“There is a special sort of magic to the West coast of America. Folks back East sometimes forget the different sort of history, both with the muggles and ourselves – a different sort of path than pure transplanted European migration, European sensibilities… though in the past there was indeed some sense in separation of the magical and muggle (one mustn’t forget Salem, or the Rise of Grindelwald, nor Lady Temper & the somber human traits of racism and darker thoughts magical folk would do well to remember are not wholly muggle), perhaps… there is more than thinking in strict boundaries, in hierarchies of magic and familial history, let the muggles do as they please as we do ours (or Native magical societies do differently as we do ours).
Have you seen the sun shining over the Pacific in the Bay with its grand Gated majesty, felt just a little more passionate, colorful magic in the air? Have you felt just a thrill of electric tingle across your skin in Seattle or San Jose, like just before a thunderstorm? Walked the slightly secret places in Santa Cruz & Monterey at those muggle universities and the boardwalk, the aquarium, the old military sites with shy ghosts willing to tell their stories? La Academia Occidental teaches much of magic, but what of the magic on the street, the customs & heritage of the vast Pacific nations, Mexico & Native American sprawling from Sacramento to San Diego? East is sometimes simplified as cultural interaction between white & black (shades of pink & cream & ivory & tan & beige & ebony more like) while the West dealt with all of Asia and those pushed West by the East, half of the population of this planet – such magical stories to tell.
We underestimate the muggles, and ourselves.
The shifts of magic in the San Andreas fault (the theoretical shifts one should say, as geomagical phenomena like ley lines in storms & earthquakes, & deeper magics of divination from the wind and waves fuel an awe all their own), the secret places in the Grand Canyon, or the unknown creatures yet to be discovered in the vast Sierra Nevada from nearly Canada to Las Vegas are candles compared to… humanity.
The Golden States economy is 8th in the world (a state in a country compared to countries) - the muggle agricultural base alone, all told, feeds nearly 1/4th of the nation (depending on how you context the resources & products). What slightly-out-of-phase slightly-magical communities, or little helping hands here and there may we find if we only tipped it upside down and shook? So what if we notice a little spark of magic here and there on the big screen & family screen, in the capital of muggle visual entertainment in nearly all the world? In the sprawling Greater Los Angeles region of hundreds of square miles, a population over 10 million (2nd only to New York) - what bits of something more may we find from those generations that never see La Academia Occidental or the Mesa Academy, for one reason or another (much less the schools back East), and what secret places would you find in museums & restaurants, Union Station & China Town & Downtown LA & Disneyland, in UCLA & UCSD & Santa Monica and Old Town San Diego nearly into Tijuana? Europe speaks of the cultural interactions with their muggle-borns – have they met the generations in this new age, out here in the tech capitals of America, the agricultural capital & entertainment capital & forefront of multiculturalism? (some say that’s New York, but we beg to differ)
If a quick kiss between boyfriends in the Bay carries a little more magic than usual, a computer in a green-embraced coffee shop has an extra spark, the set of a movie bears a little brighter light… if the tacos & tamales & vegetable-laden pizza of a certain restaurant taste a little sweeter… if a Native dance traces more than steps along the ground, or an otter pears at you with brighter eyes than its kin, a sequoia grows slightly mightier on its granite throne, or the desert air carries a little extra sense of something else, well… perhaps there is more to magic than the books & sheltering arms of an Unplottable building. Perhaps it’s… out there.”
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States : page 1821 (Chapter 27, located between Chapters 1, 9, 10 and 28 of the 2013 Edition)
