Downtown Santa Barbara occupies a floodplain between two major geologic faults, the Mission Ridge Fault Zone to the north and the Mesa Fault to the south. The Mission Ridge Fault Zone runs along the range of hills known locally as

6018-529: The Old Spanish sibilants) for details. The Gramática de la lengua castellana , written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija , was the first grammar written for a modern European language. According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I , she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire. In his introduction to

SECTION 50

#1732858084956

6136-571: The Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the term español in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms— español and castellano —are regarded as synonymous and equally valid. The term castellano is related to Castile ( Castilla or archaically Castiella ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name Castile , in turn,

6254-548: The Santa Barbara Channel, on January 28, 1969. Approximately 100,000 barrels (16,000 m ) of oil surged out of a huge undersea break, fouling hundreds of square miles of ocean and all the coastline from Ventura to Goleta, as well north facing beaches on the Channel Islands. Two legislative consequences of the spill in the next year were the passages of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and

6372-612: The Santa Barbara-Goleta area pull from this geologic unit. The Santa Ynez Mountains to the north of the city consist of multiple layers of sandstone and conglomerate units dating from the Jurassic Age to the present, uplifted rapidly since the Pliocene , upended, and in some areas completely overturned. Rapid uplift has given these mountains their craggy, scenic character, and numerous landslides and debris flows, which form some of

6490-663: The Santa Ynez mountains, producing greater rainfall than in other coastal areas. Diurnal temperature variation reaches a maximum in winter due to lower humidity and the absence of summer fog. On average, only 1.7 nights have freezing lows. In general, summers are warm with very few hot days exceeding 90 degrees, and winters are comfortable and sometimes warm with occasional cooler days topping out around 54–58 degrees. Most days from December to February have highs of 63–69 degrees, and most days from June to August have highs of 72–84 degrees. Summers in Santa Barbara are mostly rainless due to

6608-502: The U.S. population were of Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin. In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population. Spanish predominates in the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico , where it is also an official language along with English. Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included. While English

6726-451: The administration of Ferdinand Marcos two months later. It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language. Additionally, the constitution, in its Article XIV, stipulates that the Government shall provide the people of the Philippines with a Spanish-language translation of

6844-602: The age of 18 and 8.5% of those ages 65 or over. According to the 2010 United States Census the racial makeup of Santa Barbara was 66,411 (75.1%) White; 1,420 (1.6%) African American; 892 (1.0%) Native American; 3,062 (3.5%) Asian (1.0% Chinese, 0.6% Filipino, 0.5% Japanese, 0.4% Korean, 0.4% Indian, 0.2% Vietnamese, 0.4% other); 116 (0.1%) Pacific Islander; 13,032 (14.7%) from other races; 3,477 (3.9%) from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 33,591 persons (38.0%). Non-Hispanic Whites were 45,852 persons (52.2%) The Census reported that 86,783 people (98.2% of

6962-453: The area begins at least 13,000 years ago. Evidence for a Paleoindian presence includes a fluted Clovis -like point found in the 1980s along the western Santa Barbara County coast, as well as the remains of Arlington Springs Man , found on Santa Rosa Island in the 1960s. At least 25,000 Chumash natives lived in the region prior to Spanish contact. Five Chumash villages flourished in the area. The present-day area of Santa Barbara City College

7080-610: The area. In 1602, Spanish maritime explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno gave the name "Santa Barbara" to the channel and also to one of the Channel Islands . A land expedition led by Gaspar de Portolà visited around 1769, and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi , who accompanied the expedition, named a large native town "Laguna de la Concepcion". Cabrillo's earlier name, however, is the one that has survived. The first permanent European residents were Spanish missionaries and soldiers under Felipe de Neve , who arrived in 1782 and constructed

7198-542: The baptismal, marriage, and burial records of other missions were transferred to Santa Barbara, and now found in the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library . The Spanish period ended in 1822 with the conclusion of the Mexican War of Independence , which terminated 300 years of Spanish colonial rule and transferred control to the newly independent Mexican government. Santa Barbara street names reflect

SECTION 60

#1732858084956

7316-583: The boom period of the 1950s and 1960s. While the slower growth preserved the quality of life for most residents and prevented the urban sprawl notorious in the Los Angeles basin , housing in the Santa Barbara area was in short supply, and prices soared: in 2006, only six percent of residents could afford a median-value house. As a result, many people who work in Santa Barbara commute from adjacent, more affordable areas, such as Santa Maria, Lompoc , and Ventura. The resultant traffic on incoming arteries, in particular

