The Other California: Land, Identity, and Politics on the Mexican Borderlands

The Other California

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Fletcher Jones Foundation Humanities Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation.

WESTERN HISTORIES

William Deverell, series editor

Published for the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West by University of California Press and the Huntington Library

1. The Father of All: The de la Guerra Family, Power, and Patriarchy in Mexican California, by Louise Pubols

2. Alta California: Peoples in Motion, Identities in Formation, edited by Steven W. Hackel

3. American Heathens: Religion, Race, and Reconstruction in California, by Joshua Paddison

4. Blue Sky Metropolis: The Aerospace Century in Southern California, edited by Peter J. Westwick

5. Post-Ghetto: Reimagining South Los Angeles, edited by Josh Sides

6. Where Minds and Matters Meet: Technology in California and the West, edited by Volker Janssen

7. A Squatter’s Republic: Land and the Politics of Monopoly in California, 1850 – 1900, by Tamara Venit Shelton

8. Heavy Ground: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam Disaster, by Norris Hundley Jr. and Donald C. Jackson

9. The Other California: Land, Identity, and Politics on the Mexican Borderlands, by Verónica Castillo-Muñoz

The Other California

Land, Identity, and Politics on the Mexican Borderlands

VERÓNICA CASTILLO-MUÑOZ

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

University of California Press

Oakland, California

© 2017 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Castillo-Muñoz, Verónica, author.

Title: The other California : land, identity and politics on the Mexican borderlands / Verónica Castillo-Muñoz.

Description: Oakland, California: University of California Press, [2016] | Series: Western histories ; 9 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016018249 | ISBN 9780520291638 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520966727 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula)—History. | Land reform—Mexico—Baja California (Peninsula) —History. | Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula)—Social conditions—History. | Mexican-American Border Region—History.

Classification: LCC F1246 .C195 2016 | DDC 972/.2—dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016018249

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables and Maps

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION: THE MEXICAN BORDERLANDS

1. BUILDING THE MEXICAN BORDERLANDS

2. THE MAKING OF BAJA CALIFORNIA’S MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY

3. REVOLUTION, LABOR UNIONS, AND LAND REFORM IN BAJA CALIFORNIA

4. CONFLICT, LAND REFORM, AND REPATRIATION IN THE MEXICALI VALLEY

5. MEXICALI’S EXCEPTIONALISM

CONCLUSION: THE ALL-MEXICAN TRAIN

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Illustrations

1. Diegueños and European Americans by the Colorado River, 1905

2. Mexicali’s downtown, 1915

3. Postcard of the Santa Rosalía port, 1928

4. Santa Bárbara Church in Santa Rosalía, 1910

5. Compagnie du Boleo houses in Santa Rosalía, 1950

6. Asociación China headquarters, 1916

7. Chinese parade in Mexicali’s Colonia China, 1921

8. Men arrive in old trucks to occupy CRLC lands, 1937

9. Liga Femenil Carmen Serdán, from Ejido Durango, 1937

10. Bracero recruitment center in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, 1956

Tables and Maps

TABLES

1. Land sold by Guillermo Andrade to U.S. investors, 1888–1904

2. Lease account, 1917

3. Workers in the Santa Rosalía mines, 1893–1899

4. Sample of intermarriages in coastal regions of Baja California, 1870–1900

5. Colonias in the Mexicali Valley, 1916

6. Chinese applicants for Mexican citizenship, 1920s

7. Labor unions in the Mexicali Valley, 1924–1927

8. Colonias in the Mexicali Valley, 1937

9. Sample of ejidos in the Mexicali Valley, 1937

10. Sample of Jabonera del Pacífico loans to ejido-based cotton farmers, 1946–1947

11. Sample of Jabonera del Pacífico cotton loans for Asian Mexican farmers, 1946–1947

MAPS

1. Ceded territory, 1853

2. Baja California missions and rancherías, 1848

3. CRLC lots leased by Chinese and Japanese farmers, 1919

Acknowledgments

I grew up listening to myriad border crossings stories. My mother had immigrated from Nayarit, Mexico, to the United States in the late 1970s, with my sister in tow. Both were undocumented, and every three or four years they came to visit me, though they dreaded their return to the United States. They had to make the dangerous crossings through the mountainous terrain that connected Tijuana, Baja California, with San Ysidro, California, in the middle of the night. After I immigrated to North County San Diego in the 1990s, I kept returning to Tijuana and Mexicali. I realized that these booming cities at the edge of two nations kept our stories alive. The Baja California peninsula is a place of opportunity and despair, where indigenous people, global immigrants, mexicanos, and Mexican Americans made the peninsula their home against all odds. This book is dedicated to you.

