Imperial (225 page)

“A huge subdivision that could double Calexico’s population”—
Imperial Valley Press
, Tuesday, October 14, 2003, p. A1 (Aaron Claverie, “Role of CM Ranch consultant unresolved: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT: Parcel owners to pay, but who will do the work?”).

203. El Centro (2002)

Epigraph: “Some lover of nature. . .”—Elliott,
History of San Bernardino and San Diego Counties
, p. 19.

Footnote: The pronouncement of Oscar Rodriguez—
El Centro Connection
, November 25, 2002, p. 4 (Bill Gay, “$20 million in economic development projects underway”).

204. Yellow Cab Dispatching Prices, City of Imperial (2003)

Text posted in taxi—I’ve left out “Brawley $22.”

205. Los Angeles (2002 -2005)

Epigraph: “The country was completely parched . . .”—Steinbeck,
The Log from the
Sea of Cortez, p. 931.

“It takes more ‘nerve’ ” . . .—ICHSPM document, cat. #A95.242.5. Southern Pacific Passenger Department, pamphlet: “Wayside Notes Along the Sunset Route East Bound” (San Francisco, 1911), pp. 12-13.

G. Harold Powell on Whittier: “The dark green foliage and the flaming yellow fruit of the orange groves made a striking picture.”—Op. cit., p. 22 (letter of 27? January 1904, to Gertrude Powell). Also quoted in “Subdelineations: Orangescapes [1873-2005]”).

“GROWING PAINS: Residents crowding into L.A. area make it most densely packed in U.S.”—
Sacramento Bee
, “Capitol & California” section, p. A3 (article by Blaine Harden,
Washington Post
).

Imperial is in the lowest zone of official plant richness—California Department of Fish and Game, p. 25 (Roxanne Bittman, “Plants”).

First real estate listings—Century 21 De Oro,
Property Guide Serving the Entire Coachella and Imperial Valleys
, vol. 14, issue 2, pp. 44 (first two items), 39, 28, and 20, respectively.

Real estate listing for “Repo Property!”—
Property Guide 2002: The Coachella and Imperial Valleys
[
sic
]
#1 Real Estate
, vol. 15, issue 1, p. 16.

“In the experience of Riverside we may see the commercial romance of irrigation . . .”—Smythe, p. 100.

“Broadway, downtown’s old main artery . . .”—Moore et al., p. 4.

The box of tomatoes with note and item number came from Costco in January 2005.

Geological Atlas of California
’s colors around the Salton Sea—California Division of Mines and Geology,
Geological Atlas of California
(Olaf P. Jenkins, ed.), 1969, Salton Sea sheet (1967).

“Both the Imperial and Mexicali Valleys are gradually being filled in . . .”—Roberts, p. 33 (remarks on San Felipe Desert subregion).

Journal of Colonel Cave Johnson Couts—Op. cit., pp. 82 (entry for Saturday, December 9), 85 (entry for Friday, December 1).

206. Holtville (1914)

Photo from Holtville, 1914—ICHSPM photograph, no cat. number.

The child Miguel—Gostin, pp. 338-39 (record #6315).

207. Imperial Reprise (1901-2004)

Epigraph: “Then they talked of the Seer’s new expedition . . .”—Wright, p. 69.

Footnote: “You hear now and then of detectives . . .”—Hammett, p. 238 (“The Golden Horseshoe,” 1924).

208. The Conquest of Arid America (1905)

Epigraph: “Accordin’ to my notion hit’s this here same financierin’ game . . .”—Wright, p. 31.

“In the earlier edition of this work . . .”—Smythe, pp. 151-53.

CONCERNING THE MAPS

Footnote: James’s delineation of the Colorado Desert—
Wonders of the Colorado Desert
, p. xxx.

Same footnote—The botanist is Benson; op. cit., p. 60.

“In January, 1900, the Colorado Desert was one vast barren waste . . .”—
Imperial Press and Farmer
, vol. II, no. 38 (Imperial, California, Saturday, January 3, 1903), p. 4 (“To Make the Desert Blossom with the Homes of Men”).

California Native American boundaries—Heizer; Heizer maps; Heizer and Elsasser; Heizer and Whipple.

“A point on the Colorado river 20 m[iles] below the mouth of the Gila river . . .”—1910
Britannica
(11th ed.), vol. XVIII, p. 317 (entry on Mexico). This is the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo boundary, as slightly revised by a later treaty.

One Mexican historian: The border region “extends out at least sixty miles in both directions . . .”—Ruiz, p. 21. The historian was León-Portilla.

