Posted by Carry Beverly (207.90.205.116) on December 24, 2002 at 11:27:52:

Archaeologists uncovered El Paso's Chinatown in the third excavation site, the parking lot adjacent to the historic Cortez Hotel. Compared to other Chinatowns across the U.S. this one established itself late.

When five railroads converged on El Paso beginning in May 1881 with the arrival of the Southern Pacific line, the pursuant population boom changed the city forever.

Year Population Source
1880 736 US Census
1881 1.500 Sonichsen, 1968
1888 11.069 El Paso City Directory
1890 10.338 US Census
1900 15.906 US Census
Source: Beneath The Border City Vol.2. page 15

Growth was more dramatic than it appeared - greater than the records indicated. The City Directory, more accurate than any Federal Census in the time period, showed more people living in the city than the Census showed in 1890. El Paso's population growth was obviously enormous. More to the point, a large number of people were never counted: mostly Mexican immigrants and the Chinese population overseas.

Growing commercial importance and the population boom gave rise to El Paso's municipal and physical development. Brick structures replaced adobe buildings and walls. The bricks were produced locally at a rate of nearly ten thousand a day by two companies: Parsons & Newell, and Stout & Hills. A water company and a gas company were started in 1881; in 1882, the first telephones , water hydrants and water mains were installed; electricity arrived in 1883 and paved streets began in 1900. Municipal initiatives began in the center of downtown and spread into emerging Anglo neighborhoods. The barrios, including Chihuahuita, did not receive utilities and improvements until much later.

Before becoming an important mining, cattle and railway center, El Paso - a dormant adobe hamlet - had one cultural identity and its residents lived as an integrated group. There were no patterns of racial , social, economic or labor distinctions. According to many scholars, W.W. Mills' quote reflected the day to day experience of people living in The Pass, "Common trials and dangers united the two races as one family, and the fact that one man was a Mexican and another an American was Seldom mentioned, and I believe as seldom thought about."

Marriage across ethnic lines is one of the strongest indicators that racial differences were absent, ignored, or if they were acknowledged, they were not used to create distance and frustration between people. In El Paso, even the most prominent men had Mexican wifes including James Magoffin, Hugh Stephenson and Simeon Hart.

The golden roads to economic prosperity laid by the railroads created a huge demand for labor, and this demand coincided with the economic destruction experienced in Mexico led by then - President Porfirio Diaz. Many Mexican farmers lost their lands to the government and fled to El Paso where they could earn more than anywhere else in the region. The words of 'economic opportunity' spread rapidity not only in Mexico but in fact throughout the world.

The rapid influx of wealth and expansion brought for the first time possibilities for exceptional individual and group advancement. In the process, ethnic separation took hold. Anglo workers aligned with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to oppose Mexican participation and presence. Mexican workers through the International Workers of the World (IWW) held their ground. El Paso schools were completely segregated by the mid-1880s and intermarriages were few by the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Differences among people were highlighted and placed between them to become the stomping ground for expressing growing pains.

El Paso's building and planning scheme (its infrastructure beginning with the railroads) advanced to frustrate social interaction, to segregate economic from cultural and social patterns of behavior and was a potent obstacle to the growth of integrated city life. It was not particular to the region. Across the nation, America was depopulating its cities. Against this backdrop, if you were Chinese, you were "not us" - you were "them."

The Chinese exodus from China and their arrival in the United States began forty years before they reached El Paso. The name given to America by the Chinese at this time was "Guam Saan" which translates to "Mountain of Gold." California, where gold was discovered in 1848, was a most alluring place to migrate. Most of the young, able-bodies males - nearly all the Chinese emigrants - were from the southern province of Guangdong.

Droughts, floods, mass famine, peasant revolts and widespread official corruption created a highly intolerable social climate. For many Chinese, the future for a family could only be found in emigration. They moved from small villages into the large port city of Canton, looking for any sort of work. Employment was scarce and rumors of fortunes abroad were plentiful. Their primary intent was to increase their personal wealth and return with their earnings back to China, to their families and villages. Most of the sojourners could not pay for their passage and were indentured. The hope was so great that 12,000 people reached San Francisco every year until 1882 when Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted, nearly the same time that El Paso's Chinatown was established.

By 1860, the big gold mines started to decline, and resentment of the Chinese commenced. Emigrants found work in agriculture and in the railroads. By 1870 and for the next fifty years, the anti-Chinese movement built. It drove the Chinese into ghettos and barrios. For protection as much as for social interaction, traditional Chinese associations - secret societies and clans - formed and reinforced their confinement to chinatown. The overseas branch of the revolutionary Triad Society (the Chee Kung Tong) became the central institution of the El Paso Chinese population, nearly half of the community belonged to the brotherhood of solidarity. The Chee Kung Tong's main role was to provide economic support to its members.

Faced with official and unofficial racial hostility, the Chinese of El Paso found it necessary to become increasingly independent. By the end of the 19th century, Mar Wing Kee - a caf¨¦ owner - was the "unofficial but universally recognized major."

The Chinese found work in various occupations including laundries, restaurants, grocery stores and as domestic help. They quickly monopolized the laundry industry. And when they became cooks and house servants, the former domain of female Mexican workers, competition and friction between Orientals and Mexicans escalated.

