Imperial (208 page)

Men at California Employment Relief Station Camp, 1934—Street,
Photographing Farmworkers
, p. 112 (Hetzel photo).

Dean Hutchinson’s labor notes, written on the stationery of the Hotel Barbara Worth: “Agricultural field workers could be organized here in El Centro!,”
ca.
1934—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Farm labor situation 1933-34. Carton #C-R 84. Folder: 6.

Imperial Valley events, 1934—Daniel, pp. 224-28. It is this source which describes the two organizers and quotes the Party report on them. It is also this source which details the lettuce growers’ counter-offer, and informs us that sheriffs are often growers, that the American Legionnaires show up with clubs, etc.

Extracts from the
Imperial Valley Press
re: lettuce strike—Monday, January 8, 1934; Tuesday, January 9; Wednesday, January 10; Thursday, January 11; Friday, January 12; Saturday, January 13 (ad for the Owl, p. 7); Sunday, January 14; Tuesday, January 16; Wednesday, January 17; Friday, January 19 (and continuation on p. 6); Wednesday, January 24 (and pp. 5, 7); Wednesday, January 31. All citations are from the front page unless otherwise stated.

“Jan 9th crowd formed
in Brawley
. . .”
—Dean Hutchinson’s notes, sheet 8.

Description of Dorothy Ray’s cell and her comrades’ reception in the chain gang; fates of Wirin’s colleagues—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Farm labor situation 1933-34. Carton #C-R 84. Folder: Miscellany A-Z correspondence, pp. 14-15, 12-13 of “California’s Brown Book.”

Re: Wirin’s abduction, Dean Hutchinson writes in his notes (sheet 2, 17th Jan.): “A. L. Wirin scheduled as main speaker. Failed to appear. 3-4 others from LA made short talks—one Rev. Beverley L. Oatin Secy So. Calif. Congregational conference. Wirin refused permit to hold meeting by Chief of Police. Wirin showed up in Dr. Wallace office at Calipatria. Dr. reported him in very nervous condition few scratches on feet & face. Asked for & given police protection to Barbara Worth hotel where he staid all night. Next morning with Chester Williams put in car & taken to San Diego by County officers.”—“
Brawley Meeting
Azteca Hall 12th January . . .”—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Farm labor situation 1933-34. Carton #C-R 84. Folder: 6. Dean Hutchinson’s handwritten notes, sheet 1.

Skepticism about Wirin’s kidnapping—Ibid., Folder: Miscellany A-Z correspondence, p. 19 of “California’s Brown Book.”

Remarks of the San Joaquin Valley Agriculture Labor Bureau—Quoted in Watkins, p. 439.

Brawley ordinance found unconstitutional; growers declare lettuce holiday—
Imperial Valley Press
front pages, January 30, January 27.

Babbitt
on the Good Citizens’ League—Lewis, p. 835.

“We object most strenuously . . .”—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library, op. cit. Folder: Reports. Supplement to Report Entitled “The Imperial Valley Farm Labor Situation,” May 9, 1934, submitted to the Associated Farmers of California, by Hutchinson et al., p. 18 (speech by Mr. Ralph H. Taylor of Sacramento).

Letter from Los Angleles Chamber of Commerce—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library, op. cit. Folder: Miscellany A-Z correspondence.

Mexican field worker in a white straw hat and a bandanna . . .—Street,
Photographing Farmworkers
, p. 130 (Dorothea Lange photograph, 1935); also Dorothea Lange, p. 136 (“Mexican Workers Leaving for the Melon Fields, Imperial Valley, California, June 1935”).

Dustbowl arrivals in California, 1935-38—Watkins, loc. cit.

Melon statistics, July 1936—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXXXIII, no. 15, July 18, 1936, p. 524 (“Agricultural News Notes of the Pacific Coast”: “Southern California”).

Memo to Harry E. Drobish—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Paul S. Taylor papers. Carton 3. Folder 3:14: “An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion, Galleys with Corrections, 1969.” Unnumbered galley pages entitled: “Emergency Relief Administration, State of California. Date: March 15, 1935. To: Harry E. Drobish, Director of Rural Rehabilitation. From: Paul S. Taylor, Regional Director. Subject: Establishment of Rural Rehabilitation Camps for Migrants in California.” Item VIIIC.

The man from 1935—Dorothea Lange, p. 57 (“Imperial Valley, California, June 1935”).

Events in Orange County, 1935—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXXXIII, no. 15, July 18, 1936, pp. 523, 551 (continuation page) (unattributed editorial, “Labor Troubles in Orange County”). The
Cultivator
also says (same issue, p. 524; Los Angeles Market Review): “The strike of the orange pickers has had little effect . . . There has been a slight dropoff in sales attended by a very small price increase.”

The man and wife from Coachella, 1936—Ibid., p. 114 (“Family from Texas Looking for Work in the Carrot Harvest, Coachella Valley, California, March 1936”).

