The nature of agricultural production in Santa Clara County shifted focus over the decades of the 1800s. Cattle production for the “hide and tallow” trade of the Mexican Era gave way to dry farming of wheat by the mid-1860s, the American period. By 1875, irrigation-reliant orchards had replaced wheat production. 

During the dry-farm years of wheat production in the 1850s-1860s, Anglo American men carrying their belongings on their back (nicknamed ”bindlestiffs”) migrated throughout California in search of harvest work. With the shift to specialty orchard crops in Santa Clara Valley in the 1870s, a larger labor force was needed and included Anglo American families; Mexican Californio families; Chinese immigrant men; Portuguese, Spanish, Italian immigrant families; and later Japanese immigrant families. 

WWI created a California farm labor shortage when European immigration became increasingly restricted and Anglo American men were recruited into the military. During WWI the market for American crops expanded to meet Europe’s needs. After the War’s end in 1919, the 1924 Immigration Act ended all Asian immigration to the U.S., further contracting the labor supply. 

Immigrant families fleeing the Mexican Revolution joined the labor force in Santa Clara County’s burgeoning fruit production and processing industries. By 1915, Santa Clara County was dubbed “The Valley of Heart’s Delight,” promoting an idealized image of traditional American family farms and orchards while, in reality, the new prosperity was founded on the often-exploited labor of a largely immigrant workforce that was 80% Mexican.

During the 1920s and 1930s, establishing permanent residency in Santa Clara County proved difficult for Mexican immigrants due to the seasonal nature of their farm employment and low wages. Segregated from other employment opportunities until WWII, Mexican immigrant families traveled to farms and orchards throughout the Western States, including California and Santa Clara County.

EXHIBIT   MINI DOC