Imperial (189 page)

Tale of the Mexican undercover police assaulted and burned alive—
Los Angeles Times
, Valley Edition, Thursday, November 24, 2004, p. A1 (Richard Boudreaux, “Only TV Caught Mob Brutalizing Mexican Police”). This episode occurred in Mexico City.

Incident with the pimp and the two whores—I saw this in December 2006.

Steinbeck: “It is said so often in such ignorance . . .”—
The Log from the
Sea of Cortez, p. 830.

“The very first place of business. . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 273.

Appearance of the first gaming-houses in Mexicali, 1909—Information in Auyón Gerardo, pp. 41ff. (Terrie Petree’s working translation.)

H. M. House: “The Collector states that a town is to be started at Algodones . . .”—N.A.R.A.L. Record Group 36. Records of the U.S. Customs Service. Calexico Customs Office. Incoming Official Correspondence (91-60). October 15, 1902-March 23, 1916. Box No. 3 of 5: November 1913-July 1914. Box 4 of 5: July 1914-June 1915. Letter from H. M. House, Supt. River Division, to J. C. Allsion, Chief Engineer, Calexico, Calif., dated Andrade, Calif., January 14, 1915. COPY.

“I greatly deplore this effort to start a town . . .”—N.A.R.A.L., loc. cit. Letter from W. H. Holabird, Office of the Receiver, the California Development Company, to the United States Collector of Customs, Los Angeles, Calif., January 21, 1915. COPY.

W. J. Smith: “I understand a Mr. Ingraham of Yuma . . .”—N.A.R.A.L., loc. cit. Copy of report of W. J. Smith, Deputy Collector and Inspector of Andrade, California, in re situation at Algodones, on or before February 4, 1915.

Imperial County Board of Supervisors (1920): “Calexico is one of the liveliest cities of its size . . .”—UC Davis, Special Collections, California Local History Collection. Bitler pamphlet, “The Imperial Valley California 1920,” p. 28.

“Mexicali’s cabarets and bars catered to farmers . . .”—Ruiz, p. 48. In one of his crime stories, written in 1924, Dashiell Hammett itemizes “the crowd that the first Saturday of the racing season across the border had drawn. Movie folk from Los Angeles, farmers from the Imperial Valley” and others complete the list (Hammett, p. 240; “The Golden Horseshoe”).

“Two Mexicans in a tent on the Mexican side . . .”—N.A.R.A.L. Record Group 36. Records of the U.S. Customs Service. Port of Campo. General Correspondence 1919-65. Box 1 of 1. Folder: “Historical Letters 1919-1965 [½].” Letter from the Deputy Collector in Charge, Tecate, California, to Collector of Customs, Los Angeles, California, June 15, 1925.

The tale of Dawn Marie Wilson—
Sacramento Bee
, Saturday, December 11, 2004, pp. A1, A18 (Marjie Lundstrom, “Embracing Freedom: San Diego woman learns about Mexican drug law the hard way”).

The elderly Coachella Valley resident: “John used to go down to Yuma to a gun show . . .”—Margaret Tyler, born in 1916; interviewed in Palm Desert, 2004.

“Thousands of automobiles cross the line . . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 365.

“Desirable tracts of from 100 to 100,000 acres.”—Advertisement in
Out West
, vol. XXIV, no. 1, January 1906, unnumbered page.

The accident on Interstate 8 and Border Patrol Agent Raleigh Leonard’s reaction—
New York Times
, Wednesday, June 26, 2002, p. A14 (Barbara Whitaker, “Mexican Border Crash Kills 6 As Van Hits Oncoming Traffic”).

Northside view of Tonantzin: “A statue of this grim goddess . . .” and “. . . projects a visage of fathomless grief . . .”—Johnston, p. 13.

“She Who Tramples the Serpents”—In 1895, Professor D. Mariano Jacabo Rojas, chairman of the Department of Nahuatl at the National Museum, concluded that “Guadalupe” was probably the Nahuatl word “Coatlaxopeuh,” with the meaning I have given, “and which again was the equivalent of the Immaculate Conception” (Johnston, p. 47).

“Another name for the Virgin Tonantzin is Coatlalopeuh . . .”—Rothacker, unnumbered p. 13.

Father Florencia: “. . . how they must correct their dress . . .”—Johnston, p. 52.

A migrant worker’s child: “Guadalupe predates Christianity . . .”—Hart, p. 202.

“The Virgin of Guadalupe is a figure through which the indigenous people fought back against their colonizers . . .”—Rothacker, unnumbered p. 7.

Observances of the de Anza Expedition relevant to the Virgin of Guadalupe—Font, p. 11 (29 September 1775).

