Jorge Meraz: Today, in "Crossing South," we get to explore the history of Chinese immigrants in Mexicali.

And it's all coming to you right now.

♪♪♪ Jorge: You know, I'm really hungry, so I'm gonna get some Chinese food.

Hold on, guys.

Could I get a Kung Pao?

Could I get, like, actually, this isn't a Chinese food restaurant.

Thank you, guys.

It's actually a museum that talks about the history of Chinese food in Mexicali, which is super famous.

Makes the region famous-- famous for it.

So we're gonna see right now this museum that takes us through the journey of this culture that has made a home in Baja, specifically in Mexicali.

Let's go check it out, guys.

Jorge: The presence of Chinese culture does not only exist in Mexicali, it's as much a part of the city's history as the city itself.

You could say Mexicali's founding and the arrival of Chinese settlers run as parallel stories.

Jorge: So this map simply mentions the region from which the majority of Chinese settlers in Mexicali came from.

You know, the first ones arrived in San Francisco because of the gold rush, 1800s.

But there was a point where there were so many Chinese immigrants coming that the Americans in cities like San Francisco just didn't want them anymore.

So they started either turning them away or sending them away.

So they started searching for other places to go to and settle to them.

And a region that was rich with work for them that they knew how to do and they felt comfortable going to, was a place called El Rio.

And that region is now Mexicali.

It wasn't Mexicali back then.

It was called El Rio.

And there was a lot of work.

They were building the railroads, they were building canals for the Rio Grande to feed the deltas and all the agricultural regions here.

And also Mexicali, this region, the valle, the valley, that encompasses the municipality of Mexicali, they have the what they call the white gold and that's cotton.

It's still an industry here in the region, the picking of cotton.

Well, Chinese settlers came and did that.

Now when they came, they brought their culture and, of course, they brought their food.

But that's the history of it, and it would take them, like, three months.

As soon as the--well, the departure from China to reach the Mexicali Valley, El Rio as it was known back then, took about three months to get there.

Jorge: So the initial goal for many of these immigrants was to work on the railroad, dig canals, and pick cotton.

They were promised many rosy things back in China.

But then they arrived to a land of hard labor and unforgiving heat.

Fortunately, things did eventually improve.

Jorge: Okay, so this right here is a representation of what changed the lives of the communities living here, that were picking cotton, they were working the railroads, that were working, you know, out in the fields, digging ditches, canals for irrigation.

This construction here, this building, represents a change in their--in their history and their lives.

You see, what happened, the Chinese communities in L.A., in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, many of them started hearing that there was a large community of Chinese people dwelling in the Imperial Valley, the Mexicali.

And they said, "Let's go take a trip down and let's go check out what they're doing, what our Paisans, right, our countrymen are doing."

When they arrived, they got incredibly moved.

Moved to tears, even, because they saw they were doing incredibly hard labor under the scorching Mexicali sun, which is something if you know--if you've ever been to this region, and they're, like, "We need to help them out.

We need to, you know, do something where we help them, they get themselves going, and they actually thrive in the region."

So what they did is they bought up property, so they instead of working for other people, they could start doing their own cotton business with their countrymen along.

That was part of the-- of what they did.

And then another half of those, what essentially are, you know, Chinese investors, American Chinese investors now, because they were dwelling in the States, some of them, you know, went downtown and they started constructing and building facilities like that.

Now each one of those squares represents a different business.

So now, these Chinese immigrants who had come to work these, you know, incredibly hard manual labor occupations, now they have their own little businesses.

So they opened up restaurants for themselves which, well, guess what?

The local population started taking to, you know, but they started to, you know, opening restaurants to feed each other.

It was the place where all of them after work, you know, met together and so on.

But it all became possible thanks to the investment of Chinese Americans that came to help out their countrymen over here.

So I wanna welcome you to the first Chinese restaurant ever in Mexicali, 1912.

Well, it's a replica, of course, right?

The facade is a replica, but that's how it looked.

Isn't that something?

This is the first Chinese restaurant in Mexicali: Mexicali Restaurant, chop suey, noodles, and white rice, steamed rice.

It's all they offered back there.

Since then, the menu has expanded.

The--normally they cater food depending on the culture they're in, give them something they like.

But that's what was available.

That wouldn't that--wouldn't that have been something to see?

So this is history and this is as best as they could replicate the first Chinese restaurant in Mexicali.

Jorge: Sometimes life works that way.

Some make it by being at the right place at the right time, while others may receive help from a kind benefactor.