7434-422: The chance of wildfires, along with their severity, due to downed power lines, etc., in the foothills north of the city. Annual rainfall totals are highly variable and in exceptional years like 1940–1941 and 1997–1998 over 40 inches (1.0 m) of rain have fallen in a year, but in dry seasons less than 6 inches (150 mm) is not unheard of. Snow sometimes covers higher elevations of the Santa Ynez Mountains but

7552-630: The city, especially in newer upscale residential areas like Montecito and Hope Ranch . Notable modernist and contemporary homes can be found as well. Notable architects who practiced in Santa Barbara include: Santa Barbara has a range of neighborhoods with distinctive histories, architecture, and culture. While considerable consensus exists as to the identification of neighborhood names and boundaries, variations exist between observers. For example, real estate agents may use different names than those used by public utilities or municipal service providers, such as police, fire, or water services. The following

7670-421: The city, with several peaks exceeding 4,000 feet (1,200 m). Covered with chaparral , oaks and sandstone outcrops , they make a scenic backdrop to the town. Sometimes, perhaps once every three years, snow falls on the mountains, but it rarely stays for more than a few days. Nearer to town, directly east and adjacent to Mission Santa Barbara , is an east–west ridge known locally as "the Riviera", traversed by

7788-566: The classic hispanus or hispanicus took the suffix -one from Vulgar Latin , as happened with other words such as bretón (Breton) or sajón (Saxon). Like the other Romance languages , the Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin , which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War , beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages )—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages , and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in

7906-420: The coast, west of the city, was the Army's Camp Cooke (the present-day Vandenberg Space Force Base ). In the city, Hoff General Hospital treated servicemen wounded in the Pacific Theatre . On February 23, 1942, not long after the outbreak of war in the Pacific, the Japanese submarine I-17 surfaced offshore and lobbed 16 shells at the Ellwood Oil Field , about 10 miles (15 km) west of Santa Barbara, in

8024-446: The consonant written b (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v . Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboring Gascon extending as far north as the Gironde estuary , and found in a small area of Calabria ), attributed by some scholars to a Basque substratum was the mutation of Latin initial f into h- whenever it

8142-404: The country's constitution. In recent years changing attitudes among non-Spanish speaking Filipinos have helped spur a revival of the language, and starting in 2009 Spanish was reintroduced as part of the basic education curriculum in a number of public high schools, becoming the largest foreign language program offered by the public school system, with over 7,000 students studying the language in

8260-475: The disastrous 1990 Painted Cave Fire , which incinerated over 500 homes in only several hours, during an intense Sundowner wind event; the November 2008 Tea Fire , which destroyed 210 homes in the foothills of Santa Barbara and Montecito ; and the 2009 Jesusita Fire that burned 8,733 acres (35.34 km ) and destroyed 160 homes above the San Roque region of Santa Barbara. The Thomas Fire burned from its origins in Santa Paula 60 miles (100 km) to

8378-447: The east of Santa Barbara and consumed 281,893 acres (1,140.78 km ) in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, most of which consisted of rural land and wilderness areas. The fire started December 4, 2017, and was 100% contained by January 12, 2018. 1,050 structures were lost in the Thomas Fire, mostly east of Santa Barbara in Ventura County. The Thomas Fire has been the largest Santa Barbara County fire ever recorded to date. Santa Barbara

8496-410: The end of the war and 1950. This burst of growth had dramatic consequences for the local economy and infrastructure. Highway 101 was built through town during this period, and newly built Lake Cachuma began supplying water via a tunnel dug through the mountains between 1950 and 1956. Local relations with the oil industry gradually soured through the period. Production at Summerland had ended, Elwood

8614-479: The expanding United States. Change came quickly in Santa Barbara following the American Conquest of California . The population doubled between 1850 and 1860. In 1851, land surveyor Salisbury Haley designed the street grid, famously botching the block measurements, misaligning the streets, thereby creating doglegs at certain intersections. Wood construction replaced adobe as American settlers moved in; during

8732-523: The fault offshore is believed to have been responsible for the destructive earthquake of 1925 . The Mission Ridge Fault trends east–west, being named the More Ranch Fault west of Santa Barbara, and forms the northern boundary of the uplands which include Isla Vista , More Mesa, and the Hope Ranch Hills. Three major sedimentary bedrock units underlie the coastal plain: the Monterey Formation ,

