A Wasteland of Contradictions: The California Dreams of Nathanael West

By Tim Tejani

El Centro, California lies sixty miles inside the Arizona border in Imperial County. This formidably-named milieu can pass all but unnoticed astride the whir of Interstate-8. It stands a paradox - a place where agriculture impugns the harsh realities of the desert, where pastoral farmlands defy the ever-expansive urban center to the west, where past and present remain eerily coalesced.
El Centro, California lies sixty miles inside the Arizona border in Imperial County. This formidably-named milieu can pass all but unnoticed astride the whir of Interstate-8. It stands a paradox -...

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