This proactive assistance proved to be crucial in the success of Chinese immigrants in Mexicali.

Jorge: What am I having?

What am I having?

Fried young rabbit cotton tail, $1?

Mm, half pheasant in a casserole, $2.25?

Not bad, not bad.

Price are good.

You know, the only problem is this menu is probably from 100 years ago, right?

Let's see, you got your omelets, your Chinese dishes.

Okay, let's see what you've got here.

Pork chop suey, 80 cents.

How does that look, folks, huh?

Crab, lobster, shrimp chop suey, 95 cents.

I'd buy that for a dollar.

I was wondering what this sign was.

Looks pretty modern but they were saying that it's an old restaurant, iconic.

I don't know if it was, like, in the '60s or whatnot, but it's an old restaurant that was very iconic.

It closed down and apparently they're gonna reopen it.

So that's pretty cool.

The 19 Restaurant.

So, if it's good enough, we'll bring it to you, folks, so, but right now it's still in hiatus.

So you have here now the phase in their history when you've got your Chinese immigrants interacting with the local population, the Mexican population.

Having dinner with their Cokes and Mexican beers.

So hey, you love to see that, right?

A culture--cultures intermingled.

Pretty cool.

Yeah, they've done a good job, you know, encapsulating in a small museum the experience of what the Chinese culture has brought to Baja.

Jorge: Mexicali residents have done a great thing here by paying homage to the Chinese settlers and their heritage.

In fact, that's one of the reasons why they made Mexicali their home.

Not every Mexican town was friendly or showed them hospitality.

It was the Mexicali population's kindness that contributed to them dropping anchor and making this place their home.

So part of the experience here at the museum, they give you a sample tasting of authentic Chinese tea, which is a staple in every restaurant.

Now, be it that most patrons actually order, you know, a soft drink and so on, but if you order it, they will give you the herb jasmine green teas that they themselves drink.

If you think that if you go to Chinese restaurants, the food that the waiters themselves eat, you know, the actual Chinese workers, they don't eat what the rest of us eat.

They don't eat fried food like we do.

All their food is steamed vegetables and so on.

And they're--they don't drink soda.

They'll drink the teas like this.

The reason why is that Chinese people, they wanna live as long as possible.

They were explaining that, as a culture, they wanna take care of themselves.

So their culture, their lifestyle, their diet, reflects that endeavor.

So we're gonna--we're gonna try their tea.

This is very good.

I thought it was gonna be, honestly, I thought it was gonna be a unsweetened tea.

I don't know if he just sweetened--it tastes like it's sweetened with honey.

It's delicious.

It's very--it's very tasty.

Jorge: Well, I'm tipping my hat to this place because of the good job they do.

Putting another hat, just to get in the mood.

It's "Crossing South," folks.

Don't go anywhere.

We love being here, learning the culture, learning the history of these people that have made a home for themselves in Baja, specifically in Mexicali.

More "Crossing South" coming to you.

Don't go anywhere.

Jorge: Across the street from the museum, we walk into an amazing alley that houses the famous Chinesca.

Chinese immigrants utilize the basements of the American style buildings their American benefactors constructed as secret gambling rooms, dormitories, and storage.

Most of these lay flooded for decades.

Most still are, but a few have been restored and we're gonna check them out.

Jorge: You know, I wanna tell you a story that's pretty much as part of any other story in regards to the Chinese culture here of Mexicali.

It's a sad story, but it's also a story of survival.

It's a story about the Chinettos.

When work started thriving in Mexicali and boatloads of people were being brought officially by boat, you know, with a job, with a job offer, to build the railroads and so on, there were other, you know, equivalent to the coyote-- today, the coyotes that cross people to the States, there were other non-official smugglers, basically human smugglers, who were hearing about the amount of work that was available in Mexico, and they started offering clandestine equivalent, you know, parallel job offers, without having them, to Chinese people.

So one such story is a group of Chinese, some of them were dropped in the mainland Mexico, off of the coast, to swim ashore, literally.

Some of them stayed.

One of the stories is, for instance, that as they were making their way up, many of them in some Mexican states were treated pretty badly, expelled, and not received well.

They experienced a lot of racism in a lot of states.

But apparently, there was nowhere where they were treated as good as Mexicali.

When they reached Baja, the way people treated them here was very good.

And that's why they made a life for themselves here.

And one such group, that was brought by those clandestine smugglers, was dropped off in San Felipe.

That's a 2-hour drive South, grueling temperatures.

That's where the salt flats are, the Laguna Salada.

