COACHELLA, California — Claudia Lua Alvarado has staked her future on the rows of towering date palms behind the house where she lives with her husband and two children in a desert community east of Los Angeles.
It’s not just the fleshy, sweet fruit they produce each year. Their ample shade and picturesque backdrop draw dozens of families looking for an event space to host celebrations ranging from weddings to quinceañeras, a traditional coming-of-age event for a girl’s 15th birthday celebrated in Latin American cultures.
Lua Alvarado is one of dozens of small ranch owners that produce dates and serve as event venues for the Coachella Valley’s predominantly Latino community.
“This is what sells our property,” said Lua Alvarado, a 49-year-old fashion designer who bought the 8-acre (3.2 hectare) parcel seven years ago. “It feels like we’re in Hawaii or some other tropical place.”
While the region is known for its scorching heat and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that draws thousands of people each year, the region is also responsible for more than 80 percent of the country’s dates thanks to its dry climate and abundant groundwater, according to the California Date Commission.
Most dates are grown by large-scale producers who also package and ship the fruit. Lua Alvarado and other small producers harvest dates from their land and sell them to large producers, but that is not enough to make ends meet.
Many also have other jobs, from gardening to training horses, and run the ranches, or ranchos as they are called in Spanish, as event venues with large outdoor spaces for family gatherings, at a price lower than the fancy hotels in the resort areas around Palm Springs.
Ranches have existed in the Coachella Valley for decades, and their numbers have grown as the region’s population has grown. There’s also a desire among many members of the Latino community and others to host more outdoor events, especially since the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the weekend parties led to complaints from residents seeking the peace and quiet of the countryside, with local authorities subsequently fining the venues for noise and breaking the rules.
The mounting fines forced ranch owners to organize and apply for special regulations to host private events (just as other properties do for concert-goers at the annual music festival) and allow their date palms to bloom.
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted in June to approve a plan that would allow ranches of at least 4.5 acres (1.8 hectares) in size, with 40 percent zoned for agriculture and 20 percent (currently) available for agriculture. Provisions for parking and security are also included.
V. Manuel Perez, a county supervisor, compared the plan to efforts to develop wine country in a nearby community known for its grapevines and hot air balloon rides. He said it is vital in a region that is home to Hispanic farmworkers and their children who want to celebrate family milestones and their culture on a budget.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that about 70% of the area’s population is Hispanic, and the median household income was $65,000 a year in 2022. That’s about $20,000 less than the region as a whole.
“In 10 years, the Coachella Valley is going to be seen as date country,” said Perez, who recalled going to parties at ranches as a kid. “We felt like this would be a unique way to ensure the success and the continuation — the expansion, if you will — of something that is accessible, an event space that is accessible, that is affordable for people.”
Dates have been grown in the Coachella Valley for more than a century, ever since saplings were brought from the Middle East to see if they would grow in the Southern California desert because of the similarities in climate. The valley is the nation’s most date-producing region, and last year Riverside County had nearly 10,000 acres (4,046 hectares) of date palms that produced more than 38,000 tons (34,473 metric tons) of the fruit, according to the county’s agriculture commissioner’s office.
Mark Tadros, who organizes educational events and grows dates at Aziz Farms, said ranches aren’t the biggest growers, but when you calculate the fruit they sell to packing houses, it makes a difference. He plans to apply for a new permit for his 10-acre (4-hectare) farm and hopes that requiring landowners to dedicate a certain portion of their property to the trees will encourage those who might not have enough date palms to plant more.
“I think the more people who have a stake in this industry and in this game, the better off we will be,” Tadros said, adding that he has seen many date growers get out of the business.
Carlos Ulloa came to appreciate date palms after buying land in Thousand Palms seven years ago. His vision was to create a place where he could keep his horses and have a working ranch with lambs and peacocks, while hosting events where families had enough space to invite their relatives to party without going broke.
Dates weren’t part of the equation, so Ulloa had the previous landowner—a date farmer—take most of his 500 palms, leaving behind just 150. Ulloa later learned that each tree sold for as much as $1,000. He enjoyed their shade so much that he’s now taking suckers to grow more palms and repopulate his ranch, something he’s especially eager to do since only date plots qualify for the new permit.
Ulloa, who previously worked as an event coordinator for hotels, says the ranches fill a gap in the market by offering families the option to pay a few thousand dollars for an event and bring their own food or make decorations to cut costs. And they do it beautifully.
“We offer people who are less well off the opportunity to still celebrate their own party, and not just our own parties, but also our traditions, because a quinceañera is more Latin than any other party,” he said.