Imperial (212 page)

“Population:
(Population worksheet, and Percentage of Southern California chart, reproduced above)
This is probably the most discouraging of the Imperial statistics. After a surge of agricultural migrations in the 1910-20s, population growth was stagnant for 40 years (1930-70, average annual growth was 3%, with no growth from 1930-50). Imperial may be first (well, maybe Inyo) among the California counties for its undesirability as a place to live. Its proportion of the population of Southern California peaked in 1920, declined steadily until it bottomed out at 0.74% in 1970 and recovered modestly to 0.86% in 2000. Meanwhile, Riverside County has shown at least 30% growth every decade and currently has 30% of Southern California’s population. Did I mention lately that Imperial is too hot?

“This decline undoubtedly influenced some of its farmers’ choices for agricultural production, since Imperial didn’t have a growing labor force and relied on migrant workers for picking many of its crops. Population stagnancy is almost certainly also related to the decline of the dairy industry, but which affected the other more strongly is difficult to say. (The
Percent of Southern CA
chart above offers a graphic illustration of Imperial’s vertiginous slide. More data is available on the spreadsheet which shows Imperial falling further and further behind Riverside County in population.)”

The slender cowgirl—ICHSPM, document cat. #A2002.154.2, Ball Advertising Co. pamphlet: “Visitors’ Recreation Guide Book to Imperial County California: 36 Pages of Information” (
ca.
1964), cover.

Original meetings of Fraternal Order of Eagles in Holtville—Based on that organization’s address listing in the Imperial Valley Directory (1912), p. xii.

“TAKE NOTICE. . . .”—An advertisement which frequently appears in the Imperial Valley Directory (1912).

Advertisement: “SAVE WITH ICE”—Imperial Valley Directory (1930), p. 32.

A book on citrus diseases: “A large list of special fruit rots and spots occurs . . .”—Fawcett, p. 35. In the original the phrase “dry rot,” which I have de-italicized to indicate an insertion, occurs just before “the last one has been found only in the Imperial Valley.”

129 . From Ten Gals Down to Three (1914 -2004)

Epigraph: “All Riverside County ‘shows off’ during this one week period . . .”—Shields Date Gardens, p. 13.

Ray House and his friend Art La Londe—Interviewed at the La Londe residence in Coachella, July 2004. Shannon Mullen was present.

Provenance of Miss Helen Shaw—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 197.

Mario—Interviewed at his workplace, the Thirteen Negro, in September 2005, Terrie Petree interpreting.

130 . You Can’t Produce Things the Way You Used To (2003 -2004)

Epigraph: “Migratory working man . . .”—
I.W.W. Songs
, p. 59 (T.B.S. [author’s initials], “A Worker’s Plea,” stanza III).

The tale of Prince Industries and Winzeler Gear—
Sacramento Bee
, Monday, December 1, 2003, p. D2 (Dave Carpenter, Associated Press, “For factories, it’s change or fold: . . .).

“There’s still much cotton in the valley . . .”—Señora Socorro Ramírez, interviewed on 19 February 2004 in her restaurant. Terrie Petree interpreted.

In California, annual crop production has increased . . .—Fact from California Department of Agriculture (1965), p. 5.

“The widespread use of Great Lakes seed . . .”—California State Archives. Department of Food and Agriculture. Bureau of Marketing. Marketing order files, Box 3. State of California, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Markets hearing on proposed marketing order for winter lettuce. Wednesday, December 17, 1958, beginning ten o’clock, a.m., El Centro, California. P. 211.

Citrus packers in Riverside, 1940s and 1996—Patterson, p. iv.

California farm acreages, averages sizes and total numbers, 1950 and 2000—
California Agricultural Directory 2004-2005
, p. 108.

“It’s a great feeling, when winter bears down or a drouth comes along . . .”—Sue Sanders, p. 69.

“Starting in 1975, the new definition of farm[s] . . .”—
California Agricultural Directory 2004-2005
, loc. cit.

“In short, democracy—once created through bloodshed . . .”—Hanson, p. 244.

Paul S. Taylor: “U.S. agriculture is the most productive in the world . . .”—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Paul S. Taylor papers. Carton 4. Typescript: “In the fields, by Paul S. Taylor & Anne Loftis,” n.d. (another slightly different version in the same folder reads: “Revised Sept. 15, 1981”). P. 19.

