Historical Markers Project: Chinese Settlement

The origins of El Paso’s Chinese settlement lie in the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad during the 1870s and 1880s. Chinese laborers were first drawn to the United States by the California Gold Rush of 1849 but soon became an integral part of the railroad industry and mostly young, unskilled, Chinese men provided much of the manual labor needed. The Southern Pacific Railroad employed almost 2000 Chinese when it reached El Paso, Texas on May 19, 1881. They built simple wooden or adobe residences and almost immediately an area around St. Louis Street had Chinese shops and residences.   [i]  Unfortunately, the Chinese arrived in El Paso at a  time when a nationwide anti-Chinese movement was underway. Efficient, inexpensive Chinese laborers were seen as an economic threat to whites and other ethnic groups in the West. Their culture was seen as clannish, corrupt and decadent. For years, state and local governments restricted and discriminated against the Chinese. This culminated in the passage of the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It ended Chinese immigration, put deportation measures in place for illegal aliens, and denied the naturalization process to the Chinese.  [ii]

Site of a 19th century Chinese laundry, 212 W. Overland Street.  Image provided by George D. Torok

There are no records of Chinese in El Paso before 1881. Although most of the 2000 Chinese laborers that worked on the Southern Pacific line left the area after the Exclusion Act, a small number remained forming a community of about 300 by the 1890s. [iii] They worked as laborers, began small businesses, and created a small Chinatown on the northern edge of the city. By 1889, the Chinese monopolized the city’s laundry business driving out Mexican competitors.  Others operated businesses such as restaurants, retail shops, small vegetable farms, and contracting.   [iv] There were soon several very successful Chinese businessmen such as contractor Sam Hing who built a beautiful residence in the Magoffin District. A small professional class, including several physicians was also present.  [v]  El Paso’s Chinese preserved many of
 their cultural traditions such as language, music, and burial rites. They held traditional celebrations, organized tongs which were regional social organizations, and celebrated Chinese holidays. While some arranged to have friends and family members’ remains returned to their ancestral homeland, many also chose burial in El Paso. A Chinese cemetery still exists today in El Paso’s Concordia Cemetery.  [vi]

But the Chinese continued to be seen as a threat. El Pasoans worried about the success of the laundries fearing they would draw more Chinese to the city. Mexican laundries were often driven out of business. They were associated with gambling halls and opium dens and both were common in the small Chinese community. Although frequented by whites as well as Chinese, these establishments became the target of city reformers around the turn-of-the-century. Gambling was outlawed in the 1910s and well into the 1920s local authorities tried to control the opium trade in El Paso.  [vii] Illegal entries to the U.S. also drew attention. Following the exclusion act, Chinese were smuggled into El Paso through Ciudad Juarez. They were brought to Mexican ports, given a basic command of English, guided to the border by an elaborate “underground railroad” system, and smuggled in from Ciudad. Juarez. Many went on to other Chinatowns of the west. An extensive tunnel system was built under the Rio Grande to bring both Chinese alien and contraband.  [viii]