The 1990s brought a more diverse population to Ventura County. Due largely to an influx of Latinos in every local city, and a boom in upscale housing in the east county, the number of Ventura County residents rose to 753,000--up 84,000 in 10 years. The people pictured below represent the region's increasing diversity.
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It was family that brought Jerome and Tisa O'Neal and their three boys here in 1993. There is no longer such a tie. But the O'Neals would never leave.
"Man, besides the price of houses, it's great," said Jerome, 34, a carpenter.
"People tease us and say we live in Pleasantville," said Tisa, 32, a nurse. "And we belong to an incredible multiracial church."
The congregation meets at the Boys & Girls Club in Camarillo, and the couple said there is no other one like it in the county.