Through time, another succesful enterprise - the smuggling of illegal Chinese immigrants - promoted more self-sufficiency. In the area south of Oregon street, it was commonly believed and reported by the chief immigration inspector in 1905 that Chinese buildings concealed crawl spaces in ceilings and floors that served underground tunnels linked to an elaborate smuggling honeycomb. By the early 20th century, they were capable of running the largest port of entry for illegal Chinese immigrants arriving from Mexico.

El Paso had one cultural identity and its residents lived as an integrated group before becoming an important mining, cattle and railway center. The beginning of intensive urbanization in El Paso started when the railroads created a huge demand for labor. The news of this "economic opportunity" spread rapidly to Mexico and throughout the world. These important events transformed the singular and insular identity of our area.

The smuggling of illegal Chinese immigrants rapidly became a successful enterprise. It helped to satisfy the demand for labor. It also added to the strain of growth in the new city and introduced a new cultural element.

The Chinese found work in various occupations including laundries, restaurants, and grocery stores and as domestic help. They also found competition and friction with Mexican immigrants. As El Paso's urban center grew, so did racial hostility. If you were Chinese, you were "not us"- you were "them."

El Paso's former singular and integrated identity was shattered as boundaries and turf became forefront.

El Paso's Chinatown was remarkably self-sufficient. By the end of the 19th century, Mar Wing Kee - a caf¨¦ owner - was the "unofficial but universally recognized Mayor" of El Paso's Chinatown. Still, this city within a city would not survive. The Chinese were gradually squeezed out of their commercial areas by non-Chinese businesses and the Anglo population.

El Paso's Chinatown, that existed from 1881 until at least ca. 1915, and the Chinese gave way to yet another cultural and identity transformation.

Archaeologists uncovered El Paso's Chinatown in the parking lot adjacent to the historic Cortez Hotel. Starting along the middle of Mesa Street and moving clockwise around the site, we'll take a closer look at the specific locations identified through the archaeological study. Nine designations (A throuhg I) were used to define distinct areas. Maps and city directories helped to determine which businesses and residents were located within each area.

Location A

This location was a driveway through to an alley from 1898 untill ca. 1908. By 1908, city directories list a restaurant between the cigar store and the Arcade Saloon. This description places the restaurant in location A, the driveway.

Location B

The 1898 Sanborn map above shows a saloon at this location. Closely associated with location C, Location B remained part of the saloon from 1900 until 1918. For short periods of time Location B did house other businesses. In 1911 there was a barbershop, in 1912 a bufett, in 1914 a second barber, and in 1917 a cigar store. During 1919 this location was vacant, and remained so until 1920, when the Oyster Loft Caf¨¦ was established.

In addition to businesses, Location B also served as a place of residence for three of the saloon's proprietors in 1900, 1901 and 1907.

Location C

The 1889 city directory shows that a Chinese laundry occupied this location, remaining until 1900 when the Arcade Saloon was established. The saloon occupied the location until 1918. By 1920 a caf¨¦ took its place.

Location C was apparently residential as well as commercial in nature. When the Chinese laundry was in operation, a good number of laundrymen both lived and worked there.

Location D

According to the 1988 and 1902 Sanborn maps, this location was for the most part a fenced lot with what appears to have been a small shed or privy at the rear. City directories indicate that several barber and bath shops were located here shortly after the turn of the century, only to be replaced by a pool hall in 1918.

Location E

City directories and Sanborn maps are somewhat contradictory for this location. A Chinese laundry is listed as the first mention of activity in the 1889 city directory; "the rear of Main between Mesa and Stanton." The earliest available Sanborn map of 1898 shows a Chinese restaurant and residence of the location, but a small wash house attached to the Northern end. By 1902 the wash house was gone, and the larger building had indeed become a laundry. This location continued to be the site of Chinese laundries until 1905.

Location F

This location was the scene of a series of Chinese laundries from the first indication of established activities in 1888, until the last directory listings in 1911. It was both a business and a residential location. Sanborn maps indicate that the northern most of three buildings was used for the business, while the two buildings southeast of there were dwellings. By 1921 only the laundry building was still standing.

Location G

City directories indicate that a barbershop was present at Location C in 1889 then until 1898, at which time the El Paso Cycle Company was established. The building was solely for commercial use. The Cycle Company continued in operation until 1916. For 1904, the business is listed as "Wheat and Quinn, bicycles."

Location H

The city directories of 1897 reports the presence of a dressmaker's shop. In 1898 and 1902 the structure was vacant. Near the turn of the century, a restaurant appears in the records at this location. It was replaced after two years by miscellaneous businesses (barbers, cleaners) until 1907. After that year, the building was vacant or was incorporated into part of the El Paso Cycle Company. In 1917 the Plaza Auto Livery appears, and remains until at least 1920. Location H was both residential and commercial until 1907.

Location I

Activity at this location, both commercial and residential, was relatively minor. In 1898 the area was apparently occupied by a vacant building. City directories indicate that shortly thereafter, a saloon was present, followed before 1902 by a cigar store which remained until 1909. A shoe store followed and remained until at least 1920.

During the late 1880s and early 1983, commercial activity was limited to Chinese laundries. By the turn of the century other non-Chinese businesses moved in. The replacement of Chinese establisment with those of Anglos is apparent in Chain of Title. By 1912, all businesses were being run by non-Chinese people.