The Cupertino Courier
Letters & Opinions
Speak Out
Cupertino pioneers
deserve recognition
I was excited to read on the cover of your Oct. 11 issue that a book was being released exploring the early history of Cupertino. This is my adopted hometown ,and I am very interested in learning about its roots.
I purchased several signed copies of Early Cupertino. However, upon reading it, I was extremely disappointed at what I consider to be glaring omissions of two of the most pivotal families in Cupertino's early history.
Nowhere are the families of John and Mary Rodrigues or Vincent Sr. and Domenica Torre mentioned. It was John Rodrigues Sr., along with his children, John Jr. and Mary Ann, who refused to have their ranch at Blaney Avenue and Bollinger Road annexed by San Jose, effectively blocking the annexation of Cupertino. They also led the successful drive to make Cupertino a city. John Jr. was a major land developer who built city hall, industrial parks and residential developments. Mary Ann Rodrigues Kiper owned one of Cupertino's original grocery stores, the Town and Country Market, as well as other business properties.
The Torre family was deeply involved in both fruit farming and wineries. They owned more than 30 acres of fruit trees--which generations of family members worked--bounding the Cali corner properties on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, and then through Torre Avenue over to Stevens Creek Boulevard at Blaney Avenue (plus an orchard on Portal Avenue). Vincent Sr. purchased Montebello Winery in 1908, owning what is now Ridge Winery. His children grew up and attended schools in Cupertino, and lived and worked here. Your own publication featured this family numerous times on its cover, referring to them as "one of [Cupertino's] founding families" and "Cupertino's famous Torres" (see Nov. 1, 1972, and June 17, 1992, issues).
With other families, such as the Regnarts and the Picchettis, illustrated over several pages, one would think that the Torres and Rodrigueses deserve at least some acknowledgement.
Cindy Todd
Cupertino
