Mexicali's Chinatown
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4489937 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James R Curtis (0000-0001-9529-845X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 85 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 335 |
| Publication date | 1995-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geographical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-7428 • E-ISSN: 1931-0846 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/215277 |
| OpenAlex | W2332121606 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 20 |
| References cited | 5 |
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
Archaeology · Chinatown · Geography · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · History · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
At the Edge of the Storm
The Study of Borderlands Consumption
El Dompe , Los Yonkes , and Las Segundas
Confined to the Margins
Drawing Boundaries between Markets, Nations, and Peoples, 1650-1940
Using and Sharing
Disrupting Boundaries
Finding Mexico’s Great Show Window
Cinema on the U.S.-Mexico Border
Selling the Border
Domesticating the Border
On La Frontera and Cultures of Consumption
Promoting the Pacific Borderlands
Orientalisms in the Americas
Through the Back Door
The Mexico-US borderlands through two decades
Mexican medical border towns
Photographic Postcards and Visual Urban Landscape
Border-City Idee Fixe
Violence, Business, and Identity in the Borderlands
| Unique citing works | 20 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 1996 - 2010 (15) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 20 |