“Disappointment was in store in the Imperial Valley . . .”—Carolan, p. 48.

Acts of the Associated Farmers in Salinas, September 1936—Watkins, pp. 440-42.

“When a person’s able to work, what’s the use of beggin’?”—UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Paul S. Taylor papers, op. cit. Paul S. Taylor, speech to Commonwealth Club of California in 1935, “The Migrants and California’s Future,” unnumbered p. 1.

Caption to a Dorothea Lange photograph—Ibid., “An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion, Galleys with Corrections, 1969.” Unnumbered galley pages: “Photo Captions.”

Photo: “Jobless on Edge of a Pea Field . . .”—Dorothea Lange, p. 15.

“And they trek into California . . .”—Paul S. Taylor, speech to Commonwealth Club, unnumbered p. 2.

“A rural proletariat”—Ibid., unnumbered pp. 3-4.

1937 item in the
Brawley Daily News—
ICHSPM. Not yet catalogued; offprint hand-captioned “A. Vallas”
Brawley Daily News
, Saturday, February 6, 1937, “Garst Says Migratory Labor Camp a Certainty.” In 1938, we find the Department of Public Health ranking “among the more important pieces of work for this month” plans for sewage at the Farm Security Resettlement Camps at, among other places, Brawley and Coachella. (Plans for sewage at the Farm Security Resettlement Camps, 1938—California State Archives. Margaret C. Felts papers. Box 12: Folder: “1938 POLLUTION.” State of California. Department of Public Health. February 15, 1938. To: W. M. Dickie, M.D., Director. From: C. G. Gillespie. Subject: Resume of the Activities of the Bureau for January, 1938.)

“The seasonal farm workers . . . continue to present a major social problem.”—Hutchinson, p. 407.

“. . . the Imperial Valley authorities enjoyed an unlimited range of power.”—González, p. 63.

Imperial County’s gross cash income from agriculture, and state ranking—California State Board of Equalization (1949), p. 18.

100 . Butter Cream Bread (
ca.
1936)

Advertisement for Butter Cream Bread; proportions for 50—Hostess Reference Book (1936), pp. 2, 11.

101. Coachella (1936 -1950)

Tale of the Riverside County woman who trapped two mountain lions in one month—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXXXIII, no. 15, July 18, 1936, p. 524 (“Agricultural News Notes of the Pacific Coast”: “Southern California”).

Interview with Dr. John and Margaret Tyler—Conducted in their home in Palm Desert, April 2004. Shannon Mullen was present.

Footnote: Photo of the Salton Sea Regatta—Laflin,
Coachella Valley
, p. 140.

102 . Have You Ever Seen a Flax Field in Bloom? (1940 s)

Epigraph: “Here the land is green . . .”—Polkinhorn et al., p. 625.

Alice Woodside’s memories—The descriptions of the flax field and her school days were based on an interview in Sacramento in January 2004 (the same one at which her mother, Edith Karpen, was present). All other material derives from an interview in February, when only she and I were present.

Footnote: Edith Karpen’s love of Mount Signal—Karpen obituary.

Footnote: Flax and alfalfa statistics, 1948-49—Imperial Valley Directory (1949), p. 12.

Footnote on Alice Woodside’s father—Karpen obituary, separate letter to WTV.

103 . The Days of Carmen Carillo and Susana Caudillo (2003)

Carmen Carillo and Susana Caudillo—Interviewed in a fast food restaurant in Calexico in 2003 one morning when they did not get work. The great Lupe Vásquez was there and occasionally interpreted.

Footnote: Supposed grape-growing season in the Coachella Valley—
Desert Sun
, Saturday, December 20, 2003, Section E (Business), p. E2 (Lou Hirsch, “Growers Watch CAFTA: Proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement still has opposition”).

PART EIGHT

RESERVATIONS

105 . A Definitive Interpretation of the Blythe Intaglios (
ca.
13 ,000 B.C.-2006)

Epigraph: “. . . there is something unsatisfying . . .”—Heizer and Elsasser, p. 180.

Extracts from the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo—Castillo, pp. 190-91 (Appendix 2, text of treaty, Article XI).

Colonel Cave Johnson Couts: “They sold Capt. Kane a small girl . . .”—Op. cit., p. 82 (entry prior to Saturday, December 9).

Footnote: Couts on “Jumas” west of Colorado: “They use blood generally for painting . . .”—Op. cit., pp. 85-86 (entry for Friday, December 1).

“There are educated people in Mexico . . .”—Augustín Aragón; quoted in Pike, p. 108.

Footnote: My 1910
Britannica
on the Indians of Mexico: “. . . neglect of their children . . .”—11th ed., vol. XVIII, p. 322 (entry on Mexico).