Now, imagine that these--this group of Chinese people were told, "Just walk north and eventually you're gonna hit Mexicali."

Well, as they're walking, hours passed, days passed.

A group said, "You know what, this is gonna be hard and we're all waiting for each other.

Let's get a group of us, the ones that are, you know, the men of the group, you know, sacrificing themselves.

We're stronger, we're younger, we're gonna go faster, you know, up ahead and when we reach help, we'll come back and get you guys.

You guys go at a slower pace."

Guess what happened?

That forward group that went to help out, that went to try to get help, they died.

They, literally, under the hot, scorching Laguna Salada, you know, the salt flats, heat, died of dehydration and were just-- their corpses were literally burned by the sun.

It took weeks for someone to find their bodies.

Now, what happened to the group that was left behind, the one that was going slower?

That's the survival story.

The amazing, the wonderful part of a story that should be a movie, you know, somewhere, is that that group survived.

But they didn't survive just because of chance.

The native people that live in that region, the Cocopah tribe people, when they saw that group of Chinese immigrants struggling, they actually took 'em in, they fed them, they strengthened them, they gave them nourishment, and then helped them make their way to Mexicali.

And they were eventually part of the community that also is part of the Chinese history and heritage of Mexicali.

The Chinetto story, you probably never heard it before, but it's one of those stories that should be known and should be told.

Jorge: Well, our Mexicali liaison, Aldo, is very well versed in the history of the Chinesca.

He kindly explains what these rooms were used for.

These clandestine quarters have an amazing history.

Locals of that time were oblivious to much of this, but you could say what happened here is also a window into what other Chinatowns were doing at the time.

Aldo Gutierrez: We start here with a little bit of history of Mexicali.

We start telling you in what we want you guys to know is how the Chinesca started, how Mexicali started, with this Chinese people.

Mexicali started because of we have the--because of the railroad and the need to bring people to build the railroads.

Jorge: Normally, a railroad is brought and is built because there's an industry in the region.

Was it because of the cotton or what was the industry that was here that needed transportation?

Aldo: Yeah, the biggest industry here was cotton.

Jorge: It was cotton, okay.

White gold, right?

Aldo: A white gold, exactly.

We had the cotton.

Then we needed the mano de obra, which is the labor.

We needed the labor and we didn't have any people here.

So they started bringing Chinese people to start building road, to start in the agriculture business.

So at some time, there was 70% of the--of our population was Chinese and 30% was Mexican.

We were talking to a historian.

They were telling us how, even in China, they would open these offices like, hey, there's plenty of work in this area in El Rio, that's how it was called, Mexicali, back then.

You know, they're just like, and you can sign up.

So you know, Chinese men would go and, like, go on the boat journey for, like, three months to get over here.

Jorge: The underground activity of the Chinese population was made possible by very specific buildings which are not common in Mexico.

Aldo: Every historic building here, most of them have basements.

Most of them right now are flooded because there's so much water underground.

But these are the ones that they have restored and they make this as a touristic project.

Jorge: They told us that Chinese investors from L.A., you know, from California, San Francisco, they came and they helped build a lot of American-style buildings that had basements.

So are these those buildings that--these have basements?

Aldo: Exactly.

Jorge: So you're saying that all those buildings, the Chinese immigrants who were living here in Mexicali who used them, they would use the basements for smoking opium, for gambling?

So they had their whole industry, the underground industry.

Aldo: Everything of the commerce that that was at the time, was underground.

Jorge: So we know what industries brought all these Chinese workers, but some of these jobs eventually dried up.

Others were already filled.

Yet more Chinese people kept coming.

What did they do once those initial jobs ran their course?

Aldo: The people who built Mexicali at the beginning, they was--they were the Chinese who used to be the labor of the railroads, after they finished the railroad.

So there was this president, Lazaro Cardenas, who says the work is for--well, the lands are for the Mexicans.

Colorado River Riverland Company, which were the big employers, they cast them away.

Okay, these Chinese people who used to be farmers, used to be-- was working in agriculture, then suddenly became without jobs.

So they started to be the merchants.

They started to build restaurants.

They started to be the heart of the commerce in Mexicali.

Then they built a lot of restaurants who brought stuff from China.

And now we can enter one of these pieces of art that used to be a decorative part of a really big and fancy restaurant.

Jorge: This used to be part of a restaurant?

Aldo: Yes.

Jorge: So you're saying this is a door?

Aldo: Can you figure out?

Jorge: Come with me, folks.