8850-653: The fire. The Red Cross had shelters for evacuees at the Multi-Activity Court located in the UCSB Recreational Center. From May 5 to May 9, 2009, evacuees were also sheltered at San Marcos High School in Goleta . Much of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden was destroyed on the night of May 7. However, the primary effect of intentionally allowing the massive fire to develop without response for

8968-448: The first 3 hours was that CalFire was unable to secure hazard pay for its members. On December 11, 2009, charges were filed against Craig Ilenstine and Dana Larsen citing them for operating a weed whacker without a hot work permit. As the DA could not prove a connection between the trail work and starting the fire, the two were not charged with the felony of starting the fire, but instead with

9086-466: The first destructive earthquake in California since the 1906 San Francisco quake , destroyed much of downtown Santa Barbara and killed 13 people. The earthquake caused infrastructure to collapse including the Sheffield Dam. The low death toll is attributed to the early hour (6:44 a.m., before most people were out on the streets, vulnerable to falling masonry). While this quake, like the one in 1812,

9204-490: The first of five presidents to visit Santa Barbara. Just before the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered at the Summerland Oil Field , and the region along the beach east of Santa Barbara sprouted numerous oil derricks and piers for drilling offshore . This was the first offshore oil development in the world; oil drilling offshore would become a contentious practice in the Santa Barbara area, which continues to

9322-487: The first shelling attack by an enemy power on the continental U.S. since the bombardment of Orleans in World War I . Although the shelling was inaccurate and only caused about $ 500 damage to a catwalk, panic was immediate. Many Santa Barbara residents fled, and land values plummeted to historic lows. After the war many of the servicemen who had seen Santa Barbara returned to stay. The population surged by 10,000 people between

9440-399: The following decades, many of the natives died of diseases such as smallpox , against which they had no natural immunity . The most dramatic event of the Spanish period was the powerful 1812 earthquake , and tsunami , with an estimated magnitude of 7.1, which destroyed the Mission as well as the rest of the town; water reached as high as present-day Anapamu street, and carried a ship half

9558-661: The following table: Spanish is marked by palatalization of the Latin double consonants ( geminates ) nn and ll (thus Latin annum > Spanish año , and Latin anellum > Spanish anillo ). The consonant written u or v in Latin and pronounced [w] in Classical Latin had probably " fortified " to a bilabial fricative /β/ in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with

9676-466: The former British colony of Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras ) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2022 census, 54% of the total population are able to speak the language. Due to its proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existing native Spanish speaking minority, Trinidad and Tobago has implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian government launched

9794-584: The grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire." From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discovered America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America . Miguel de Cervantes , author of Don Quixote , is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). In

9912-569: The hills above Montecito , reaching the area burned by the Gap Fire in July 2008 and the Tea Fire in November 2008. Intense sundowner winds caused the fire to spread rapidly during evening and nighttime hours during its first three days. The fire was fully contained on May 18, after having burned 8,733 acres (35.34 km) and destroying 80 homes. An estimated 35,000 people were forced to evacuate during

10030-505: The influence of the Spanish period. The names de le Guerra and Carrillo come from the Guerra family of California and Carrillo family of California . They were instrumental in building up the town, so they were honored by having streets named after them. After the forced secularization of the Missions in 1833 , successive Mexican Governors distributed the large land tracts formerly held by

10148-680: The language from the Kingdom of Castile , contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician , Basque , Asturian , Catalan/Valencian , Aragonese , Occitan and other minor languages. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the official language of the whole of Spain, in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. "the other Spanish languages "). Article III reads as follows: El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. ... Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas... Castilian

10266-535: The language's hegemony in an intensely centralising Spanish state were established from the 18th century onward. Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken include Gibraltar and Andorra . Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom , France , Italy , and Germany . Spanish is an official language of the European Union . Today,

10384-686: The majority of the Spanish speakers live in Hispanic America . Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure —of Argentina , Bolivia (co-official with 36 indigenous languages), Chile , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua , Panama , Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní ), Peru (co-official with Quechua , Aymara , and "the other indigenous languages"), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Uruguay , and Venezuela . Spanish language has

10502-572: The manufacturer of the brush-cutting equipment, alleging that Stihl failed to warn users that the metal blades of the cutter could emit sparks capable of starting a fire in a high-risk area. In July 2013 Stihl agreed to settle the claims for an undisclosed amount of money. Direct Relief delivered respiratory masks and albuterol inhalers to Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics and others affected by persistently poor air quality from smoke and ash. Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( Spanish : Santa Bárbara , meaning ' Saint Barbara ' )