I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for all the support I have received from archivists, librarians, colleagues, foundations, and institutions to bring this book to fruition. I would like to first thank the archivists from Baja California and Baja California Sur for helping me unearth these hidden histories. Ingeniero Oscar Sánchez and Licenciado Oscar Hernández helped me find rare photographs of Baja California. Elizabeth Acosta Medina and Carlos Octavio Mendoza from the Pablo Martínez archive in La Paz helped me find valuable documents and images of Santa Rosalía. This book could not have been completed without their invaluable assistance. William O. Hendricks, Jill Thrasher, and Jennifer Martínez from the Sherman Library assisted me in finding papers from the Colorado River Land Company. I am also thankful to Peter Blodgett, Daniel Lewis, and Bill Frank, from the Huntington Library, who were so resourceful in helping me find critical documents and rare books on Baja California.

This book benefited from generous financial assistance from different institutions. The UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship and the UC President’s Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities provided me with substantial financial support so I could focus on research and writing. A Graduate Opportunity Fellowship, the Trudy Topik Memorial Fellowship, the Peggy Marudin Award, the UC MEXUS, Humanities Travel Grants, and the Center for International Translation facilitated my travels to different archives in Mexico and in the United States. The Hellman Family Fellowship and the UC Regent’s Faculty Fellowship enabled me to finish the critical research for this book in France and Mexico.

The ideas for this book matured during my time as a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at UC San Diego. The opportunity to devote two full years to research transformed this project. I am most grateful to Eric Van Young, who served as my postdoctoral mentor. His advice and valuable insights were critical to shaping this book. I am also thankful to UC San Diego faculty members in the Department of History, such as Natalia Molina, David Gutiérrez, Nayan Shah (now at USC), and John Marino, for their support. The Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and the biweekly writing workshops provided a collegial setting that made my time at UCSD enjoyable and very productive.

In 2011 I joined the Department of History at UC Santa Barbara. I am very grateful to my colleagues for supporting this project wholeheartedly. Paul Spickard, Sarah Cline, Sherene Seikaly, Michael North, and John Lee provided critical feedback. Kate McDonald, Xiawei Zheng, Mhoze Chikowero, Terence Keel, James Brooks, Lisa Jacobson, Adam Sabra, Peter Alagona, Ann Plane, Beth De Palma Digeser, John Majewiski, Sharon Farmer, Carol Lansing, Nelson Lichtenstein, Alice O’Connor, Sears McGee, Erika Rappaport, Luke Roberts, Salim Yaqub, Stephan Miescher, Mary Furner, Randy Bergstrom, Harold Marcuse, Laura Kalman, Tony Barbieri-Low, Mary Hancock, Pat Cohen, Pekka Hämäläinen (now at Oxford), Debra Blumenthal, and Adrienne Edgar, thank you for your generosity and support. I am also thankful to my friends and colleagues from the Department of Chicano Studies, the Program of Latin American and Iberian Studies, and the Department of Black Studies at UCSB. Special thanks to Miroslava Chávez-García, Mario García, Casey Walsh, Emiko Saldivar, Inés Casillas, and George Lipsitz for engaging with my research.

During my academic career I had the benefit of working with incredible colleagues and mentors. Heidi Tinsman inspired me to deploy a feminist perspective on my analysis of rural women in the Mexican countryside. I have a deep appreciation for Enrique Ochoa, who has supported my work at every stage of my career. I inspire to emulate his passion for social justice. My most heartfelt appreciation and gratitude goes to Vicki L. Ruiz, who became my mentor. Her high expectations and guidance helped me navigate life in academia—a terrain unfamiliar to a first-generation college student like me. Thank you for your continuous support in innumerable ways. I am truly inspired by your scholarly work, professionalism, and mentorship.

I am greatly indebted to Bill Deverell, editor of the Western History series, for believing in this project and for supporting it every step of the way. At the University of California Press, Neils Hooper has been a wonderful editor and I so appreciate his patience and good humor. I am thankful to work with Bradley Depew, Jessica Ling, Jessica Moll, and Susan Silver at different stages of the publication of this book. My deepest gratitude is owed to Kelly Lytle Hernández and the anonymous readers who provided critical feedback on this book. I am thankful to the University of Nebraska Press for allowing me to print portions of chapter 1 that previously appeared in Globalizing Borderlands in the fall of 2016.

