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Title
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Migrant Routes Leading to Santa Clara County
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Description
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Before WWII, Mexican immigrants joined the agricultural migrant routes that eventually led to the fields and orchards in what is now Santa Clara County. Due to the nature of their low-paid seasonal jobs, most ethnic Mexican migrants were unable to join permanent colonia settlements throughout the county. On the road, they might stay a week or a month working a crop in one location until the harvest ended and then moving onto the next.
One route began in the lower part of California around San Diego or Imperial Valley, starting in February with row crops such as cantaloupe, tomatoes, or garlic. From there, migrants headed up to the Los Angeles area (primarily in the citrus orchards); then over the Tehachapi Mountains to the San Joaquin Valley working in row crops; then up through Bakersfield, Visalia, Fresno, Modesto and over Pacheco Pass to Hollister and Gilroy; then north to Santa Clara County; and finally back south again.
A second route extended north from the Los Angeles citrus area up the Central Coast through Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Nipomo, and the Salinas Valley working row crops. The route continued to Santa Clara County in June for orchard or row crops, then over to the Fresno area in August for grapes or other row crops, and then returning south to the Los Angeles area.
Flood conditions in the Rio Grande Valley pushed a new group of Mexicans, particularly from Del Rio, Texas, onto the migrant path to Santa Clara County after WWII. These workers and their families joined California’s unskilled, low paid, seasonal migrant labor force, though many were eventually able to obtain cannery work and settle into permanent housing in Santa Clara County’s Mexican colonias.
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Scholar Talk
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https://vimeo.com/812900744?share=copy
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Identifier
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B4SV Exhibit Topic Two: Slide 005