10620-422: The median household income was $ 81,618 (with a margin of error of +/- $ 3,653) and the median family income was $ 105,513 (+/- $ 9,757). Males had a median income of $ 44,225 (+/- $ 2,697) versus $ 33,978 (+/- $ 2,747) for females. The median income for those above 16 years old was $ 40,200 (+/- $ 1,911). Approximately, 7.2% of families and 12.3% of the population were below the poverty line , including 11.2% of those under

10738-711: The northwest of the African mainland. The Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands traces its origins back to the Castilian conquest in the 15th century , and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas, which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish. The Spanish spoken in North Africa by native bilingual speakers of Arabic or Berber who also speak Spanish as

10856-541: The ocean and parallel to the predominant westerly winds, sideshore and light onshore breezes moderate temperatures resulting in warmer winters and cooler summers compared with places farther inland. In the winter, storms reach California, some of which bring heavy rainfall but the rain shadow effect of the coastal mountains can at times moderate or enhance the rainfall depending on local storm wind flows. Local rainfall totals can be enhanced by orographic lift when storms are accompanied by southerly flow pushing moist air over

10974-469: The ocean, including a strip of city reaching out into the sea and inland again to keep the Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) within the city boundary. Santa Barbara experiences a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csb) characteristic of coastal California. Santa Barbara's weather was ranked number 1 in the United States in 2023–2024 by U.S. News & World Report. Because the city lies along

11092-468: The other smaller local studios produced approximately 1,200 films during their tenure in Santa Barbara, of which approximately 100 survive. During this period, the Loughead Aircraft Company was established on lower State Street, and regularly tested seaplanes off of East Beach. This was the genesis of what would later become Lockheed . The magnitude 6.3 earthquake of June 29, 1925 ,

11210-643: The population) lived in households, 1,172 (1.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 455 (0.5%) were institutionalized. Of the 35,449 households, 8,768 (24.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,240 (37.3%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,454 (9.7%) had a female householder with no husband present, and 1,539 (4.3%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,420 (6.8%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships , and 339 (1.0%) same-sex married couples or partnerships ; 11,937 households (33.7%) were made up of individuals, and 4,340 (12.2%) had someone living alone who

11328-529: The population. Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, with Spanish being particularly significant in areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla. Spanish also has a presence in the education system of the country (through either selected education centers implementing Spain's education system, primarily located in the North, or the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education). In Western Sahara , formerly Spanish Sahara ,

11446-489: The presence of a high-pressure area over the eastern Pacific, but summer showers can happen due to tropical hurricane/Monsoonal flows that rarely reach the region; thunderstorms can also occur during the North American Monsoon . In the fall, afternoon or evening downslope winds, locally called " Sundowners ", can raise temperatures into the high 90s °F (high 30s °C) and drop humidities into the single digits, increasing

11564-482: The present day. Santa Barbara housed the world's largest movie studio during the era of silent film. Flying A Studios, a division of the American Film Manufacturing Company , operated on two city blocks centered at State and Mission between 1910 and 1922, with the industry shutting down locally and moving to Hollywood once it outgrew the area, needing the resources of a larger city. Flying A and

11682-727: The southeast and San Francisco 325 mi (525 km) to the northwest. Behind the city, in and beyond the Santa Ynez Mountains, is the Los Padres National Forest , which contains several remote wilderness areas. Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary are located approximately 20 miles (30 km) offshore. [REDACTED] Spanish Empire 1769–1821 [REDACTED] First Mexican Empire 1821–1823 [REDACTED] United Mexican States 1823–1848 [REDACTED]   United States 1848–present Evidence of human habitation of

11800-401: The stretch of Highway 101 between Ventura and Santa Barbara, is another problem being addressed by long-range planners. Since the middle of the twentieth century, several destructive fires have affected Santa Barbara: the 1964 Coyote Fire, which burned 67,000 acres (270 km ) of backcountry along with 106 homes; the smaller, but quickly moving, Sycamore Fire in 1977, which burned 200 homes;

11918-582: The term español (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, español derives from the Occitan word espaignol and that, in turn, derives from the Vulgar Latin * hispaniolus ('of Hispania'). Hispania was the Roman name for the entire Iberian Peninsula . There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal suggested that

12036-444: The theories of Ramón Menéndez Pidal , local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of Burgos , and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo , where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century. In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese , and, according to some authors,

