I think the 1950s and 1960s were the best times at the ranch. Many people knew about the ranch, especially the locals, and any one I ask about that time remembers the ranch fondly. The locals would buy corn and fresh produce in the summer and Christmas trees in the winter. The Lopez's were a big family and popular as well. My father was a Venice High alumni and loved his high school.

I worked at the ranch when I was 18 one Christmas. We were selling Christmas trees and the open store adjacent to the tree lot we had ornaments and made decorations out of tree branches and sold them. I would go into our house and sit with my grandmother, who was quite old, and she would hold my hand and cry. I always wondered why she cried, but now, many years later, I understand that I look exactly like my father, if ever there really was a mini me it is my dad and me, and my grandmother missed my dad. At that time there was arguing about the ranch and what my uncle Cressy would later do.

I loved being at the ranch, and every customer seemed joyfully happy to be at our ranch. It was a feeling I could never replicate through my life and now I am in my 50s. My family happily working and my aunts and uncles. It was a place that we all came together. It was a place that my father and his siblings made with their hands. A place that grew of hard work and love combined. A place that later disappeared and after my dad died I could not find anything when I googled the ranch. Only a few articles about the sell of land.     

My father Stanley Cruz Lopez and his beautiful little sister Ofelia, my godmother. Ofelia was the youngest and when I was little she was so glamorous to me. I loved standing next to her and smelling her perfume, she always laughed and smiled. Here is my dad, a few years before he passed. He has reunited with his sisters and brothers. He was happy when  he was with them, it gave him a sense of belonging that he had not felt for many years.                                                                                         

The entire family worked on the farm. My grandmother had 18 children, but only 12 lived. Everyone was eager to work on the farm and there was little time to do anything else beyond school and ranch work. The older girls worked part time cleaning houses. All the money that could be saved was saved to help purchase the ranch from the Japanese family that owned the land previously.

Later, sadly, my uncle Cressy would take the ranch away from his family, because my grandparents spoke little English and after they passed he took ownership denying any of my aunts and uncles the right to any profits. This hurt my father immensely. Not only psychologically but I believe his angst led to many physical ailments.

 My father suffered, and the family was broken over the ranch and money. My father missed his family.

This blog is about my father, Stanley Cruz Lopez and his family, the Lopez family of the Lopez Ranch in Culver City. Much of what I am writing has been told to me from my uncle, Bernie Lopez, as my father Stanley passed away in 2014.

My fathers parents came here from Michocan Mexico.  Soon after  in April 1942, Eluterio and Arcadia Lopez, my grandparents, were offered the Maruyama farm as the family was to be interned. Afterward my grandparents leased to the land from the Maruyama family. In around 1944, the Lopezs bought the land for 45,000.00. This is the beginning of the what we all know was The Ranch or fondly called by nearby residents, the Lopez Ranch or stand.