Clearing Puerto Ricans
Murky History in California

visited a Puerto Rican site recently, jumping on from a link in the correspondence of Don Jibaro, and after browsing--and admiring-- the site and learning of their goals and achievements, got caught up in the series of articles on Puerto Rican history. Puerto Rican history and culture is my passion, and as an amateur documentarian, I was struck by a passage in the article... Puerto Rican Population in California:

"...The first documented evidence of Puerto Ricans in California is a San Francisco Chronicle article reporting on [so-called] deserters from a New Orleans to San Francisco labor train who escaped in December 1900 in Pomona. This group made its way to Los Angeles."

Either the author knew the whole story and felt it was outside the scope of his article, or perhaps he didn't know; but there is a crucially important historical event that is crying for inclusion in his story: the story of precisely where this "labor train" originated, and what was its purpose; and why people had to "escape" from a "labor train" in the first place, and why they were called "deserters" by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Since the early days in California, Boricuas found a way to gather, exchange
 "wepas" and be themselves (Pic from Don Jibaro's Archives)

The term "deserters" piqued my sense of irony. True, the author does correctly qualify "deserter" with [so called], but this data originated from a story by the mainstream press of the day, and unfortunately, he has chosen to bring it forth from historical sources without comment, leaving its pejorative impact intact for his readers: that the first Puerto Ricans to come to California, the seed, so to speak, of the present Puerto Rican/California community, were "deserters" and "escapees from a labor train". Put it that way, I would not be too proud to be a descendant of such a shady-sounding group. But the facts give a different impression.

The story illustrates the blatant policy of racial superiority assumed by the leaders of the United States at the turn of the 19th century, a time where Teddy Roosevelt was expressing the nation's "manifest destiny" to finally rise to the same political and social level as the age-old European civilizations. The "greatness" of the 19th century Spanish, English, French, Dutch, Belgian and German empires was based of their "owning" other larger and smaller nations around the world--in a word, colonialism.

Following the example of NYC, California Puerto Ricans soon began having its first parades,
into which Boricuas from north to south participated. (Pic by Don Jibaro)

In this spirit, and in its manifest destiny to be Great also, the United States "liberated" Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hawaii, the Phillipines, Guam and the Virgin Islands, wrestling them away by force of arms and the U.S. Marines, from their previous European colonial owners. The Spanish colonies were easy pickings, since the Spanish colonial government was at the time in advanced state of internal decay.

The administration of the United States' new "possessions" as they were called, was largely in the hands of...the Bureau of Indian Affairs. How appropriate: after all, the BIA was familiar with dealing with "non white primitive peoples". So for the first decade of Puerto Rico's colonial experience with the United States, all business between the US and PR was undertaken by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. And the person placed in charge of governing Puerto Ricans was the same Marine general who fought in the Indian Wars: Brigadier General George Whitefield Davis. This was the situation during 1900 that resulted in the birth of the Puerto Rican communities in California:

General Davis, the military governor of Puerto Rico in 1899-1900 had extensive contacts within the oligarchy that was in complete and total control of every aspect of life in Hawaii: principal among which was the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association. The Association was at that time busy creating an "excess of labor" in Hawaii in order to drive down the wages of the sugar cane workers.

So they began to import small quantities of workers from dozens of countries all over the world, a strategy designed to prevent the polyglot (multi-language) workforce from organizing and demanding wage increases. And having imported many more than were necessary to harvest the sugar cane, the poor immigrant were stuck on these remote islands, desperate to work at any salary, and clawing for existence with so little work to be had. It was a devilish situation which the oligarchy created in Hawaii.

Nyuyorican professor Norma Carr at the University of Hawaii, History Department, told us:

General Davis, who originally invaded Puerto Rico, had many contacts here in Hawaii. So you know, they got word back and forth and it was decided to see what kind of labor they could get in Puerto Rico. The scouts reported that the Puerto Ricans were industrious and honest, law abiding and docile. And docile was the key word, so they sent an order to the labor brokers in Puerto Rico to start recruiting puertorriqueños.

They were recruited during the terrible years following the Marine invasion of PR: the island was in total ruin and virtual collapse, and the United States government was literally letting the Puerto Ricans stew in their misery: the entire island suffered with plague, pestilence, starvation and a major hurricane, San Ciriaco, had wiped out the islands survival crops. A popular song of that time in Puerto Rico went:

Ay mi pobre Puerto Rico
Gran pena me da,
Que toda la isla entera
Esta pidiendo caridad.

So the labor broker easily signed up the desperate puertorriquenos with promises that everybody spoke Spanish in Hawaii and that it was a paradise where their children would be educated and fed. Fed these lies, and in desperation, they lined up to leave their poor little Island. Norma Carr continues with the story:

The first group left from San Juan. The next few groups left from Ponce. The next three groups left from Guanica and then back to Ponce again, as the port of departure. They left their port of departure to New Orleans. In New Orleans they were boarded on the Southern Pacific Railroad and went to the West Coast.

The first group had to be forced to go on that train, because after being at sea for five or six days, they realized the distance that they were going, and that they might never see Puerto Rico again. So more than half wanted to turn back. But instead they were forced on board the Southern Pacific Railroad, and 114 Puerto Ricans started the journey across the country. And they stopped at different places. That first group, the people guarding them tried to keep them away from the press, and so on, but the Hearst reporters got on board the train, and were interviewing people and so on. [editor's addition: The Hearst Newspaper headlines tracked their voyage across the country with headlines like: "Present Day Slaves On Route to California." ] And then they got to San Francisco, and 66 of them escaped. And only 56 people were loaded on the Rio de Janeiro and came out to Hawaii.

Those 66 people who escaped, victims of this coerced migration, those "deserters" from the "labor train" were the start of the Puerto Rican community in California.

How was this possible? Were there no laws prohibiting this? The answer is clear: Until Puerto Ricans were obligated to become American citizens in 1914 so that they could be drafted into the First World War (those Puerto Ricans refusing US citizenship at the time were placed in the category of Resident Aliens on the Island), they had no civic standing whatsoever. They weren't citizens of Spain any more; they weren't citizens of the United States.

There was no such thing as Puerto Rican "citizenship" because PR was not a nation in the ordinary sense, it was merely a "territory" of, but not within the United States. So Puerto Ricans had no international standing of any kind, no recognition of their entity, and with no rights recognized within any tribunal. As far as the world was concerned, Puerto Ricans were "nothing." It was from this reality that those 66 people "deserted" when they escaped that "labor train."

Thanks for your attention. The story of how they eventually won their rights and dignity back in Hawaii is even more interesting. I'm sure there is a similar story to be told about those early Puerto Ricans in California.

William Cumpiano
Puerto Rican Cuatro Project... www.cuatro-pr.org

The idea was to represent... and that we did! (Pic by Don Jibaro)