“We carry LA VIRGEN DE LA GUADALUPE, because she is ours.”—César Chávez, p. 13 (“The Plan of Delano,” March 17, 1966).

Reliance on the Virgin of Guadalupe to conceive children, cure a fright—Hart, pp. 52, 80-81 (re: mid-twentieth century). I have heard the same in my own interviews.

“As a special pleader for sinners . . .”—Pike, p. 77.

The dancer at the Thirteen Negro—Emily, interviewed in September 2005; interpreted by Terrie Petree.

Imperial Valley White Sheet
: “GRACIAS VIRGEN de Guadalupe por escuchar oraciones M.P.”—Vol. 46, Week 7, Week of February 12-18, 2004; p. 7.

“A poor ordinary man . . .”—León-Portilla and Shorris, p. 338 (“Nican Mopohua,” pub. 1645).

Interview with the old woman in Tecate who used to dream about the Virgin—Interviewed in 2003. Terrie Petree interpreted. This person (Josefina Cruz Bermúdez) was one of the two ladies in the 8” x 10” negative MX-TC-WOM- 03-01. Zulema Rashid, a 58-year-old Calexico native of Mexican-Lebanese extraction, insisted: “The Virgin of Guadalupe is not that popular here in the north. Our Lady of Guadalupe, no, they didn’t talk too much about the Virgin at my Catholic school. My mother, her patron saint is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She even has a shrine for Him in the house.” But Zulema was sheltered and rich.

“A very grand gentleman”—Quoted in Lanyon, p. 60.

It has been asserted that there was no assassination plot.—Ibid., pp. 100-101.

Capsule biography of Doña Marina—Díaz, pp. 82-86. (“God had been very gracious . . .” is taken from p. 86.)

Definition of a
malinchista—
Lanyon, pp. 6-7 (quoting her Mexican informant).

“Do come here . . . Is Quauhtemoc still such a child?”—León-Portilla and Shorris, p. 281 (“The Fall of Tenochitlán, 1518”).

“Mexico’s problem with Malinche . . .”—Lanyon, pp. 218-19.

“ . . .The Spaniards took things from people by force . . .”—León-Portilla and Shorris, p. 285 (“The Fall of Tenochitlán”).

“They placed a canopy of varicolored cloth over the Marqués . . .”—León-Portilla and Shorris, ibid., p. 308.

“But when the Captain and Marina saw it they became angry . . .”—León-Portilla and Shorris, ibid., p. 285.

“The White Woman, the great lady.”—Ibid., p. 383 (Doña Luz Jiménez stories).

Syncretic capture of the Los Angeles Rangers—Bell, p. 30.

Footnote: “A migrant child of the 1950s” . . . : “ ‘the dark-skinned daughter in a Mexican family . . .’ ”—Hart, p. 64.

Footnote: Cortés’s marriages and liaisons—Gómara, pp. 408-9.

“The elementary problem of our times: Frightened human beings . . .”
—USA Today
, Wednesday, November 17, 2004, p. 11A, “The Forum” section (Ralph Peters, “Nothing Islamic about human sacrifice: Terrorists in the Middle East are resurrecting a blood cult”).

Torturing of Cuauhtémoc by the lieutenants of Cortés, “who could not prevent their actions”—Díaz, p. 410.

8 . Sign of Slow Growth Sends Stocks Lower (2002)

Epigraph: “Specialization is passing from the consideration . . .”—Polya, p. 190.

Newspaper: “The deaths are full of suffering . . .”—
New York Times
, Tuesday, August 6, 2002, pp. A1, A12 (Evelyn Nieves, “Illegal Immigrant Death Rate Rises Sharply in Barren Areas”).

A guidebook: “Mexicali’s sights are few and far between . . .”—
Fodor’s Mexico, 1992,
p. 159.

Another guidebook: “Mexicali lies at sea level . . .”—John Noble, Dan Spitzer and Scott Wayne, p. 897.

9. Water Is Here (1849 -2002)

Epigraph: “Possibly there was more rainfall in those days than now . . .”—Van Dyke, p. 48.

Extract from Captain Hobbs’s journal—Op. cit., pp. 217-18.

Number of grapefruit and orange trees in Imperial County in 1945—California State Board of Equalization (1949), p. 20.

10. Preface (20 02 -20 03)

Epigraph: “The concept of metadata . . .”—
Salton Sea Atlas
, p. 4.

Victor V. Vesey: “They opted for independence and local control.”—Vesey, oral history, p. 46.

11. Subdelineations: Bookscapes (1850-2003)

Epigraph: “Perhaps you think I will tell you everything . . .”—Schwartz, p. 7 (“The Spider and the Fly”).

