UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Mining Life : : A Transnational History of Race and Family in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1890-1965 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6pz445h3 Author Maiorana, Juliette Charlie Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Mining Life: A Transnational History of Race and Family in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1890-1965 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Juliette Charlie Maiorana Committee in charge: Professor Rebecca Plant, Chair Professor G. Mark Hendrickson Professor Pamela Radcliff Professor Paul Spickard Professor Shelley Streeby 2013 Copyright Juliette Charlie Maiorana, 2013 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Juliette Charlie Maiorana is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2013 iii Dedication This work is dedicated to my momma—Lucinda Miriam González, Heinrichs, Spalding, Skousen, Bagby, Miller, Stickney, Jones (take your pick). She taught me how and why to survive under any conditions. And to my sons Riley Elijah Maiorana and Jackson Joseph Maiorana, who since their conception, continually teach me that once one survives, one must live, and in that living there is unfathomable joy. iv Table Of Contents SIGNATURE PAGE ........................................................................................................ iii DEDICATION.................................................................................................................. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................ vi LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. viii VITA................................................................................................................................ xiv ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION .................................................................... xvi INTRODUCTION ADVENTURES IN OLD MEXICO AS THE NEW WILD WEST: TRANSNATIONAL MINING HISTORY, RACE AND EMPIRE, AND BORDER MEXICANAS ...................................................................................... 1 Transnational Mining History, Race and Empire, and Border Mexicanas .... 6 Methods & Sources: A Transnational Community History ........................... 19 PART I ............................................................................................................................. 26 THE VIEW FROM ABOVE: ............................................................................ 26 MINING AND THE ENGINEERS ................................................................... 26 CHAPTER ONE A BRIEF HISTORY OF MULTINATIONAL MINING IN ARIZONA AND CHIHUAHUA, .................................................................................................... 27 1890-1965 ............................................................................................................. 27 Pre-1890 Mining in the Borderlands ................................................................. 29 1890 through 1920: The Creation of a Transnational Industry and Labor Force ..................................................................................................................... 34 1920-1965: Monopolization ................................................................................ 48 The End of an Era: ............................................................................................. 57 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 60 CHAPTER TWO THE TRANSNATIONAL MINING ENGINEERING FAMILY: RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER HIERARCHIES, 1890-1965 .................................... 62 A History of U.S. Mining Engineers: ................................................................ 63 Mexico, Chihuahua, and Arizona, 1887-1920 .................................................. 70 Mexico, Arizona, Chihuahua, 1920-1965 .......................................................... 85 Corporate Paternalism in the Mining Industry ............................................... 91 Conclusion: ........................................................................................................ 103 PART II v THE VIEW FROM BELOW: ETHNIC MEXICANS, ENGINEERING WOMEN, AND INTERMARRIAGE ............................................................. 105 CHAPTER THREE THE INFORMAL POLITICS OF SURVIVAL: RACIAL VIOLENCE, HISTORICAL TRAUMA, AND ETHNIC MEXICAN MINING FAMILIES IN RURAL ARIZONA, 1910-1940 .................................................................. 106 Racial Violence in Rural Arizona, 1900-1940: ............................................... 114 Mexicana/Chicana Practical Feminism .......................................................... 128 -Ethnic Mexican mining woman, interview by author, central Arizona, August 2010… ................................................................................................... 128 Conclusions:....................................................................................................... 135 Mexico’s American Mining Places: ................................................................. 140 Women in the Mining Camps: ......................................................................... 149 Mining Families Abroad: ................................................................................. 152 Domestic Workers and Mining Families: ....................................................... 157 Conclusion: ........................................................................................................ 159 CHAPTER FIVE DEFERENCE AND DEFIANCE: INTERMARRIAGE, MEXICANAS, AND SUBSEQUENT GENERATIONS SPANNING THE BORDER, ....... 161 1890-1965 ........................................................................................................... 161 Interracial Sex and Intermarriage .................................................................. 163 Mexicanas and the Second Generation: .......................................................... 182 Lenguas: ............................................................................................................. 186 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 189 1965 and Beyond: .............................................................................................. 199 APPENDIX A TOTAL ORAL INTERVIEWS EXAMINED: 1143 ..................................... 202 ARCHIVES AND MATERIALS CONSULTED ....................................................... 205 vi List Of Tables Table 1 U.S. Mining Companies Operating in Chihuahua (1916) ................................... 37 Table 2 Población Norteamericana en México 1900-1970 ............................................... 55 Table 3 Average Number of AIMME Members ............................................................... 70 Table 4 Average AIMME Membership Mexico, Arizona, Chihuahua, 1920-1965 ......... 85 Table 5 1970 Directory of American Organizations in Mexico: ...................................... 90 Table 6 Anglo-Mexican Intermarriage: Mexico, 1946-1965 .......................................... 176 Table 7 Anglo-Mexican Intermarriages: Chihuahua, Mexico 1946-1965 ...................... 177 vii Acknowledgments It takes a village to get a poor, young, Mexicana/Chicana, mother through her doctoral program. In my case it was a city. It is an honor and a pleasure for me to thank them all. My extended biological family is stretched on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. Since beginning graduate school my family on both sides of the line have inspired, sheltered, and sustained me for the last nine years. My immediate family is mostly comprised of phenomenal women. Genoveva Spalding, Lucinda Jones, Genoveva (Jenny) Spalding, Gabrielle Spalding, Tanja Skousen, and Catelyn Stickney prove to me over and over the strength, power, love, and resilience of women of Mexican origin and immigrant women. The lone male soldado who stood by me through the madness of my life and doctoral program is my hermanito, Keith Skousen. My other brother is largely missing, but when he does show up, he is fantastic with my children. Te amo mucho Samuel Spalding. We would all walk through fire for each other. I also have family not connected by blood, but rather through years of friendship and joy in sharing our lives with each other. I love and thank Tahna Weber, Erin Flemming, Amy Patricia Schneider, and Danielle Chambers. For unbelievable help with my children during my various research travels, I must acknowledge, from the bottom of my heart, Nova Patiño and Emily Montgomery. As a woman who grew up in a