Boom or Bust: Prohibition and the Great Depression

Boom or Bust: Prohibition and the Great Depression. . A major blow to the Cucamonga Valley's expanding vineyards was the passage of The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1919, known simply as "Prohibition". This national ban on the production and sale, not to mention the consumption, of alcoholic beverages posed new challenges to the valley's wine makers. Home production of alcohol was allowed by the law, and many across the nation used Cucamonga grapes for this small-scale production. Sacramental, kosher, and medicinal wines were produced, and although very difficult to document, bootlegging and illegal sale of wine was probably very common in the Valley. Unlike most farmers during the Great Depression, many of California's grape growers experienced great prosperity, as Prohibition stimulated the domestic market for grapes, grape juice to make into wine, and raisins. Prohibition's repeal in 1933 witnessed an enormous growth in viticulture and by the close of World War II, approximately 40,000 acres of vines had been planted in the Valley. Corresponding advances in transportation, distribution, marketing, and disease control resulted in high profits. The tens of thousands of acres were tended to by an increasingly permanent labor force comprised of Mexican and Mexican-American workers, many of whom lived in two thriving communities, Guasti village and Cucamonga's North Town, located north of Guasti.