Richard Brogan on the Agricultural Stabilization Board—Interviewed in Calexico, April 2004.

New dehydrating method now allows Imperial County to sell its asparagus to Europe—
California Farmer
, April 5, 1975, p. 12 (“West Coast News Notes: Southern California”).

Status of Imperial County agricultural production, 1982—Division of Agricultural Sciences (1982), p. 129.

The private investigator from San Diego: “The really rich ones own or control eighty-five percent of all agribusiness . . .”—George Michael Newman, Tactical Investigative Services. I interviewed him by telephone in 2003.

ICAC reports, 1970, 1980, 1990—Imperial County Agricultural Commission papers; Commissioners’ letters for those years.

Eric Sloane: “The extraordinary family spirit . . .”—Op. cit., p. 65.

New York Times
extract: “American agriculture is at a dangerous crossroads . . .”—
New York Times
, Thursday, December 9, 2004, “Op-Ed” section, p. A31 (Victor Hanson Davis, “A Secretary for Farmland Security”).

Richard Brogan: “I personally feel that this country can’t depend on the Mexican industrial sector . . ” —Interviewed in Calexico, April 2004.

131. The Aztecs Are Back (2004)

Epigraph: “He was beginning to yearn for Mexico . . .”—Jackson, p. 359.

Description of Coatlicue—After a photograph in Carrasco and Moctezuma, p. 42.

132 . The Line Itself (1950 -2006)

Epigraph: “. . . in the new landscape around them . . .”—Ballard,
The Drought
, p. 82.

Javier Lupercio—Interviewed in Mexicali, April 2004, José López from Jalisco translating. And, yes, it was the jobs. One afternoon in San Luis I asked an old man from Durango (he had never been to the United States) what was different about the border, and he said: “The ambiance is very different here, because you get the feeling that all the men are going to the U.S. to work. And here you see the women working in business. Back home, they don’t work.” He did not want to be named. Interviewed in San Luis, December 2006. Terrie Petree interpreted.

Port of Entry headline—
Imperial Valley Press
, Inland Empire edition, 1974, p. 12 (Don Quinn, “POE opens new door to Mexico in era of friendship”).

Leslie Marmon Silko’s recollections—Crosthwaite, Byrd and Byrd, p. 72 (Leslie Marmon Silko, “The Border Patrol State”).

Ruben Salazar: “The Mexican-American has the lowest education level . . .”—Op. cit., p. 267 (“The Mexican-Americans NEDA Much Better School System”).

Salazar again: “Anyone who has seen the fetid shacks in which potential wetbacks live . . .”—Ibid., p. 253 (“The ‘Wetback’ Problem Has More Than Just One Side,” April 24, 1970).

Mexican illegals apprehended in the U.S., 1964 (43,840) and 1974 (709,959)—Dunbar and Kravitz, p. 14 (Table 1-1; based on INS Annual Reports).

César Chávez: “The worst invasion of illegal aliens in our history . . .”—Ibid., p. 21 (statement of 18 July 1974).

133 . Farm Size (1950 -2006)

Epigraph: “As the number of farmers decrease [
sic
] . . .”
—California Farmer
, vol. 210, no. 2 (January 17, 1959), cover.

The field of Mrs. Josephine Runge—
Imperial County: The Big Picture
, p. 68.

Percentages of American
vs.
Mexican farmers at beginning of twenty-first century—Bigelow, p. 79.

Information on Mexicali Valley
colonia
size, 1947, and paragraph on Colonias Villarreal and Zacatecas—AHMM, Chata Angulo collection, box 9, marked “simply 34 expedientes,” folder “Aparación y Annendamientos, Rentos a 31/47.” (If we make average rather than per capita lot size the basis of our comparison, then Villarreal represents 79 acres, Zacatecas 157½—near about Roosevelt’s famous 160.) More examples: In Colonia Alvarado, lot size ranged from 19.8 to 95.8 hectares. Most were in the twenties, a few in the fifties. In Colonia Astorago, one man owned lot number 5 at only 20, but the other 4 settlers all possessed from 60 to 85.6 hectares. The average rounded size for Colonia B. Juárez was 47 hectares; one of the 12 colonists subsisted (or not) on only 5. Colonia Bravo’s 10 owners averaged 25.5 hectares apiece. The average for Colonia Terrenos Indios was 29. Colonia Robertson’s 8 lots averaged 30 hectares. Colonia Chapultepec had 59 owners or renters; the average was 38.2. Colonia Silva must have been a haven of the rich, for it encompassed 78 landholders at around 50 hectares each.

