Mexicali's Chinatown

Abstract

This article chronicles the circumstances that were pivotal to the establishment of a Chinese community in Mexicali, Mexico. The community is reconstructed as a place in 1925, when its population peaked. After assessing the dynamics of recent change and continuity the article concludes that Chinatown in Mexicali arose because of a particular set of intersecting local and external factors, including political, social, and economic considerations, that operated American states that front the international boundary and from countries as distant as Germany, Russia, India, China, and Japan. Some immigrants established agricultural colonies in the rural areas; others formed distinc- tive, frequently segregated enclaves in the emerging cities. Although most of these colonies and enclaves have blended into the host commu- nity, some have persisted to the present; all have left a historical imprint. At a juncture when the geopolitical and economic significance of the borderlands is attracting global attention, there is need to assess and depict accurately the important role that minority populations have played in shaping the region. The Chinese in Mexicali are a compelling case in point. Located 120 miles east of San Diego and Tijuana, adjacent to the American border community of Calexico, Mexicali is the capital of Baja California and a booming city of more than 600,000 residents (Fig. 1). In its historical core, only blocks from the main border crossing, lies one of the largest Chinatowns in Mexico. Locally called La Chinesca, the district was formed shortly after the founding of the town itself in the first decade of the twentieth century, when Chinese were imported to help in the establishment of the cotton industry. Although in Mexicali today there