Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a large Latino population, while another third are Protestant. There are also almost two
million Muslims and four million Hindus statewide, LA has one of the 10 biggest Jewish
communities in the country, and California has the largest number of Buddhists anywhere
outside of Asia.
Despite their proportionately small numbers, California's alternative religions and utopi-
an communities dominate the popular imagination, from modern pagans to new-age heal-
ers. California made national headlines in the 1960s with gurus from India, in the 1970s
with Jim Jones' People's Temple and Erhard Seminars Training (EST), and in the 1990s
with the Heaven's Gate UFO-millennialist cult in San Diego. The controversial Church of
Scientology is still seeking acceptance with celebrity proponents from movie-star Tom
Cruise to musician Beck.
California is also a stronghold of fundamentalist and evangelical Christian churches,
which have proliferated for the last century, notably in SoCal. In 1924 the world's first
broadcast preacher, Aimee Semple McPherson, opened her own radio station to spread the
word from LA's Angelus Temple, home of the Foursquare Church, a Pentecostal Christian
sect. She pioneered the way for other 20th-century radio and televangelists such as Rick
Warren of Orange County's Saddleback Church and the Schuller family of the 'Hour of
Power' show, formerly broadcast from the Crystal Cathedral (now called Christ Cathedral)
near Anaheim.
California has thousands of believers in Santeria, a fusion of Catholicism and Yoruba be-
liefs practiced by West African slaves in the Caribbean and South America. Drop by a
botànica
(herbal folk medicine shop) for charms and candles.
Sports
California has more professional sports teams than any other state. If you doubt that Cali-
fornians get excited about sports, go ahead and just try to find tickets before they sell out
for an Oakland Raiders or San Diego Chargers football, San Francisco Giants or LA
Dodgers baseball, or LA Clippers basketball or LA Kings hockey game. You can score
less-expensive tickets more easily for pro women's basketball in LA, pro hockey in Ana-
heim or San Jose, and pro soccer in LA or San Jose.
According to a recent study, Californians are less likely to be couch potatoes than other
Americans. Nevertheless, when one of California's professional sports team plays another,
