Victoria Perez<\/p>\n

Dr. Shrout<\/p>\n

Hist 571: Directed Readings Seminar<\/p>\n

December 16, 2016<\/p>\n

Final Paper<\/p>\n

Orange County: Integration in the Early Citrus Industry<\/p>\n

Southern California gradually transitioned from a rural region of ranches into a more urban\u00a0setting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This transformation is attributed\u00a0to the establishment of industrial agriculture and, specifically, the citrus industry. Overall, scholars\u00a0studied the citrus industry both in broad and specific terms. Regional and state histories allowed\u00a0them to view citrus as a whole unit that drove the economic development of Southern California\u00a0and the state in general. Historians also compiled case studies about the specific communities\u00a0in early cities, such as those in San Juan Capistrano. Starting from a smaller group of people\u00a0revealed a more personal perspective of the social and cultural changes associated with the\u00a0citrus industry. This paper utilized the latter method in order to contribute to the small, but growing,\u00a0selection of Orange County history.<\/p>\n

In general, historians approached this industry by examining either the institutions or the\u00a0people that contributed to urban development. Understanding citrus from a top-down perspective\u00a0of institutions like the Fruit Exchange or the railroad established the historical background, but it\u00a0left out many people. Scholars responded to this issue in the historiography by shifting the focus\u00a0onto the ordinary people experiencing the region\u2019s development. Histories from this second\u00a0group understood the narrative from the bottom-up. In the last ten years, workers who migrated\u00a0to California became more visible in the historical narrative. While citrus did in fact promote the\u00a0region\u2019s growth, it would not have made such an impact without the daily contribution of people<\/p>\n

Perez 2<\/p>\n

who picked and packaged the citrus. Those workers consisted of migrants from other states and\u00a0countries who created new communities in Southern California. During the early twentieth century,\u00a0immigration and migration influenced the creation of a diverse population and the development\u00a0of the citrus industry. In general, scholars approached community development within\u00a0the context of both local and national migration trends in this period of growth. By working from\u00a0the bottom up, historians eventually established a narrative that attempted to represent more of\u00a0the Southern California population.<\/p>\n

In addition to describing how the state of the field became more inclusive, this paper will\u00a0also explain that the historiography should now focus on cross-gender and cross-ethnic interactions\u00a0in the early Orange County communities. Future research would examine how and why the\u00a0commingling of women and non-Anglos was significant in the make up of the county\u2019s citrus\u00a0workforce. This paper will build on previous histories by using photographs to explain how interactions\u00a0among diverse groups of people affected citrus communities. Historians adding to the\u00a0narrative should not only recognize the diversity within the citrus workforce, but they should\u00a0also realize that those workers transformed the social and cultural environment of the citrus industry.\u00a0Studying these aspects more closely will also develop a history seeking to portray a more\u00a0relatable past for those living and working in a modern and diverse world today.<\/p>\n

Since the growth of Southern California\u2019s citrus industry is multi-faceted, historians tried\u00a0to analyze it in different ways. Theoretical approaches to this subject ranged from economic history\u00a0to cultural history. Specifically, scholars who wrote social and cultural histories of Southern\u00a0California established a more complex story. Historians developed a more dynamic perspective\u00a0when they acknowledged ordinary people\u2019s contributions to growth, instead of describing their<\/p>\n

Perez 3<\/p>\n

impact in brief and general terms. This newer approach from the last ten to twenty years highlighted\u00a0many aspects of Orange County communities, but it also left out other characteristics that\u00a0have yet to be fully realized. Historians described ethnic groups in distinct and separate worlds,\u00a0but they still did not entirely explain one aspect of early integration in the work place. The historical\u00a0debate most related to this discussion deals with this struggle to understand community,\u00a0whether it is viewed as a significant participant or only a minor contributor to the citrus industry.\u00a0How much did immigration or migration play a role in developing Orange County\u2019s communities\u00a0and how should the ordinary person\u2019s story inform its citrus history?<\/p>\n

