Business View Magazine | February 2020

166 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020 L a Habra is a city in the northwestern corner of Orange County, California. The Spanish word, habra, means gorge or mountain pass, or, more poetically, “pass through the hills.” First discovered and used by Spanish explorers in the late 18th century, this habra was the natural pass between the Chino and Puente Hills into the San Gabriel Valley in what, today, is eastern Los Angeles County. In 1839, California’s Mexican Governor, Juan B. Alvarado, awarded a land grant of 6,700 acres, which included the present day cities of La Habra and La Habra Heights, to Mariano Reyes Roldan, who named his land Rancho Cañada de La Habra. The City of La Habra was founded in 1896 and officially incorporated in 1925 with a population of 3,000. For many years, the area had been home to sheep ranchers, but by the early 20th century, after Rudolph Hass had perfected the Hass avocado in nearby La Habra Heights, it was the largest avocado center in southern California. Today, this 7.3-square-mile community, surrounded by a ring of state and federal highways, but still within an hour’s drive of Southern California’s beaches, mountains, and desert recreation areas,