Maaaaanteca!
Copyright 2025 Tara Rico
I, too, dream Manteca
Mean Manteca.
Sing Manteca
I had to think
What is Manteca to me?
Once a place I felt had no space for me
I now see as a
Land of opportunity
1990 in Manteca
There were no Starbucks
no Mega Mall
no murals
1990 there was…
hot pavement
and neighborhoods
Teeming with kids
Teeming with imagination
We dug up bugs
in the dirt
Of our neighbor’s yards
jumped in each other’s pools
and met our friends at the local park
Small town
Left and right
We saw each other’s families at back -to-school
night
We cheered for the Chargers and
We did brownies,
Danced at the Dance Shoppe
And trendy stamp parties,
Maaaaanteca!
Copyright 2025 Tara Rico
1996 in Manteca
We knew which trees to climb in Park West
Weekends spent
Zooming home on our bikes through the
Familiar streets
Or running barefoot around the corner
To our best friends houses
Stubbing our toes at least 3 times thinking nothing
could hurt us
Before we learned to wear shoes
On purpose
Cooked dark brown in the Central Valley sun
Not one friend
Left uninvited to pool party
Neighbors, strangers, everyone would come
Our back yard
Was no orchard but
It had an orange tree
A Lemon tree
And 2 types of cherry trees
We felt lucky to be
Dad never let us be in any FESHTA’s but
We still wish he would have let us!
White birch trees
dotted most of our streets
Maywood
Kingwood
Curtwood
Parkwood
Olivewood
Crestwood
Trailwood
Maaaaanteca!
Copyright 2025 Tara Rico
But best of all
Oakwood
Manteca: 1999
Waterslides.
Far and wide through California’s countryside,
There wasn’t one who didn’t know and love
Manteca waterslides
Wave pools, Wavy hair, and that
Maaaanteca heat
Couldn’t help ourselves to all that
FUN FUN FUN
Splashing in the Sun
In 2001
I remember the parks flooding
The fun neighbors still get their boats
and try to float
The fall that followed
9/11
I remember
Sitting on a skateboard next to my crush
Unsure about the war
Before us
Just some 16 year old Manteca kids
Not quite ready to explore the world outside
Manteca
2005 after 2 years away
I returned to a town of
Maaaaanteca!
Copyright 2025 Tara Rico
Manteca Boys
Trying to become
Decent young men
In 2009 I worked at Fuzion Salon Downtown
And Manteca went Big
With Big League Dreams
Manteca’s own Candini
A former MLB
Our little city
Now bursting at the seams
Now in 2025
Still so much has changed and grown
We have Besitos
Tesoro
Del Toro
An Art Guild
And Community Garden seeds have been sown
A house of Mokha
And Boba spots on trend
Chadwick Square where the pretty girls live
And the Downtown Transit
Far from the beginning but not close to the end
I can still rewind and replay
Those Good Ol Days
The opening of Walmart
Mervyns
Thrilling us long before
The opening of our first Starbucks and Target
What a win
I remember Holy Cow Ice Cream
The Pumpkin Patch
The Grape Stomp
The Giving Tree
Maaaaanteca!
Copyright 2025 Tara Rico
Tio Pepe’s
Johnny’s
Orchard Supply
Scrapbooking Supply!
Isadore’s
DaVinci’s on Main
And grateful I can still head to Hob Nob Bobs
Or La Costa
Or
Bean and Leaf
With Friends
I remember Manteca when
I, too, dream Manteca
Mean Manteca.
Sing Manteca
Once a place I felt had no space for me
I now see that’s impossible to be
Bold, Brilliant, Changing, and Innovative City
Of course there is room for all of us
Because we are Manteca, and
Manteca is me
Written by Tara Rico 2025