Water, Capitalism, and Urbanization in the Californias, 1848-1982
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TIJUANDIEGO: WATER, CAPITALISM, AND URBANIZATION IN THE CALIFORNIAS, 1848-1982 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Hillar Yllo Schwertner, M.A. Washington, D.C. August 14, 2020 Copyright 2020 by Hillar Yllo Schwertner All Rights Reserved ii TIJUANDIEGO: WATER, CAPITALISM, AND URBANIZATION IN THE CALIFORNIAS, 1848-1982 Hillar Yllo Schwertner, M.A. Dissertation Advisor: John Tutino, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This is a history of Tijuandiego—the transnational metropolis set at the intersection of the United States, Mexico, and the Pacific World. Separately, Tijuana and San Diego constitute distinct but important urban centers in their respective nation-states. Taken as a whole, Tijuandiego represents the southwestern hinge of North America. It is the continental crossroads of cultures, economies, and environments—all in a single, physical location. In other words, Tijuandiego represents a new urban frontier; a space where the abstractions of the nation-state are manifested—and tested—on the ground. In this dissertation, I adopt a transnational approach to Tijuandiego’s water history, not simply to tell “both sides” of the story, but to demonstrate that neither side can be understood in the absence of the other. I argue that the drawing of the international boundary in 1848 established an imbalanced political ecology that favored San Diego and the United States over Tijuana and Mexico. The land and water resources wrested by the United States gave it tremendous geographical and ecological advantages over its reeling southern neighbor, advantages which would be used to strengthen U.S. economic and political power on the continent. California got the richest lands and ample water resources; Baja California got little of each. With greater access to water and capital, San Diego thrived as a U.S. military-industrial hub on the Pacific, consistently able to meet local water demands and plan ahead for the future. Tijuana, on the other hand, found itself constantly trying iii to stay afloat. It had less water, less capital, and was much more isolated from the national processes playing out in Mexico. The city’s development was thus inextricably intertwined with San Diego’s—it was much more attuned to the rhythms of southern California than to central Mexico. In some respects, Tijuana emerged as a transborder urban appendage—a place where both U.S. and Mexican capitalists sought to take advantage of the unique economic opportunities provided by the presence of the political boundary. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my wonderful advisor, John Tutino—thank you for your kindness, your patience, your wisdom, and your inspiration in bringing Tijuandiego to life. I’m so grateful to have had your steady guidance, support, motivation, and companionship since the day I arrived at Georgetown, and I deeply appreciate how you’ve helped me to see the world from new perspectives. To my committee: John McNeill, Katherine Benton-Cohen, and Bryan McCann—thank you for your insights, your questions, your lessons, and your advice. Tijuandiego is a place—an idea—that has been inspired by all of you, and I’m so thankful for what you’ve taught me about the environment, about borderlands, and about cities and their inhabitants. To my colleagues at Georgetown and beyond—thank you for your friendship. Thank you to Douglas, Matthew, Jackson, Natasha, José, Rebecca, Tori, Rob, Adrienne, David, Daniel, Chris, Larisa, Patrick, Meredith, Thomas, and many others who have workshopped chapters and helped me to advance my thinking and writing about Tijuandiego. To the archivists and staff at all of the archives and libraries I visited in pursuit of this project—thank you for your professionalism and your enthusiasm for my work. Thanks especially to Jane at the San Diego History Center; Héctor at the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas in Tijuana; and Elsa at the Archivo Histórico del Agua in Mexico City. To my growing family: Kersti, David, Kai, Felix, Finn, John, Audrey, and Josh—thank you for all the love and laughter over the years. And to Brittany—thank you for everything. I’m so lucky to have you by my side. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: FOUNDING TIJUANDIEGO, 1821-1889 .................................................... 22 CHAPTER TWO: WATERING AN EMPIRE // DROWNING A REVOLUTION, 1890-1920................................................................................................................................. 72 CHAPTER THREE: GAMBLING ON WATER IN THE NEW EL DORADO, 1920-1934............................................................................................................................... 141 CHAPTER FOUR: THE NEAREST KIND OF NEIGHBORS, 1934-1950 ............................. 210 CHAPTER FIVE: CALIFORNIA(S) CONTROVERSIAL, 1950-1963................................... 275 CHAPTER SIX: GLOBALIZING TIJUANDIEGO, 1963-1982 ............................................. 336 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 393 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................ 402 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................... 407 vi INTRODUCTION This is a history of Tijuandiego—the transnational metropolis set at the intersection of the United States, Mexico, and the Pacific World. Separately, Tijuana and San Diego constitute distinct but important urban centers in their respective nation-states. Taken as a whole, Tijuandiego represents the southwestern hinge of North America. It is the continental crossroads of cultures, economies, and environments—all in a single, physical location. In other words, Tijuandiego represents a new urban frontier; a space where the abstractions of the nation-state are manifested—and tested—on the ground. Tijuandiego marks the corporeal intersection of the Global North and the Global South— two conceptually distinct “worlds” which just so happen to meet face-to-face in the Californias. Even before the modern border was ever imagined in this place, Tijuandiego had long been a point of cultural, political, and ecological intersection. Here, indigenous peoples like the Kumeyaay and the Cucapá faced European incursions with devastating results. Smallpox and other deadly “Old- World” diseases—to which the indigenous populations had no immunity—wiped out families and communities in droves, profoundly reshaping the social structures and opportunities available to those who managed to survive. Spanish missionaries sought to “civilize” local indigenous populations through liturgy and labor. They were often disappointed with the results. As the decades wore on, Kumeyaay and Cucapá communities across the Californias adapted to European occupation, doing what they could to retain their dignity and their autonomy through a process of negotiation. Then, in the early nineteenth century, the Spanish Empire in the Americas began to disintegrate, breaking into an assortment of fledgling nation-states intent on establishing and maintaining their political independence. For Tijuandiego, the transition from Spanish Empire to 1 Mexican Republic was more symbolic than anything else; the local mission continued to operate into the 1830s, and even after it was secularized by the Mexican federal government, not much noticeably changed on the ground. A more significant transformation came in in the 1840s, when the U.S. military invaded Mexico and seized roughly half of its national territory. With the stroke of a pen, Tijuandiego was transfixed from a continental frontier region into an international borderland. After 1848, the region was both physically and conceptually divided by the boundary. The two sides were understood to exist in opposition to one another—parts of two distinct nations, with different priorities and expectations. San Diego, with its magnificent bay and promising backcountry, was understood by the new “sovereigns” of this land as an integral foothold at the base of California. The town thus developed within the broader context of U.S. economic and demographic expansion in the American West—first, as a commercial port, fishing haven, and tourist destination in the nineteenth century; then, as a major Pacific hub of the U.S. Navy in the twentieth. Tijuana, for its part, was much more isolated from the national processes playing out in Mexico. The overwhelming focus of the federal government was on Mexico City and its environs, not tiny Tijuana in the most distant corner of the nation. Accordingly, Tijuana’s early development was inextricably intertwined with San Diego’s—it was much more attuned to the rhythms of southern California than to central Mexico. In some respects, Tijuana emerged as a transborder urban appendage—a place where both U.S. and Mexican capitalists sought to take advantage of the unique economic opportunities provided by the presence of the political boundary. The transnational bonds linking San Diego and Tijuana strengthened after World War II, when the expanding labor needs of the United States were met by the extension of the wartime 2 bracero program, inviting Mexican migrants