Indian marriages recorded without surnames—Gostin, pp. 415-16 (records #1186, 1183, 1182, 1177, 1156).

Entries for Warner, 1901—San Diego City and County Directory (1901), pp. 335-36.

Agua Caliente statistics a century later—Bureau of Indian Affairs (1999), p. 7. Specifically: Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, population 338 souls on a gross acreage of not quite 23,000 on an eponymous reservation in Riverside near Palm Springs.

Indians die nameless—Gostin, pp. 576-95.

A settler in 1910: “The Yuma is quiet and docile now . . .”—Howe and Hall, p. 112.

An educator: “Difficult for the Indians . . . ,” etc.—Farr, pp. 163-66 (L. L. Odle, “Fort Yuma Indian School”).

The Yuman creation myth—Luthin, p. 475 (“An Acccount of Origins: Quechan [Yuma], 1908; Tsuyukweráu, narrator; J. P. Harrington, collector).

“. . . a Kern citizen who has recently visited Imperial”: “I am confident there is a great future for this place . . .”—
Imperial Press and Farmer
, vol. II, no. 29 (Saturday, November 1, 1902), p. 7 (“A Kernite at Imperial: Frank Stanley Writes of the Possibilities of the Great Desert under Irrigation”).

“INDIAN DWELLINGS ON THE PLAINS . . .”—Ibid., vol. II, no. 28 (Saturday, October 27, 1902), p. 1.

Coachella’s Dead Indian Rock and the fish-weirs—Dunham, pp. 146-47.

Cahuilla tale of the Topa Chisera or Devil Gopher—Ainsworth, p. 172.

Maria Encarnacion Esperiaza—Gostin, pp. 328-29 (records #5955 [Esperiaza], 5939 [Ysidora]).

“The Cahuillas have not had a head-chief . . .” and “They nearly all live upon the large ranches . . .”—Elliott,
San Bernardino and San Diego Counties
, pp. 77, 88.

Cahuilla Band and Cabazon Band statistics—Bureau of Indian Affairs (1999), pp. 22-23.

Farr on the Cucapah—Op. cit., p. 27.

The hill of Apache tears—Auto Club of Southern California, p. 220 (km. 113, Route 5, hill to east).

Footnote: The undifferentiated shaded Ipai-Tipai zone—Heizer,
Handbook of North American Indians
, vol. 8, p. 593 (Katharine Luomala, “Tipai-Ipai,” fig. 1, “Ipai and Tipai tribal territories”).

Same footnote: One mid-twentieth-century anthropologist: “The long arm of the Corn God’s northerly conquests . . .” etc.—Amsden, p. 3.

Campo Band figures, 1999—Bureau of Indian Affairs (1999), p. 24.

Anthropologist on vulva stones, etc.—McGowan, pp. 15, 19.

The man who’d worked for the Bureau of Reclamation—Herb Cilch, interviewed in San Diego, 2003.

Captives and alliances—Heizer and Whipple, pp. 444, 431 (Kenneth M. Stewart); Heizer, p. 109.

“Cocopah Indians could get all the liquor they wanted . . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 273.

Description of Territory “Los Cucapás”—AHMM, Chata Angulo collection. Item 162.1/61: “Terrenos Cucapás—Expropriación” and related sheets (4 pages in all, and partial translation by Terrie Petree).

Cucapá interviews—2003; interpreted from Cucapah into Spanish by Yolanda Sánchez Ogás, then from Spanish into English by Terrie Petree; 2000, interpreted by Lupe Vásquez.

Font’s opinions of the Yumans—Heizer and Whipple, pp. 250-51, 249, 252 (Pedro Font, “The Colorado Yumans in 1775”).

“The Yuma reservation contains an area of 71-3/4 square miles . . .”—California Board of Agriculture (1918), p. 2.

Richard Brogan on Yuma (Quechan)—Interviewed at Calexico, April 2004.

Cameron and Diana Chino—Interviewed on the Quechan reservation, December 2006. Terrie Petree was present.

L. M. Holt on Palm Springs—Lechs, pp. 696-97 (Appendix K).

106 . The Island (2003 -2006)

James Wilson—Interviewed 2003.

Kate Brockman Bishop—Interviewed December 2006 on her ranch in Calexico.

PART NINE

CLIMAXES

107. The Largest Irrigated District in the World (1950)

Epigraph—“The extent of Alta California in ancient times was altogether indefinite.”—Samuel T. Black, vol. 1, p. 1.

Populations of El Centro and Brawley, 1948—California State Board of Equalization (1949), p. 14.

The Raymond Chandler murder victim supposedly from El Centro—Dr. G. W. Hambleton in
The Little Sister
(1949).
Later Novels and Other Writings
, p. 244.

Menace of coyotes to sheep—Imperial County Agricultural Commission papers. B. A. Harrigan, Agricultural Commissioner, annual report for 1949, p. 8.