San Diego Mexican & Chicano History
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1. Indigenous San Diego
2. Spanish San Diego
3. Mexican San Diego
4. The U.S. - Mexican War in San Diego
5. San Diego's Mexican Community, 1850-1910
6. Revolutionary San Diego and Tijuana
7. La Lucha: The Beginnings of the Struggle 1920-1930s
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Chapter 5: San Diego's Mexican Community, 1850-1910 Sections: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  
Media

October children
Joaquin Murrieta

Old Town 1884
Doña Felipa Osuna de Marron

Paisanos
San Diego Mission

Silvas and family
Silvas family

Mesa Grande Indian
Rancherio

Henry Delano Fitch
Estudillo Jose Guadalupe

Jose Altamirano
Juana Alipas-Wrightington

Doña Guadalupe Smith
American Hotel

Indian War dance
Cabrillo Celebration

Arcadia Baker and Dolores Ward
Maria Baker
What changed among Mexicans to make them Mexican Americans?

The Table below shows social data for Old Town up to 1870. This provides us with a "snapshot" of the Mexican population of this era. They were the ancestors of the present day Latino residents of San Diego. Further research needs to be done regarding to study the population living in the surrounding countryside. Population for Old Town San Diego 1850-1870.

Population for Old Town San Diego 1850-1870*

1850 1860 1870
Number of town residents 233 293 319
Number of rural residents 499 438 1981
Total number of residents in city and county (4) 732 731 2300
Number of dwellings 63 96 117
Number of Families
    Male head of household
        Anglo(1) 13 10 38
        Mexican 19 8 6
        Mixed(2) 4 6 5
    Female head of household
        Anglo 0 3 0
        Mexican 5 7 3
Total number of families 41 34 52
Families employing domestics(3)
    Anglo 0 2 4
    Mexican 0 9 0
    Mixed 0 1 0
Average number living in each family
    Anglo 4.3 5.2 4.8
    Mexican 5.8 7.2 6
    Mixed 7.5 7.6 6
    Anglo female headed 0 5.6 0
    Mexican female headed 8.2 7 6

*Note that this does not include all Mexican Americans living in San Diego county, which until the late 1800s included present day Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardiano and part of Inyo Counties. The data reported here is for Old Town only. Provided courtesy of Alexandra Luberski, California State Parks.
  1. Includes European born.
  2. Anglo husband with Mexican spouse.
  3. Includes female head of households.
  4. Taken from Albert Camarillo, Chicanos in a Changing Society: From Mexican Pueblos to American Barrios in Santa Barbara and Southern California, 1848-1930 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979), 116.

The following picture of Mexican Old Town comes from this census data:

  1. While the Mexicans outnumbered the Anglos in the early years, their majority was due to women and children but by 1870s even this numerical advantage disappeared.
  2. Mexican families were larger than Anglo families, but not significantly so and very few families employed domestic servants. The largest families were mixed households and those headed by Mexican women.
  3. The number of "mixed" families in the pueblo were notable. In 1870 six out of thirty four (18 percent) of Mexican American households were "mixed," meaning, in all cases, an intermarriage of an Anglo American male with a Hispanic female. And ten years later the proportion was five out of fifty two households (10 percent).
  4. There was an increase in the proportion of families headed by women with children. In 1850, five out of thirty four Mexican families (excluding "mixed" households), or fifteen percent were female headed. In 1860 the percentage rose to 46 percent; and in 1870 it stood at 55 percent.

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