TRAVELER
Mexicali – Baja’s Diverse Capital
by Greg Niemann Mexicali, the state of Baja California’s cap-
ital and second largest city, emerged from a hot (120+ degree) barren desert with dust storms and desolation. Not far away, however, was the Colorado River. Early in the 20th century Americans began building canals to divert
water west, creating the vast Imperial Val- ley, and the whole area became a fertile agricultural center. Today’s Mexicali was earlier called La
Laguna del Alamo, first settled in 1898 by former miners who left the dwindling pick- ings at El Alamo near Ensenada to try their luck in the desert. Going further back, it is known that Juan Bautista de Anza camped near the site in December 1775 on his way north. But the desert was forbidding and for well over 100 years the area was claimed by no one. One of the American agricultural pio-
Esteban Cantu, early Governor.
neers, C. M. “Limpy” Holt, was the first to coin California’s Imperial Valley name, thinking it projected a more positive image for a difficult and desolate area. But Holt did not stop there. He tinkered with the words California/Mexico, switched some syllables around and came up with names for the towns on opposite sides of the border (Cal- exico and Mexi-cali), and the names stuck, La Laguna del Alamo was to be forever called Mexicali.
Dune Surfing.
Water tamed the desert After the Imperial Canal was finished in
1902, Mexicali began to grow as water became available for irrigation. Many of the earliest set- tlers came to work on the irrigation projects for the Colorado River Land Company, an Amer- ican company which owned practically all of the land in the valley. The company then leased land for cotton and the workers stayed to cul- tivate their ensuing crops. The founding date of Mexicali is
March 14, 1903 and Manuel Vizcarra was elected the town’s first Civil Au- thority. In 1904 Mexican President Porfirio Diaz authorized Mexican canals to divert more water to the Mexican side of the border. A big flood occurred in 1906 as the waters of the Colorado River went over their banks. Levees and dikes were painstakingly reinforced and the planting of cotton, cantaloupes, alfalfa and corn resumed. The Intercalifornia Railroad, a
branch of the Southern Pacific, was built and went south from Calexico, through Mexicali, continued east through Baja California farmland and reentered the United States at Yuma. Not only was it a shorter route from the Impe- rial Valley to eastern markets, but the railroad enabled access to the rich cotton and agricul- tural areas south of the border. During the Revolution of 1911, soldiers of
The Chinese influence in Mexicali.
fortune came into Mexicali. Under the banner of an American labor movement, the IWW (Wobblies) tried to make Mexicali a Socialist enclave. They were driven off by the Mexican army but not before lives were lost and numer- ous wounded. Once the Wobbly leader was shot, the remaining anarchists gave up. Stability was restored in 1915 by Colonel Esteban Cantu who served as Baja California Norte Governor in 1915-1920. He moved the Baja
62 SANCLEMENTEJOURNAL
report listing among the laborers approximately 5,000 Mexicans, 3,500 Chinese, 300 Japanese and 200 Hindus. But it doesn’t mean they got along. For example, many Mexicans blamed the Chinese for taking ‘their’ jobs. Sound fa- miliar? There is still a large Chinese population,
one of the largest concentrations per capita out- side Asia. You can find excellent Chinese food among the reported 200 Chinese restaurants in the capital city. Today’s Mexicali covers 5,254 acres and is
home to about 700,000 inhabitants or nearly 1,000,000 people if you count the surrounding area. The city maintains a highly educated and skilled population, having modernized to be-
California territorial capital to Mexicali and was responsible for much of the infrastructure around the entire state. In 1936, the Colorado River Land Com-
pany was ordered by the Mexican government to sell most of its holdings to Mexican farmers and farm communities known as ejidos.
An exemplar of diversity During the early years of Mexicali’s history, the town was an exemplar of diversity with one
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