I feel very fortunate to count on amazing friends. Margie Brown-Coronel, Dana Velasco Murillo, Kariann Yokota, Alicia González, Rosina Lozano, and Casey Christensen, thank you for offering your unconditional support and wisdom. Jerry González, Mary Romo, Matt García, Julian Lim, Roberto Alvarez, Li Wei Yang, Anne Reid, Jessica Kim, David Igler, Miriam Pawel, José M. Alamillo, Helene Demeestere, and Ernie Chávez made my days at the Huntington engaging and inspiring. I had the good fortune to receive excellent feedback from scholars I met at different conferences and writing workshops. Samuel Truett, Jaime Pensado, Mikael Wolfe, Ana Rosas, Ana Minian, Omar Valerio Jiménez, Elliott Young, Grace Delgado, Mae M. Ngai, Julia Schiavone Camacho, Ramón Gutiérrez, Gerry Cadava, Ben Johnson, and Pedro Castillo all provided their insights and research leads.

Without the support of friends and family, I could not have finished this project. My dear vecinas and amigas, Mariana Rosas, Leti Berrios, Jeanette Villagrana Silva, Rosalba Guevara, Thelma Lozano-Aragón, Maricela Sarkis, and María Elena Martínez, became my village and support in Los Angeles. Thank you for believing in this project. I am forever indebted to my mother, Aurora Gómez, who immigrated to the United States, seeking a better life for her daughters. With optimism and smiles, she worked tirelessly at multiple jobs, in farms and factories. ¡Mil gracias mamá! My sisters, Ruty, Gely, and Marisol, were always cheerful as they gave unconditional support. My grandparents, María and Amado, and Antonia and Crecencio, taught me to love working on a farm, and my grandfather Amado inspired me to learn more about labor organizing in Mexico’s countryside. No words can express my gratitude to my husband, Juan, for his love, good humor, and cariño. I feel so fortunate to have you in my life. Thank you for your support in joyful and challenging moments. During my days as a graduate student, we welcomed two beautiful children, Paola and Alejandro, who have been a blessing. Thank you for reminding me what is truly important in life. ¡Los amo con todo mi corazón!

INTRODUCTION

The Mexican Borderlands

In 1880 Petra Laguna Tambo, a Cocopah woman from Baja California, married Félix Portillo, a mestizo (mixed-race) cowboy from New Mexico who had moved recently to Baja California. Though a newcomer and Spanish speaker, Portillo quickly learned to speak Yuman, his wife’s native language, and joined the community in El Mayor, where he built a house next to his in-laws and eventually had ten children with his wife. Portillo worked as a cowboy while his wife cultivated corn, vegetables, and fruit with other Cocopah women near the Colorado River.¹ Their ethnically mixed marriage, while unusual, signaled the rapidly changing ethnoracial landscape of a frontier region where agricultural and mining enterprises had taken hold on an unprecedented scale.²

During the first half of the nineteenth century, intermarriage between Cocopah women and mestizo men occurred infrequently in the Northern Territory of Baja California.³ Between 1794 and 1801 Spanish missionaries in Baja California had faced great resistance from the Cocopah and Kumeyaay peoples, who frequently attacked and destroyed churches, effectively curtailing the missionary project to settle the Northern Territory.⁴ Spanish Mexican soldiers in frontier Presidios, for the most part, did not marry indigenous women. Instead, priests encouraged single Spanish men to travel to the more populated missions in Sonora and Sinaloa to find mestizo or criolla (American-born Spaniard) brides.⁵

Almost a century later, following the end of the Mexican-American War (1846–48), Mexico’s loss of more than half of its territory to the United States remapped the border region politically, economically, and culturally. In 1853, in an effort to incorporate the newly acquired territories, the U.S. Congress approved well-financed expeditions to California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, and parts of Colorado. Lieutenants R.S. Williamson and J.G. Parks, both topographical engineers, led expeditions to identify the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico, obtained under the 1854 Gadsden Purchase, near the Mexican border, as potential sites for the settlement of European American farmers in the Southwest.⁶ The Baja California peninsula was initially proposed as part of the ceded territories to the United States. The Mexican government, however, refused to give up the strategic peninsula that provided access to both the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean.

The Baja California borderlands became a crucial geographic nexus between Mexico and the United States. The Portillo Laguna family witnessed drastic changes, as did everyone on the border. In the 1880s migration increased in Baja California, after French bankers invested in the Compagnie du Boleo, which became one of Mexico’s leading copper-mining companies. In less than a decade Santa Rosalía grew into a booming town of six thousand people, with a bustling seaport that connected Baja California with the United States, Europe, and Asia.

