San Marino's Historical Figures and Their Recognition

Like other parts of southern California’s San Gabriel Valley, my hometown of San Marino in the western part of the valley has a large population of Asian-Americans, with many having immigrated there starting in the late 1970s. Despite this, however, San Marino is particularly notable for wealthy white figures who founded the city in the early such as Henry Huntington, known for building many of the nation’s railroads along with his uncle, and George S. Patton, whose son George S. Patton Jr. was a famous general in both World Wars (Nicolaides and Zarsadiaz 2017; Lovelace 2019). George S. Patton Jr. and Henry Huntington respectively have a memorial and an entire estate dedicated to them, and both the memorial and the estate have remained in the city of San Marino without debate despite the increasing Asian population of the city.

In particular, the ways in which these dedications are featured are quite fascinating. Patton’s memorial is prominently featured in San Marino’s popular Lacy Park and is visible as soon as one walks in; it is also the site of San Marino’s annual Memorial Day ceremony (Whitmore 2018). Huntington’s estate, on the other hand, was converted into a library, museum, and set of botanical gardens, collectively known as the Huntington Library, after his death. The Huntington Library was opened to visitors in 1928 and has since expanded greatly, now attracts more than 800,000 visitors each year and aids many scholars in humanities research (The Huntington Office of Communications and Marketing 2019-20). Both the memorial and the Huntington Library have therefore remained mainstays in San Marino since their creation.

The most notable of these reasons involves two slapping incidents that occurred in August 1943. These incidents involved Patton’s slapping two privates a week apart during World War II, due to what scholars and Patton’s own family perceived to be his lack of belief in battle fatigue, also known as shell-shock (Lovelace 2019). Despite these claims, however, there is evidence that Patton did believe in shell-shock but frowned upon what he viewed as the soldiers’ cowardice in using it as an excuse to avoid going on the battlefield. This was primarily due to the changing definition of shell shock during the interwar period; Patton, having fought in World War I, believed shell shock to only be possible if the victim were completely incapacitated or lacking in control, as this was the way in which it was medically defined during that era. When World War II started, however, shell shock, despite the term having lost use in the medical community, was still a common term used to refer to more general symptoms such as hysteria, though Patton was likely unaware of this definition (Lovelace 2019). Patton’s view was held, albeit privately, by prominent members of the military, including then-general Dwight D. Eisenhower, due to the necessity of reducing casualties during the war. There were others who disliked or condemned Patton’s behavior, however, including close friend John J. Pershing. Eisenhower even reprimanded Patton, asking him to apologize (Lovelace 2019). The way in which this apology has been depicted in popular culture is different from the actual apology, however (Snyder 2003).

For instance, the 1970 film Patton depicts this apology, as seen above, but downplays the emotions Patton felt and the camaraderie his soldiers felt with him. Patton in fact was quite emotional during the apology and had a large amount of respect from his soldiers, as reported by General Ted Conway:

“General Patton started to give us what we know was to be his apology. But he never got past his first word, … So, finally General Patton was standing there and he was shaking his head and you could see big tears streaming down his face and he said, or words to this effect, ‘The hell with it,’ and he walked off the platform. … as he stepped into his command car and again went down the side of the regiment, … everybody stood at attention and saluted to the right and General Patton stood up in his command car and saluted, crying. … He was our hero. We were on his side. We knew the problem. We knew what he had done and why he had done it” (Snyder 2003).

Unfortunately, this part of history is typically not remembered; while Patton did apologize, even acknowledging later in life the existence of shell shock and less harsh ways of treating it (Lovelace 2019), the slapping incidents still were largely present in history due to being perpetuated by historians and Patton’s family.

Patton’s legacy was more controversial than this, however; he was also known for his anti-Semitic views in the post-World War II era. For instance, while he was overseeing D.P.s in America, Patton is reported to have spoken poorly about Holocaust refugees, also known as “displaced persons” or “D.P.s,” while they were living in refugee camps. Patton in particular spoke this way of the Jewish refugees, describing them as “lower than animals” and describing a synagogue as “packed with the greatest stinking mass of humanity I have ever seen” (Lichtblau 2015). These statements are compounded by Patton’s treatment of Nazi prisoners; he is reported to have let Nazi prisoners sleep with and act as the superiors of Jewish prisoners. However, Patton was likely not alone in his views; the greater access Nazi prisoners had to America than Jewish refugees in the postwar era was also due to remaining anti-Semitic sentiment from lawmakers at the time (Lichtblau 2015). While San Marino today is not particularly known for its Jewish population, it is still important to keep in mind the implications of Patton’s hurtful words and actions in the 21st century.