We go into the inner chamber of this once-cryptic accommodation.

Aldo: What we can see here is a representation of what the bunkers looked like.

Right now, we are in this way.

But at the time they were a lot of them, a lot of them.

So when they-- Jorge: Very little space would would have been in this room, right?

Aldo: Exactly, and on the three--on those three big fires, a lot of Chinese people died.

So here we can see a representation, an homenaje, like a homage to these people who died in this place.

The first sifu that came here to teach martial arts was teached by Chuck Norris and then his teacher was Bruce Lee.

So, we will find on the outside.

So, an homage also too with the image of Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and the first sifu that brought these martial arts to Mexicali.

So the martial arts in Mexicali are originally from Bruce Lee.

So that's-- Jorge: Right, a little more modern.

Aldo: Yeah, you can see some naturalization papers who were signed by the president at the time, Porfirio Diaz, who naturalized people from China.

Jorge: General Porfirio, that was the president?

"Government of the Northern Territory."

So, if this is the naturalization, this was 1936, whoa.

Aldo: Baja California was made a state until 1952.

So before, their name wasn't Baja California.

It was the Northern Territory of Baja California.

Jorge: Really?

It wasn't a state, it was a territory.

Oh, man, that is amazing.

Jorge: The success of these immigrants is tied to important events which are part of the American experience, events that occurred in the States during the 1920s.

Aldo: Here is a little bit--a little bit of our contemporary history.

After the Chinese, this is in the 1920s, there was a tribe of commerce because of the dry law in the United States.

Jorge: Yeah, prohibition made border cities thrive.

Come on over, have a drink.

Aldo: Yeah, this was our Vegas and people come here.

You can find the Al Capone who came here to Mexicali, Charles Chaplin, and you can see Charles Chaplin giving a show in Mexicali.

And also a very, very famous compositor who was Jack B. Tenney.

He composed a song who was called "Mexicali Rose."

We've been hearing about "Mexicali Rose" a lot and even on the Downtown Arch, it says "Mexicali Rose."

Aldo: It's an honor to this song that was made by this compositor who-- Jorge: Was he in love with a girl of that name?

Aldo: In love in a bar here in the Imperial Hotel who used to have a bar.

And then he got in--he fell in love with this called--with this girl called Rosa.

People, who came here, were people with money.

So they came here because they-- we have a lot of casinos and we have the alcohol that they couldn't find in the States.

So they come here and what we see is brand-new cars or it was people with money that came here.

Jorge: You can see it, 1930s vehicles, 1940s, you know.

Aldo: This place was originally a casino.

This casino, this part of this whole, it was for the-- for everyone.

Like the casino, for everyone, but the casino for people who were wealthy and rich, it was below.

Jorge: This is where the high rollers would come, eh?

Aldo: Exactly, yeah.

Jorge: Just so you know, Aldo, always bet on black.

Jorge: The Chinesca is a truly historical experience which is a must-stop to better understand the traditions and culture of Mexicali.

Jorge: What they're trying to do, you mentioned that the designers here are trying to do what?

Aldo: To educate our tourists that come to Mexicali to make them know why Chinese is-- Chinese people and Chinese culture is so important for the people from Mexicali.

Jorge: Right, it's not just that, you know, a Chinese restaurant exists randomly, it's that Chinese people are as much a part of Mexicali's history as anyone else, right?

Because what year was Mexicali founded?

Aldo: 1903.

Jorge: That means, you know, Chinese immigrants are almost contemporary to the foundation of the city, right?

That's amazing, especially because Mexico is not the most diverse country, right?

It's like the indigenous people, the Mestizo culture, vast 99% of the population, very few pockets of you know, ethnically foreign people, right?

So when you have a microcosm like that and so well taken by the local population, like you, I mean, you expressed yourself, as a people that you're endeared to, right?

And from what I hear, that's like the general feeling of people in Mexicali.

Aldo: We live with them, we went to school and everyone knows someone from China or someone Chinese who was already born here, but came from that heritage from China who were the first founders of the--of our city.

Jorge: Well, thank you, Aldo, so much for this incredible inside look into Mexicali's historic heritage, cultural heritage, of La Chinesca, thank you.

Jorge: We hope you enjoyed it, folks.

We'll see you next time.

Take care.

We're gonna continue exploring this place a little bit for now.

Jorge: So after getting immersed in the history of the inspirational journey of the Mexicali Chinese immigrant community, I leave this place, amazed and excited as to what interesting things we'll find out the next time we get to cross south.

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