The Making of the Mexican Borderlands: Settler Colonialism and the Process of Racial Formations

• In Event: Asian Migrations and Settler Colonialism in Latin America

Abstract

The town of Santa Rosalia in Baja California, Sur, houses a prefabricated metal church attributed to French architect Gustave Eiffel. In 1885, French bankers invested in the Santa Rosalia mines resulting in the creation of the Compagnie du Boleo, which became one of the leading copper mining companies in the country. In less than a decade, Santa Rosalia became a booming town of 6,000 people, with a seaport that connected Baja California with the United States, Europe, and Asia. Recognizing that Baja California had one of the smallest populations in Mexico, the Compagnie du Boleo first relied on Indian labor. When a labor scarcity threatened production, managers recruited workers from Japan, China, Europe, and central Mexico. This paper examines how settler and colonial ideologies about space and race formations shaped communties of workers in the Baja peninsula. It also examines how indigenous peoples employed various strategies to both resist and adapt to land displacements, and the the migration of Mexican mestizos and transnational workers to the Baja California borderlands.

Author

• Veronica Castillo-Munoz, History Department