First came a fancy 100th birthday dinner, followed by a three-day party slash carnival. Thousands of guests marked West Covina’s centennial downtown on Saturday, noshing on bacon-wrapped hotdogs, Filipino street food and elote while listening to country music and trying their luck at carnival games.
Longtime resident Brian Jobst said that 100 years ago, horses and cattle outnumbered the 500 residents in what would later be known as West Covina. Prohibition was the law of the land and the Star-Spangled Banner was not yet the national anthem.
“Our city has utterly transformed in the past 100 years and has been at the heart of the eastern San Gabriel Valley’s transformation,” Jobst said. “A century of challenges has been met with resilience, determination, and collective courage. I expect no less over the next 100 years.”
Jobst, who moved to West Covina 34 years ago, is a member of the Rotary Club of West Covina, the Historical Society of West Covina, the Sierra Club’s San Gabriel Valley Task Force, Emanate Health Foundation and Livable West Covina.
“For me, the most distinctive (inflection point in the past 100 years) is the period from 1950 to 1960, when our city transitioned from a mostly rural agricultural community to a suburban one,” he said.
That’s when the city’s population increased more than 1,000%, from less than 5,000 to more than 50,000 residents. An area that was largely agricultural was transformed by homes, schools and churches.
Rosario Diaz bought her home in West Covina 15 years ago. She is the city’s first Mexican American woman mayor.
“There are so many things we love about the city, the bedroom community, the shopping, the restaurants, the people and the melting pot that is West Covina,” she said. “We have one granddaughter and one of our favorite things to do is spending afternoons in one of our 16 parks.”
Diaz said the sold-out 100th anniversary dinner at the city’s Sportsplex highlighted a list of successes, such as Blue Ribbon schools, an engaging city government, an independent police and fire department, and a busy community center and senior center.
Councilwoman Letty Lopez-Viado is cognizant that 100 years ago, women were still working to get the vote. She served as West Covina’s first Filipino and Mexican American mayor in 2020.
“West Covina’s always had a ‘home’ and a ‘family’ feel to me,” she said. “When I was a little girl, we rented a room in a large ranch-style home in West Covina. It had a huge backyard with five horses. Years later, we bought a 1924 home, that was originally picked out from a Sears Catalog, and our neighbor who has been here for many years would tell me stories of how our home was used as a resting place for the farmers and there would be tons of orange trees, which we still have one, and many more history of the different changes it has gone through.”
Lopez-Viado said the centennial celebrations were a chance to create more memories.
“We are improving our city in many ways and everyone gets to be part of that,” she said. “We have community, unity despite differences. West Covina will always be my home.”
Music teacher Bill Martinez brought his students in Hollencrest Middle School’s advanced band and choir on stage to perform songs such as “Funky Town” “Eleanor Rigby” and “Cantar.” He told the crowd that he appreciates gatherings like this after three years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a neat experience to be part of this celebration of a community that supports us,” he said.
Anissa V. Rivera is a freelancer writer and columnist who writes “Mom’s the Word,” Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Azusa Herald, Glendora Press and West Covina Highlander, San Dimas/La Verne Highlander. Southern California News Group, 181 W. Huntington Drive, Suite 209 Monrovia, CA 91016. 626-497-4869.
