CHINERO TREK
Death comes to 35 Chinese
migrants at the butte just
north of San Felipe
(presently at the military checkpoint).
During the 1900’s Mexicali
was almost nonexistence. What
created Mexicali during
this period was cotton. Several
wealthy Mexicans sold
approximately 800,000 concession acreage in the Mexicali valley to the Colorado
Land Company
(was primarily owned by
Gray Otis and his son in law Harry
Chandler aka as the Los
Angles Times and major developers
of the Los Angles basin).
This era was the prepping for the start of world war 1 and cottons demand was
expected to explode.
It is a misnomer to assume
all the Chinese were all the forced displaced railroad workers from the United
States, in fact they
were not but the migration
was directly from China to southern
Mexico. The vast majority
of the Chinese migrants dispersed thru out Mexico with some heading to Mexican
border towns searching for work. Some 5,000 migrants headed north and helped
settled Tijuana, Ensenada and Mexicali. Some of the 5,000 or so made the track
from central Mexico via an inland route crossing the Gulf of California by
ferries from numerous
locations to settle in
northern Baja California.
Northern Mexico offered
more employment opportunities than
mainland. Mexicali offered work and better wages and safety
than mainland Mexico for migrants ( during this time Mexico
was in one of its
continuous political violent periods).
THE DEATH TREK – San Felipe
to Mexicali
disembarking from the ferry
in San Felipe the Chinese migrants
he knew the area well and
will locate the several watering stations along the route. Thirty five of the
Chinese migrants died of dehydration near the small outcropping close to the
present federal military checkpoint. The seven survivors and their guide
Jose manage to continue to
their destination in Mexicali; shortly
after arriving the guide
Jose Escobedo also succumbed. A mini
Berma death march thank to
an inept “aka” port tourist guide;
seems opportunist never
fade away.