Source:
Calculated by me from Archivo Histórico del Municipio de Mexicali, Chata Angulo collection, box 9, marked “simply 34 expedientes,” folder “Aparacion y Annendamientos, Rentos a 31/47,” 29-page list of
colonias
and their inhabitants drawn up in 1947. As noted elsewhere, this is the only information the archives have about property holdings in the overall Mexicali Valley at this time.

An official of the Tribunal Unitario Agrario—Lic. Carlos E. Tinoco, official of the Tribunal Unitario Agrario Distrito Dos. Interviewed in the tribunal offices in Mexicali, September 2005. Terrie Petree translated.

“Farming is characterized by highly commercialized large scale operations . . .”—Griffin and Young, p. 174.

“Two statements made by Nixon should prove popular . . .”—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Paul S. Taylor papers. Carton 4. Folder 4:11: “Fight For Water.”
Brawley News
, 1949, no page (“Nixon Meets With Valley GOP Leaders”).

Chairman Clinton P. Anderson of the Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs: “It should be made clear to every Member of the Senate . . .”—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Paul S. Taylor papers. Carton 4. Folder 4:11: “Fight For Water.” Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs (1958). [
Committee Print.
]
Ivanhoe (California) Acreage Limitation (Reclamation) Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States: Memorandum of Chairman Clinton P. Anderson of the Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, United States Senate, Eighty-fifth Congress, Second Session, June 26, 1958
(Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1958). P. 4.

Mr. Barrett: “I say to the Senator from New Mexico . . .”—Loc. cit.

The regional geography just quoted from this period: “. . . Mexicans, Orientals, Negroes, and migrant Caucasians under the direction of Caucasian foremen . . .”—Griffin and Young, pp. 173-74 (partly already quoted in “Stolid of Face and Languid”).

The tale of Harold Hunt’s ranch—
California Farmer
, vol. 193, no. 1 (July 1, 1950), 29 (Joe Crosby, “Hunt Proves Brahmans Have a Place in Imperial”).

Coachella
vs.
Imperial Valley acreage, 1962; acreage of Steven H. Elmore—Ruiz, pp. 280, 286.

“Far from fulfilling William Smythe’s breathless promise . . .”—DeBuys and Myers, p. 164.

Number of farms in California in 1974, by 2 definitions—Census Bureau (1974), p. xii.

Total and average California farm acreage, 1969-74; total and average California farm acreage 1940-74; farm profit 1974—Ibid., pp. xiv, xiii, xvi, 1-1, xvii; IV-73.

The California Department of Agriculture (1965) notes (p. 4) that in 1935 California had 150,360 farms; in 1959, only 99,274 farms. In 1959, farms of 1,000 acres and over were 76% of all farmland (p. 5). Average acreage of California farms in 1959 was 372; however, farms of 1,000 acres and more had almost half (46%) the state’s cropland harvest in 1959 (p. 10).

Farm shrinkage table, and following paragraph about average acreages in the 4 relevant counties (calculated by me from the following)—Census Bureau (1974), p. II-1.

Debts of farm operators by county, 1974—Ibid., p. II-36 (farm operator debt for farms with sales of $2,500 and over: 1974). Average debt per farm: Imperial, $249,970; Los Angeles, $78,450; Riverside, $177,993; San Diego, $76,546.

Sonoran expropriations of 1976—Meyer et al., p. 649.

“Is it ‘unfair’ to require residents of Imperial Valley to observe reclamation law?”—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Paul S. Taylor papers. Carton 4. Folder 4:29: “Imperial Valley, Notes, Drafts.” Yellow sheet: “Imperial Valley, California. Paul S. Taylor, memo 1978.” Pp. 1-2.

Footnote: The summary paragraph relating to the limitation law’s vicissitudes is likewise based on Taylor (loc. cit.), who references Interior District Counsel Coffey, February 4, 1933; 1945 71 Interior Dec. 553, 548; the 1957 memorandum in behalf of the United States with respect to relevance of noncompliance with acreage limitations of reclamation law, No. 10 original,
Arizona v. California
357 U.S. 902 (1957); 71 Interior Dec. 466, 555 (1964); 71 Interior Dec. 517. 1964.