In one of America's most expensive zip codes lies 1,600 acres of progressivism. It is Hidden Villa, once owned by social justice warriors Frank and Josephine Duveneck. The Duvenecks came from money back East, settling in the Santa Cruz mountains in the 1920s. They bought a great deal of property and used it to build a hostel in 1937, still in operation, and then founded the first multi-racial summer camp in 1945. They also sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis, Japanese Americans returning from internment camps, and United Farm Workers organizing for worker rights.
I have been interested in visiting Hidden Villa, not just because it's listed in the
111 Places in Silicon Valley That You Must Not Miss (#24), but because Hidden Villa experienced a distinctly progressive outcry this Spring over some tiles purchased in 1913 in Asia by the Duvenecks. They were embedded on the exterior of the Duveneck home when built in 1929. You can see the house pictured above, but not the tiles. (See article
here for that.) They were Hindu swastikas, a sacred symbol of good fortune. But this distinction was lost on camp counselors this Spring, one of whom said that the swastikas made her deeply uncomfortable as someone who identifies as a queer person of color. A mass resignation of camp counselors ensued, and Hidden Villa had no choice but to cancel all summer camps because they were understaffed The tiles were removed two days after the resignations. I wonder if the Jews sheltered by the Duvenecks understood the distinction between a Hindu swastika and a Nazi swastiska?
So when we visited on a hot weekend in July, there were no crowds and no summer camps. We gandered at the goats, goggled at the garden, and took a hike on one of the many miles of trails.
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