BajaNomad

First Asian Settlers In Baja California

Speedy Gonzalez - 5-10-2004 at 01:20 PM


Who has information about the first Asian settlers (Chinese and Japanes) in Baja California?

I appreciate if you indicate the source whenever possible.

Thanks to you all!

westy - 5-10-2004 at 06:05 PM

The old AAA Baja book use to have info about the first Asian settlers in Baja. I'm not sure if thier new Baja book does.
Check it out, mon.

David K - 5-10-2004 at 07:06 PM

El Chinero, the small desert mountain about 35 miles north of San Felipe, is so named because about 100 years ago a boat off-loaded Chinese laborers seeking work in the Mexicali farmlands, railroad, or irrigation projects.

160 Chinese walked north (one story claims they were sold a map to water holes along the way, that don't exist). Most died of thirst at the foot of 'El Chinero'.

Chinese who did come to Mexicali from other directions stayed on, and that explains why the city of Mexicali has so many Chinese restaurants!

I knew a Chinese-Mexican who immigrated north from Mexicali to become a school teacher.

Details on pg. 81 of the Lower California Guidebook by Gerhard & Gulick.

Also, pg. 79 of Baja Legends by Greg Niemann.

Also, pg. 109 of Baja Road Log by Walt Wheelock.

Another mention of the first Chinese visitor to Baja California is in Mike McMahan's great reading book: 'There It Is: Baja!' c1973 (later published in paperback as 'My Adventures in Baja')...

On page 23, McMahan tells of a Chinese monk named Hoei-Sin who in 499 B.C. traveled to a strange land...

Interesting Question

academicanarchist - 5-10-2004 at 07:19 PM

David has already cited more recent Asian settlers, but I doubt if we will ever be able to identify the first group or individuals in Baja California. The records from the mid-eighteenth century in the south are not very complete. The first potential source of Asian settlers would have been the Nau de Filipinas, that stopped in the south beginning in the 1730s at the time of the big uprising. We won't know, because the first settlers most likely jumped ship. If memory serves me, there may have been several Filipinos with Salvatierra in 1697. There is better documentation in later periods, such as the early 19th century, for people who had jumped ship and remained. There was a large group, for example, in Monterey and surrounding communities in California. Now a cautionary note. chino was one of the colonial-era caste terms, that did not mean somebody from China. Chino appears as a category in colonial-era censuses and parish registers. Which is not to say that there were not Chinese in early California. There is a baptism of a Chinese man at Monterey around 1818, or so.

David K - 5-10-2004 at 07:55 PM

Juan de Ugarte sailed north from Loreto in 1721 to explore the upper gulf (and to prove California was not an island), in two ships. The Triunfo de la Cruz (the first ship built in California, using the Guerivo trees from west of Mulege) and the open sailboat Santa Barbara were his ships. The Triunfo's crew had 13 Filipinos and the Santa Barbara had 2. (from Antigua California by Harry Crosby, pp. 100-101).

The majority of sailors willing to live and work in Loreto were Filipinos (during the Jesuit era). Padre Bravo valued the Filipinos so much tha he petitioned the powers that be to excuse them from a special 'tribute' tax! (pg. 175 Antigua California).

'Chinos' (Filipinos) usually stayed and lived in Loreto rather than risk another Pacific crossing! (pg. 279).

Mike Humfreville - 5-10-2004 at 09:25 PM

I read some material about a year ago on the web that claimed science was now thinking that the asian connection (coming from the east) was no longer considered as likely as the Inuit, etc (also Asian) peoples from the north working their way south as hunger and threats from others forced them.

I thought AA had some info on that. AA, do you remember this???

We'll have to ask Thor Hyderdhal (sp)!

BajaNomad - 5-10-2004 at 09:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Mike Humfreville
I read some material about a year ago on the web that claimed science was now thinking that the asian connection (coming from the east) was no longer considered as likely as the Inuit, etc (also Asian) peoples from the north working their way south as hunger and threats from others forced them.
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=1561

Thanks...

Speedy Gonzalez - 5-10-2004 at 11:17 PM



Wow... a lot of answers in short time. Thanks to all of you!

Some I already knew, others I will have to research on.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned any Japanese. There was probably for a couple of years a small Japanese group around Guerrero Negro long time before the city was founded.

trblmkr - 5-11-2004 at 09:00 AM

Have you found any old buttons around your place? That would be neat.
P.

trblmkr - 5-11-2004 at 12:04 PM

Thanks Glenn, I love that.

Speedy Gonzalez - 5-11-2004 at 12:54 PM

Quote:

Original posted by academicanarchist
If memory serves me, there may have been several Filipinos with Salvatierra in 1697.


Hola academicanarchist

There were no Filipinos with Salvatierra. He came with some Yaquis from Sonora and some Spanish soldiers. There is a conmemorable plate on the malecon of Loreto.

I need to go back to Venegas

academicanarchist - 5-11-2004 at 07:48 PM

I need to go back to Venegas, which is where I believe I read that there were Filipinos, which makes sense. There probably were not a large number of sailors on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, which was not heavily populated, and many FIlipino sailors came on the Nau de Filipinas. I would not put much stock in historical markers.

[Edited on 5-12-2004 by academicanarchist]