La Chinesca, Mexicali墨西卡利唐人街（La Chinesca）
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- Mexico · Baja California · Mexicali · In the historic center of old Mexicali; includes a network of underground tunnels
- First built
- Early twentieth century · Chinese laborers came to build the canal for the Colorado River Land Company; around 1920 there were about ten thousand Chinese and about seven hundred Mexicans
Overview
La Chinesca is the largest Chinatown in Mexico, located in Mexicali, the capital of Baja California. Chinese laborers first came to build the irrigation system of the Mexicali Valley for the American-owned Colorado River Land Company, some transferring in from the United States and others sailing directly from southern China; during American Prohibition, Chinese merchants opened bars, restaurants, and hotels here to attract American customers, and dug a network of underground tunnels connecting to Calexico across the border. Around 1920 there were about ten thousand Chinese residents against only around seven hundred Mexicans; in the late 1920s a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment arose abruptly, reversing this demographic balance. Today there are about fifteen thousand residents of Chinese descent, with more than a hundred Chinese restaurants citywide — the highest per-capita density in Mexico — giving rise to fusion dishes such as shark-fin tacos. It must honestly be noted that Chinese religious life in the Chinatown is carried on through altars within association halls; no independent Daoist temple building has been documented.
Highlights
- The largest Chinatown in Mexico
- Chinese laborers came to build the irrigation canal
- A network of underground tunnels from the Prohibition era
- Around 1920, about ten thousand Chinese against about seven hundred Mexicans
- Religious life is carried on through association altars, with no independent temple