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Making a Literary Pilgrimage to the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California
Consider the National Steinbeck Center a stopping point on a pilgrimage celebrating John Steinbeck. A few blocks away is his boyhood home; 20 miles down the road is Monterey's Cannery Row. Here, though, in a large, dim space, snippets of text from Salinas' native son are brought to life. Photographs of real-life Joad families hang next to a car they might have used to flee the Dust Bowl. Lee Chong's grocery sits at the corner of a gallery depicting Steinbeck's writing life in Monterey, and across from his escape to the Sea of Cortez. Rocinante, the camper Steinbeck named after Don Quixote's horse, is poised to explore America again. Grab a book or two from the gift shop before you go—Salinas remains a slightly run-down, agricultural city largely populated with migrant workers, and Steinbeck's themes of cultural conflict and survival of economic troubles through unity still ring true. Photograph: Jill Clardy
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- Liz Burnham Thanks Megan! I went just before a cross-country road trip, and Rocinante was the exhibit that really stuck in my mind - if only I'd had more time to explore!
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- Megan Cytron (Editor) Congratulations! You won Honorable Mention in the Weekly Worldwide Contest.
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- Megan Cytron (Editor) Thanks for sharing this. As a Cervantes (and Steinbeck) geek, I'd love to see his Rocinante.