In addition to the memorial in Lacy Park, the Huntington Library has an interesting legacy left behind by Henry E. Huntington. Huntington was not known to be discriminatory or harsh like Patton was at times; the legacy he leaves behind has more to do with the inherent whiteness that seems to remain since San Marino’s founding despite the growing presence of Asian communities. For one, Huntington, known as one of San Marino’s founding figures, had a part in crafting the early culture of San Marino; being the affluent owner of a well-developed estate, he desired for San Marino as a whole to be a similar level of affluence, an effort which was successful (Nicolaides and Zarsadiaz 2017). This status quo led to a variety of practices including tight zoning restrictions and the banning of apartments, as well as local land being forbidden from being sold to minority groups. When Asian Americans first immigrated to San Marino in the late 1970s, San Marinians avoided being overtly racist, and both white and Asian San Marinians focused on Asians’ assimilation into the community, which was still relatively Eurocentric at this time. This new status quo aided the preservation of San Marino’s Eurocentric culture, with new policies, such as a rule that 80% of the language on signage had to be in English, taking root (Nicolaides and Zarsadiaz 2017). Thus, while Huntington did not perform any controversial actions, his lifestyle and the inspiration he gained from it shaped the nature of San Marino for decades to come. 

After learning more about my hometown’s history, I feel that the memorial and the estate both should not be changed, as San Marinians have been culturally successful in adding modern ideas to features of the past while drawing the spotlight away from the city’s early figures. While I do agree that Patton’s legacy is complex and very controversial, it is important to note that the memorial in Lacy Park has two separate parts founded ten years apart, and that the larger and more recent part features Patton much less prominently than the less recent part. Plus, even though the memorial is a site for San Marino’s Memorial Day ceremony every year, the ceremony in 2018 took place with the speakers standing in front of the more recent part of the memorial, where Patton is not featured as prominently, as well as with the audience standing adjacent to the Patton plaque as opposed to in front of it (Whitmore 2018; Tribune Staff 2019). This implicitly downplays Patton’s role in the modern era, with a greater focus being placed on San Marinian military members in general. Furthermore, this allows for Patton's controversial actions to be forgotten over time.

Likewise, San Marino’s legacy is not just exclusive to its white communities. With the increasing presence of Asian communities in the city, these communities have gotten chances to express their own voices in a variety of ways, as Nicolaides and Zarsadia suggested in their article (Nicolaides and Zarsadia 2017). For instance, the Huntington Library recently opened the expansion of their Chinese Garden, which was first opened in 2008, to highlight various Chinese landscaping traditions, according to the Huntington Library’s President Karen R. Lawrence. This garden was constructed with architects from both China and the United States and funded by various Asian families, highlighting a growing Chinese presence in the community even though Huntington’s legacy still remains ("News Release" 2020). Furthermore, going back to the Lacy Park war memorial, 2018’s Memorial Day ceremony had guest speakers of groups that were traditionally underrepresented in San Marino’s earliest days, namely women and Asian Americans; Wendy Glazier, who served in the Navy for 24 years, and Raye Cheng, an Asian-American then-senior at San Marino High School who was set to head off to West Point, were both featured speakers at the event, highlighting San Marino’s ability to modernize even with its Eurocentric past (Whitmore 2018).

All of this goes to show that, as clichéd as the saying is, actions really can speak louder than words. Whether it be due to Patton’s slappings receiving more public spotlight than the complexity of the culture at the time or the present day Memorial Day Ceremony’s highlighting military service members in general as opposed to one historical figure, the evolving history of San Marino and its early figures highlight the notion that the history of places can change over time as the communities of those places change.

"General Patton Apologizes For His Behavior in 'Patton.'" Youtube, uploaded by War Movies, Mar. 29, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXZSraKJHdw

The Huntington Office of Communications and Marketing. "in FACT." The Huntington. 2019-2020. Web. Accessed Dec. 12, 2020. https://www.huntington.org/sites/default/files/in-fact.pdf

Lichtblau, Eric. "Surviving the Nazis, Only to Be Jailed by America." The New York Times. Feb. 7, 2015. Web. Accessed Dec. 12, 2020.

Lovelace, Alexander G. "'Slap Heard around the World': George Patton and Shell Shock." Carlisle Barracks. Vol. 49(3), 2019. 79-91.

"News Release - Expanded Chinese Garden at The Huntington to Open Oct. 9." The Huntington. Sep. 3, 2020. Web. Accessed Dec. 12, 2020.

Nicolaides, Becky M. and Zarsadiaz, James. "Design Assimilation in Suburbia: Asian Americans, Built Landscapes, and Suburban Advantage in Los Angeles's San Gabriel Valley since 1970." Journal of Urban History. Vol. 43(2), 2017. 332-371.

"Patton Memorial." San Marino Heritage. 2016. Web. Accessed Dec. 12, 2020.

Snyder, William. "From the archives: Patton's apology." Carlisle Barracks. Vol. 33(2), 2003. 0-3.

Tribune Staff. "City to Host Memorial Day Ceremony In Lacy Park." San Marino Tribune. May 24, 2019. Web. Accessed Dec. 12, 2020.

Whitmore, Steve. "Monday’s Memorial Day Event in Lacy Park Remembers, Looks Forward, Says ‘Thanks.’" San Marino Tribune. Jun. 1, 2018. Web. Accessed Dec. 12, 2020.