Hermosa Sister City program traces founding to bad press over Biltmore Hotel
A fundraiser at Missy and Chuck Sheldon’s Hermosa Strand home helped raise over $12,000 for the student exchange program. Photo by Robert Myska
by Robert Myska
Hermosa’s half-century-old relationship with its official sister city, Loreto, Mexico, originated partly to offset negative press coverage of a troublesome Hermosa land-use issue. The bad press has long since disappeared, while the sister city relationship continued, fostering a thriving cultural exchange program, and an opportunity to share training and resources with Hermosa’s enthusiastic southern neighbor.
The Sister City Program was launched in the mid-1950s as part of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s People-to-People Program, seeking to promote peace in the world through cultural exchanges.
In 1966, Hermosa Beach City Manager Walter Harris and Mayor Jack Belasco took steps to launch the program locally, in part to counter what they saw as undeserved bad press about the seaside Biltmore Hotel. The multi-story hotel, one of the seaside’s most prominent structures, saw uses varied and controversial before it eventually would be razed and replaced by Noble Park.
Meanwhile, Hermosa official pursued their well-received sister city project, forming a steering committee to draw up a list of candidate cities in neighboring Mexico to choose from. The Committee decided to seek out a beachfront city of similar size. Loreto, on the Sea of Cortez in Baja California, was chosen not only because of its size and location but because of its venerable history.
Loreto was founded in 1697 and was the first permanent settlement in the Californias. It was also the first capital of California, and home to one of the oldest missions of the Californias. Loreto was, in 1768, the place of departure for Father Junipero Serra’s “Sacred Expedition,” which went north to settle what would become the State of California.
In the summer of 1967, Hermosa having decided upon Loreto, 10 representatives flew down to Baja to see the town, meet the people, and to formalize the affiliation with local officials. The Hermosa delegation found the townspeople welcoming, warm, and enthusiastic about the new bond. A few months later, on Nov. 7, the Hermosa Beach City Council adopted a resolution to officially launch its Sister City Program, with the stated intent to develop international friendship and understanding between the people of the two cities.
Now, over 50 years later, the bond between Hermosa and Loreto remains vibrant. This past Sunday on the Strand the Hermosa Beach Sister City Association (HBSCA) hosted a live auction fundraiser featuring items donated by members, friends, and local businesses. Liz Ramirez, president of the HBSCA, reported the auction raised over $12,000. The money will be used to fund both a paramedic training program established in 1999), and a student cultural exchange program established in 1974.
The HBSCA is especially proud of the student exchange program, which provides an opportunity for seventh and eighth-grade students of the beach cities to spend spring break with families in Loreto. The students visit restaurants, the beach, the local missions, a ranch, and take a boat ride out to the offshore Coronado Island. Then, in the summer, their host students fly north and spend a week with the beach cities families to learn about life here.
Currently, the HBSCA is considering two new projects: one to revive a program for environmental education of teachers in Hermosa and Loreto, and the second to support a group foster home in Loreto for children whose parents aren’t able to care for them.
The Hermosa Beach Sister City Association meets the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. in Room 4 of the South Park Community Building. Attendees and new members are always welcomed. For more information about the HBSCA, visit hb-sistercity.org/hermosa.