Al Norte

1900s-1930s

Conditions in Mexico and opportunities in El Norte drew Mexicans across the border to work in the fields, railroads and lumber mills, many refugees of the Mexican Revolution. They endured despite hard times. 

The Mexican Revolution. The largest number of those coming North left during the Mexican Revolution to enter the life of farmworkers, some settling in valley towns and colonias to join relatives who came earlier. Over one million people fled the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s for El Norte, through Texas and Los Angeles, and–for many– to the Valley. This broader story we tell through vignettes of interviews with valley families who could trace their families back to the Revolution. Their photos of the early families here or those relatives in Mexico are precious and we found them throughout the Valley. In Fresno, singer-songwriter CarmenCristina Moreno wrote a book about her musician father’s story during the Revolution and recorded songs of the Revolution, including some of his. In Lindsay, Juan Valdez had to flee from a job in the Porfirio Díaz regime and found success here.

Over the Grapevine. Agriculture and restrictive policies against Chinese and Japanese labor brought Mexicans back North. The Revolution drove them. Our symbols for CAMINOS are the precious photos of families gathered in or around their trucks and vehicles, like the large truck coming over the Grapevine.  “Waves” of immigration to the valley came in cars and trucks rather than ships, creating paths to the valley and roads to the smaller towns built on agriculture. For the Visalia image we selected the Juan Valdez truck with family in Lindsay and positioned the larger one near the Museum’ centerpiece of a Dust Bowl truck. 

Creating Community and the Role of the Catholic Church. Baptizing, marrying and burying families, the Catholic church followed the Mexican immigrants North again, establishing chapels and churches in a chain along the valley. As the missions had been the center of early coastal life, these churches provided the cohesion the early communities needed. There was financial support through the beneficios and social support through the many community events, including the 16th of September and the Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Our earliest documented event of a 16th celebration comes from the 1930s and the weddings and funeral photos from family albums of the few that could afford photographers. The Fresno Diocese published full color books of the Central Valley church history in Spanish and English. Once again, early church records are a history of the Mexican history of the valley. Photographs collected and displayed show faces and places from these first decades, posed and professional, and some prized ones spontaneously captured somehow by families who said they didn’t own a camera.  

Hard Times. Imagine an advertisement for a KKK statewide rally at the Fresno Fairgrounds in 1924, which attracted 5,000 people over 3 days of fiesta, next to a program celebrating the 16th of September and a dance sponsored by the emerging businesses and leaders of the community. After the civil War, many southern Confederate soldiers had come to the valley to start a new life, bringing with them attitudes and prejudices of the old South. They especially settled in Visalia and Borden in Madera County.  

Like the stories of the Revolution families, we include vignettes of Depression-era families during the 30s, those surviving in a still hostile culture by bonding in colonias and barrios, and their early businesses catering to the Mexican communities through food-related businesses, bars, and barber shops. There were Deportations for some (not as many in the valley because of the agricultural needs) and discrimination for those here. The visual presence of a revived KKK and “Mexicans go Home” say it all. This in land that was once Mexico. We highlight two great ranches in this period, Kearney’s Fruitvale Estate and Tulare’s Tagus Ranch, based on memories of people who worked there. The Cortes family at Tagus told of segregated schools in the early days and an incidence when Gilbert was transferred to a Visala school and sent home because he was “too dark.” His father, the ranch’s foreman, saw that he was escorted back in a police car. Joe Garcia wrote and illustrated his memoir, growing up on Fruitvale Estate.  

Pixley Cotton Strike. In these decades the Mexican population was mostly migrant and in labor camps, struggling especially in the cotton fields. Yet even in the early days, there were incidents of strikes for better wages and conditions. The most documented one was in the cotton fields of Pixley in Tulare County, which ended in some gains but was waged against a hostile system that ended with three deaths, including a representative of the Mexican Consul. It was part of the beginning of a larger camino of the struggle in the fields of the Valley.