These major changes paved the way for the emergence of the Baja peninsula as a key point of entry for U.S. business expansion into Mexico. In 1887 the International Mexican Company, an investment firm owned by U.S. nationals, purchased close to two hundred million acres of land in Mexico. This included almost half of the Baja California peninsula.⁷ In 1904 a consortium of Los Angeles–based land speculators led by Harry Chandler, owner of the Los Angeles Times, purchased approximately eight hundred thousand acres of agricultural land in Mexicali, Baja California, and created the Colorado River Land Company (CRLC). Despite the chaos of the Mexican Revolution elsewhere, Baja California remained prosperous. By 1920 cotton farmers cultivated close to one hundred thousand acres of land that produced eighty thousand bales.⁸

Agribusiness and mining companies in Baja first relied on local indigenous and Mexican labor, but when the scarcity of workers threatened production, managers recruited additional laborers from central Mexico, Japan, and China. The approval of the 1899 Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation between Mexico and China facilitated the migration of thousands of Chinese men to northern Mexico.

Focusing on Baja California, this book examines the interplay of land reform and migratory labor in the making of borderlands between the years of 1850 and 1954. I argue that the Mexican borderlands emerged from efforts to keep labor moving across borders while fixing national communities in place. This intricate interplay shows how governments, foreign investors, and local communities engaged in the making of the Baja California borderlands that led to the booming cities of Tijuana, Mexicali, and Santa Rosalía.⁹ During Prohibition era in the 1920s, Tijuana and Mexicali became tourist hubs for Anglos in the United States, who visited the infamous red-light districts and gambling dens at the border.¹⁰ But beyond the hustle and bustle of casinos, nightclubs, and restaurants lie many untold stories of immigrant families who made Baja California their home and changed the geography of the region.

At the heart of The Other California is the story of how ethnically and racially diverse communities of laborers changed the social landscape of Baja California. Initially, the Mexican government mandated that mining and agricultural companies house workers in segregated lodging. And at first they did just that. But by 1921 a drastic demographic shift had occurred and along with it the blurring of racial lines. I contend that migration, combined with intermarriage between Mexican women (both mestiza and indigenous) and men from Asia, Europe, and the United States, transformed Baja California into a multicultural society. These new mixed-race families extended across national borders, shaping local communities by influencing labor, border politics, and migration in the Baja California borderlands.

BORDERLANDS AND LAND REFORM

Over the past two decades, borders and borderlands have become important fields of study in humanities and social science disciplines.¹¹ More than two thousand miles long, the U.S.-Mexico border ranks among the longest borders in Latin America. Histories of the U.S.-Mexico border have prompted historians to expand the analysis of the borders beyond the colonial era and geographic boundaries.¹² We have now more English-language studies on Sonora, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, and Nuevo León.¹³ But we know little about the history of land reform and migration in northern Mexico, especially in Baja California.¹⁴ By multiplying, complicating, and questioning the conventional narratives of the making of the Mexican borderlands, this book examines the politics of race, ethnicity, gender, labor, and migration and places the disciplines of Mexican history, gender studies, borderlands history, and Chicano history in close conversation.

The study of land reform in Mexico has been directly connected to historiography on the Mexican Revolution (1910–20) and the formation of the modern Mexican state in the following two decades.¹⁵ During the revolution, anarchist and agrarian movements embraced the slogan, Tierra y Libertad (Land and Liberty). The Magonistas echoed these words as they took over Baja California in 1911, as did Emiliano Zapata in his famous Plan de Ayala in Morelos.¹⁶ The Mexican Constitution of 1917 addresses land reform in article 27, granting the state the right to expropriate private land that could be distributed for public use.

From Zapata’s Plan de Ayala to the more contemporary Zapatista critique of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, many scholars have viewed the politics of land tenure and the promise (or betrayal) of revolutionary democracy as intimately linked. Yet past and current scholarship still identifies agrarian reform as a nationalist project associated with the 1930s, as President Lázaro Cárdenas sponsored massive peasant mobilization and the redistribution of land in the form of communal holdings known as ejidos.¹⁷ Agrarian reform under Cárdenas has since served as the official story of Mexican nationalism.

This project is a more comprehensive analysis of Baja California’s land reform that incorporates the 1930s and moves into the 1950s. A wider chronological view of agrarian reform is essential