“The part of 1850 San Diego County . . . no ranchos and no town,” and “There are no 1850 Sites to Visit in Imperial County.”—Marschner, p. 33 (“Area Within Present-Day Imperial County”).

1909 cabbage and grape yields for the Imperial Valley—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 191 (from the County Assessor’s records).

“To look at Barbara Worth was a pleasure . . .”—Wright, p. 57.

Footnote: Tale of “M. B. Davis, commonly known as Bob”—
Imperial Press
, vol. II, no. 51 (Saturday, April 11, 1903), p. 2 (“The Law Triumphant: Liquor Sellers Have a Day of Reckoning in Court”).

An agronomist: “Sugar beets grew admirably . . .”—
Imperial Press and Farmer
, vol. II, no. 38 (Saturday, January 3, 1903), p. 10 (letter from Professor A. J. Cook, “Farmers’ Institutes in the Desert”).

“The dark-faced old plainsman . . .”—Wright, p. 207.

“As she passed, the people turned to follow her . . .”—Ibid., p. 56.

“So good to look at”—Ibid., p. 57.

“She passed into the hotel . . .”—Ibid., p. 95.

“Over the years . . . the flow of the river gradually lessened . . .”—Colorado River Board of California (1962), p. 8.

Steinbeck: “We have a book to write . . .”—Steinbeck,
The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings
, p. 751 (
The Log from the
Sea of Cortez, orig. pub. 1941; the expedition took place in 1940).

“Silent and hot and fierce in its desolation . . .”—Wright, p. 72.

“Asked to Lead Evil Life, Girl Kills Sister.”—Headline in the
Fresno Morning Republican
, Sunday, March 21, 1920, p. 2A.

Portrait of Mrs. Bradshaw, contestant for lead, Barbara Worth film—ICHSPM photograph, cat. P94.10.1.

Otis B. Tout: “Folks, no matter if the river eats up the entire towns of Alexico and Exical . . .”—
Silt
, p. 17.

“Suddenly, as a beast checked in its spring . . .”—Wright, p. 308.

Flaubert: “For half a century the women of Pont-l’Évêque . . .”—Flaubert, p. 17.

Footnote: “The Mexican prepared the horses as Texas had instructed . . .”—Wright, p. 303.

Flaubert: “And as she breathed her last . . .”—Flaubert, p. 56.

Footnote: “Ramona herself is lifeless . . .”—Jackson, p. xv (introduction by Michael Dorris).

Their take-home pay is only one-fifth of hers—According to Ruiz (p. 89), “Most
maquiladora
workers, theoretically, earn the federally mandated minimum of $2.50 a day; but to illustrate what this means, in the electronic
maquiladoras
of Tijuana, take-home pay is less than one-fifth that in the United States.” Take-home pay in Mexicali would be the same or less. María gets paid under the table, which means that she gets no minimum wage but also pays no taxes, so one-fifth seems like a fair ballpark estimate.

“Six hundred and thirty thousand of them, ‘primarily young women . . . a 29 percent decline in real wages . . .’”—Ibid., p. 62. The statistic in quotation marks is credited to “David Montgomery, a noted economic historian.”

“Few hire pregnant women . . . ‘bloody tampons for three consecutive months.’ ”—Ibid., p. 77.

The doctor whose poor patients “seem different—perhaps more lonely . . .”—Robert Coles,
Still Hungry in America
, with photographs by Al Clayton (New York: New American Library/A Plume Book, 1969), p. 106.

Human beings are “preciously unique and different . . .”—Ibid., p. 55.

Francisco de Ulloa: “The game was not worth the candle.”—Gómara, p. 403.

Steinbeck, “The Vigilante”: “Nigger fiend,” “Somebody said he even confessed,” “By God, she was right . . .”—Steinbeck,
The Long Valley
, pp. 134, 139.

Steinbeck: “When we get down to business . . . ,” “The worse it is, the more effect it’ll have.”—Steinbeck,
In Dubious Battle
, pp. 261, 89.

Steinbeck’s un-American distrust of authority—We might say that Faulkner and Hemingway were not exactly mainstream either, the former spinning out honeysuckled tales of incest, miscegenation and doom, the latter getting involved with Spanish Loyalists (Communists to you, bub); but in both of those writers, the lonely narcissism which characterizes us Americans ultimately obscures social statement. Steinbeck, on the other hand, had specific political things to say.

Steinbeck: “Let us see the fields . . .”—
The Grapes of Wrath
, pp. 994 (“The Harvest Gypsies,” ch. 1).