The “Phytogeographic Regions of Baja California”—Roberts, second frontispiece map.

Steinbeck on the Gulf of California: “A long, narrow, highly dangerous body of water.”—
The Log from the
Sea of Cortez, p. 754.

Footnote: A mid-nineteenth-century observer: “Near the mouth of the Rio Colorado . . .”—Ryan, vol. 1, p. 340 (“from the pen of Mr. Farnham”).

Footnote:
Salt Dreams’
version of Imperial—DeBuys and Myers, p. 2.

A CHRONOLOGY OF IMPERIAL

Hydographic history of the Salton Sink—After a graph in the
Salton Sea Atlas
, p. 17.

Many entries for Spanish exploration of California and the Gulf derive from Bancroft, vols. XVIII-XXIV; likewise statistics on population, Chinese immigration, etc., for this period.

Gold mining in east and southeast Imperial County 1775-1905—
Journal of San Diego History
, vol. 42, no. 2 (spring 1996).

Chinese exclusion acts and immigration figures, 1848-1965—After Leung.

1850 and 1900 total assessed value of California property—
California Blue Book
(1909), p. 325.

History of California counties—After Coy.

Population figures for Los Angeles, 1850, 1900, 1920—McGroarty, vol. 1, p. 359.

1850-1900 population statistics for California—
California Blue Book
(1909), p. 323.

Ca.
1850 entry: Cave Johnson Couts’s estimate of San Diego County Indian population—Couts, p. 99.

Several dates for Riverside County, 1879-1912—Holmes et al.

1890 irrigation figure for southern California—Howe and Hall, p. 26.

1899 California farm products monetary ranking—
Britannica
, 11th ed., vol. 5, p. 12 (entry on California).

Various population statistcs for Imperial County 1900-31—Tout, ibid.

1900 and 1975 per capita U.S. water-consumption figures—
The California Water Atlas
, p. 1.

1901-73 dates of construction for various California water projects—Taken in part from ibid., p. 25 (map “Historic Water Development”).

1901-14 founding/incorporation dates for some Imperial County cities—Henderson; Tout,
The First Thirty Years
.

1904: “Mexican officials decided . . .”—Ibid., p. 174.

1905 population figure for Los Angeles—McGroarty, vol. 1, p. 277.

1909 population statistics for Los Angeles—Ibid., pp. 326, 361.

1909 property values and population statistics for Imperial County—
California Blue Book
(1909), pp. 326, 354.

1910-49 population statistics for Imperial County—California State Board of Equalization (1949), p. 87 (Table 8).

1919 confederation of Mexicali’s Chinese organizations—Personal interview with Professor Eduardo Auyón Gerardo, Mexicali, 2003.

1920, 1930 Chicano population of Los Angeles—Watkins, citing Ricardo Romo,
East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio
.

1920 assessed value and population figures for Imperial County—Imperial Valley Directory (1920), p. xi.

1920-77 governors of Baja California—
Agenda de Colonias
, p. 7.

1923 Cahuilla population—Laflin,
Coachella Valley
, p. 28.

1929: “The waters of Salton Sea . . .”—Tout,
The First Thirty Years,
p. 362.

1930s: “Twenty-five percent of California’s land . . .”—Watkins, p. 393, citing Kevin Starr,
Endangered Dreams
.

1931-1934 and 1931 deportation/repatriation figures—Ibid., pp. 398, 401.

1936-38 Okie figures—Ibid., p. 436.

1939 and 1946 aggregate civilian income statistics for Imperial County—California State Board of Equalization (1949), p. 15.

1945 Imperial County business and population statistics—Ibid., p. 5.

1947 Imperial County’s total bank deposits—Ibid.

1948 Imperial County assessment statistics—Ibid.

1950 population statistics for Imperial County—
California Blue Book
(1950), p. 688.

Respective acreages of cultivated
vs.
desert land in the county—Ibid., p. 854.

1950 opinion that the Salton Sea is “destined to disappear”—Ibid., p. 851.

1950 assessment of San Diego’s ladies—Ibid., p. 690.

1950 figure on California cash income for agriculture—Ibid., p. 772.

1950, 1960, 1970 figures on salinity of the Salton Sea—“Visually estimated” from
The California Water Atlas
, p. 43 (Table: “Total Dissolved Solids”).

1958 population figure for Imperial County—
California Blue Book
(1958), p. 853.

1960 population figure for Mexicali—Celso Bernal, pp. 389, 393. (On p. 389, the urban figure differs by a count of 4 from the same figure on p. 393.)