12154-623: The third most used language on the Internet , after English and Chinese. Spanish is the official language of Spain . Upon the emergence of the Castilian Crown as the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the Middle Ages, the Romance vernacular associated with this polity became increasingly used in instances of prestige and influence, and the distinction between "Castilian" and "Spanish" started to become blurred. Hard policies imposing

12272-503: The urban and suburban lowland area, are testament to their geologically active nature. The first Monterey-style adobe in California was built on State Street of Santa Barbara by the wealthy merchant Alpheus Thompson. The dominant architectural themes of Santa Barbara are the Mediterranean Revival , Spanish Colonial Revival and the related Mission Revival style , encouraged through design guidelines adopted by city leaders after

12390-580: The world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers is Mexico . Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group , in which the language is also known as Castilian ( castellano ). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in

12508-556: Was 36.8 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.7 males. Spanish language Spanish ( español ) or Castilian ( castellano ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe . Today, it is a global language with about 500 million native speakers, mainly in

12626-431: Was 38.73% (34,344) of the population. Of the 35,383 households, 23.5% had children under the age of 18; 38.5% were married couples living together; 31.2% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. 32.3% of households consisted of individuals and 14.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.4 and the average family size was 3.0. The percent of those with

12744-440: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45. There were 18,233 families (51.4% of all households); the average family size was 3.13. The age distribution of the city was the following: 16,468 people (18.6%) under the age of 18, 10,823 people (12.2%) aged 18 to 24, 26,241 people (29.7%) aged 25 to 44, 22,305 people (25.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 12,573 people (14.2%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

12862-656: Was brisk. Santa Barbara had a system of street railways that operated from 1875 through 1929. Begun as a single mule-drawn line from the waterfront pier to the Arlington Hotel, over the decades it was incrementally expanded, later electrified, and operated until its closure in June 1929. Peter J. Barber , an architect, designed many Late Victorian style residences, and served twice as mayor, in 1880 and again in 1890. A year after Barber's term as mayor, President Benjamin Harrison became

12980-481: Was centered in the Santa Barbara Channel, it caused no tsunami. It came at an opportune time for rebuilding, since a movement for architectural reform and unification around a Spanish Colonial style was already underway. Under the leadership of Pearl Chase , many of the city's famous buildings rose as part of the rebuilding process, including the Santa Barbara County Courthouse , sometimes praised as

13098-630: Was developed in the cities of Toledo , in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid , from the 1570s. The development of the Spanish sound system from that of Vulgar Latin exhibits most of the changes that are typical of Western Romance languages , including lenition of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin vīta > Spanish vida ). The diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o —which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in

13216-604: Was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see Iberian Romance languages ). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of the Reconquista , and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus , much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000 Arabic -derived words, make up around 8% of the language today). The written standard for this new language

13334-560: Was during this period that Richard Henry Dana Jr. first visited Santa Barbara and wrote about the culture and people of Santa Barbara in his book Two Years Before the Mast . Santa Barbara fell bloodlessly to a battalion of American soldiers under John C. Frémont on December 27, 1846, during the Mexican–American War , and after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 it became part of

13452-713: Was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The h- , still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects, it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and neighboring Romance languages, there are many f -/ h - doublets in modern Spanish: Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish for "smith"), fierro and hierro (both Spanish for "iron"), and fondo and hondo (both words pertaining to depth in Spanish, though fondo means "bottom", while hondo means "deep"); additionally, hacer ("to make")

13570-462: Was revoked by Michel Temer after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff . In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during the Spanish colonial period . Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in

13688-605: Was the tenth of the California Missions to be founded by the Spanish Franciscans. It was dedicated by Padre Fermín Lasuén , who succeeded Padre Junipero Serra as the second president and founder of the California Franciscan Mission Chain. The Chumash laborers built a connection between the canyon creek and the Santa Barbara Mission water system through the use of a dam and an aqueduct. During

13806-556: Was the village of Mispu ; the site of the Los Baños pool (along west beach) was the village of Syukhtun , chief Yanonalit's large village located between Bath and Chapala streets; Amolomol was at the mouth of Mission Creek; and Swetete , above the bird refuge. Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo , sailing for the Kingdom of Spain , sailed through what is now called the Santa Barbara Channel in 1542, anchoring briefly in

13924-531: Was winding down, and to find new fields oil companies carried out seismic exploration of the Channel using explosives, a controversial practice that local fishermen claimed harmed their catch. The culminating disaster, and one of the formative events in the modern environmental movement, was the blowout at Union Oil's Platform A on the Dos Cuadras Field , about eight miles (13 km) southeast of Santa Barbara in

#955044