1975 water-use and population figures for Los Angeles—
The California Water Atlas
, p. 36.

1975: “The Colorado River . . . today supplies water to half the state’s population . . .”—Ibid., p. 38.

1977: “Nearly three-fourths of the 675,000 acres . . .”—Ibid., p. 42.

1980: Figure on illegal aliens—Lowenthal and Burgess, p. 296 (citing U.S. Congress, House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service).

1980: Figure on Mexicali per capita income—Ibid., p. 304 (citing James T. Peach,
Demographic and Economic Change in Mexico’s Northern Frontier
).

1985: Baja California urban population—Whitehead et al., p. 307 (Eduardo Paredes Arellano, Secretaría de Agricultura y Recursos Hidráulicos, Mexicali, “Water, the Most Important Natural Resource for the State of Baja California, Mexico”).

1989: Earnings sent from illegal workers to Mexico—Meyer et al., p. 664.

1989-91 water-rationing figures—Association of California Water Agencies, pp. 8-9.

2000: “Significant salinization . . .”—Kimbrell, p. 232 (“Water: The Overtapped Resource”).

2000 and 2005 illegal-migrant death figures—
Sacramento Bee
, Saturday, October 2, 2005, “National Digest” section, p. A12.

PERSONS INTERVIEWED

Since I interviewed many individuals on more than occasion, or dissected single interviews into widely spaced snippets, this list may help you keep track of who these people are. My great thanks to them, and also to the ones who chose not to be named.

Anglo readers may not be aware, as I was not, that the final word of a Mexican man’s last name is his mother’s last name. Thus the man in #9 is referred to as Professor Auyón, not as Professor Gerardo.

1. Alicia and Luisa—Mother and daughter in Condominios Montealbán, Mexicali. Luisa’s
quinceañera
is described in “The Chinese Tunnels.” José López and Terrie Petree interpreted.

2. America—Stripper at the Kaos Gentlemen’s Club, Mexicali. Young and beautiful; had been in the life for five years. Interviewed at work, 2005. Terrie Petree interpreted.

3. Angel—Taxi driver and farmworker, in late middle age; interviewed between El Centro and Imperial, 2002.

4. Angélica—Street prostitute in Mexicali. Originally from Zacatecas. In her forties, with 5 children, run-down and unclean. Interviewed in the Hotel Chinesca, 2005. Terrie Petree interpreted.

5. Señor Armando—Mexican habitué of the Cafe Canton in Mexicali, where he was interviewed in September 2002. Carlos Guillermo Baja Terra interpreted.

6. Leonor Cordero Arrceola—Housewife in Ejido Netzahualcóyotl (east of Mexicali). Her husband, whom I didn’t meet, worked in construction in Yuma and was about to get her papers. Rancher’s daughter. Her father had to sell some land when irrigation became too expensive. I interviewed her in 2004. Terrie Petree interpreted.

7. Daniel Ávila—Elderly butcher in Mexicali who knew quite a bit about Chinese tunnels and had one in his cellar. Interviewed 2003. José López and Terrie Petree interpreted.

8. Jose Angel—Branch Chief of the Regional Water Control Board, Palm Desert. Interviewed by telephone, 2001.

9. Professor Eduardo Auyón Gerardo—A world renowned painter of horses and nude women; also an endlessly helpful discloser of Chinese-tunnel secrets. Interviewed in Mexicali, 2003. Lupe Vásquez, José López and Terrie Petree interpreted.

10. Jasmine Brambilla Auyón—Professor Auyón’s niece. Interviewed with her mother in Mexicali, 2003. Lupe Vásquez interpreted.

11. Elderly barber in Pasajes Prendes, Mexicali—Interviewed in 2003 about the tunnels and the old days. Terrie Petree interpreted.

12. Kay Brockman Bishop—Interviewed in 2006 about her life and the Imperial Valley, where she was born in 1947 and where she still lives. Her man Dutch was present and occasionally put in some words.

13. Ben Brock—Third-generation family farmer (Brock Farms: asparagus). In his thirties. Interviewed in Holtville, 2004.

14. Richard Brogan—Private investigator specializing in stolen aircraft recovery. Former deputy sheriff in Imperial County and in Yuma. Some experience of farming. Born in La Jolla in 1944; came to the Imperial Valley in the early fifties. Interviewed in Calexico, 2004.

15. Araceli Cabadas—Thirtyish realtor in Salton City who assured me that the sea had a “filtration system.” Interviewed in December 2006. Terrie Petree was present.