The historical counterargument to this debate approached the question with considerably\u00a0less focus on people and immigration. It is important to note that these historians published their\u00a0works before, and sometimes around the same time as, other scholars who argued for the other\u00a0side of the debate. Although top-down histories mentioned people, they did not always represent\u00a0every gender or ethnicity that should hold a place in the narrative. Instead, these scholars drew\u00a0attention to major institutions and their leaders in order to create a broader understanding of significant\u00a0changes occurring in Southern California.<\/p>\n

While histories from above provided a good foundation for the narrative, they minimized\u00a0the role of the ordinary person in order to identify general trends in the region\u2019s history. William\u00a0Deverell, in \u201cThe Southern Pacific Railroad Survives the Pullman Strike of 1894,\u201d used this top-down\u00a0approach to explain the power of California\u2019s railroads and its leaders in the midst of labor\u00a0strikes.1 Ronald Tobey and Charles Wetherell used an approach similar to Deverell in \u201cThe Citrus<\/p>\n

1\u00a0 William Deverell, \u201cThe Southern Pacific Railroad Survives the Pullman Strike of 1894.\u201d in Major Problems\u00a0in California History<\/em>. ed. Chan Sucheng and Spencer Olin, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), 183,\u00a0192.<\/p>\n

Perez \u00a04<\/p>\n

Industry and the Revolution of Corporate Capitalism in Southern California, 1887-1944.\u201d\u00a0These three historians did not really consider migration in their analysis of the region\u2019s main factors\u00a0for growth and success. With an impersonal approach to regional expansion, they argued\u00a0from the perspectives of company leaders or citrus growers in general terms.2 Unlike histories\u00a0from below, top-down histories did not emphasize laborers who were unable to make substantial\u00a0profits from the railroad, real estate, or citrus. However, historians did not try to leave people and\u00a0immigration out of the story. Instead, they chose to focus on the structures that allowed the region\u00a0and the citrus industry to flourish. This part of the narrative preceded histories of other people\u00a0and immigrants because it was important to first understand the environment that drew them\u00a0to the state. Yet, histories of institutions were still not complete without the laborers who boosted\u00a0the success of those structures.<\/p>\n

Edward Bachus, in \u201cWho Took the Oranges Out of Orange County?: The Southern California\u00a0Citrus Industry in Transition,\u201d provided another example of how scholars studied community\u00a0in broad terms, rather than in specific examples of cultural development. Bachus, also argued\u00a0for a traditional history of institutions that impacted growth, which included irrigation, the\u00a0railroad, and the Southern California Fruit Exchange. This did not mean that people were not\u00a0present in the history. As Bachus demonstrated, he included people in the history mostly through\u00a0statistics.3 Even though statistics revealed a broad understanding of population growth, they did\u00a0not fully explain aspects of the people\u2019s daily lives. This historical method produced a limited<\/p>\n

2\u00a0 Deverell, \u201cRailroad,\u201d 183-184, 191; Ronald Tobey and Charles Wetherell, \u201cThe Citrus Industry and the\u00a0Revolution of Corporate Capitalism in Southern California, 1887-1944.\u201d California History<\/em>\u00a0 74, no. 1 (1995), 9-10,\u00a015, 19.<\/p>\n

3\u00a0 Edward J. Bachus, \u201cWho Took the Oranges Out of Orange County?: The Southern California Citrus Industry\u00a0in Transition.\u201d Southern California Quarterly<\/em>\u00a063, no. 2 (1981): 157-73, 160, 164-167, 170.<\/p>\n

Perez 5<\/p>\n

perspective that was not inclusive and descriptive enough as a top-down approach. Bacchus and\u00a0other similar-minded historians recognized ordinary people but did not give them a central role.\u00a0Since they did not focus on immigration, the history lost a sense of who the non-elite of the\u00a0community were and their own experiences.<\/p>\n

This left room for subsequent scholars to write social and cultural histories that added a\u00a0personal element to the citrus industry. These scholars considered the alternative perspective to\u00a0the debate in favor of the community\u2019s influence on the citrus industry. As a reminder, the main\u00a0question was how much should immigration or migration play a role in developing Orange\u00a0County communities and should the ordinary person\u2019s story inform the citrus history?<\/p>\n

Some scholars identified the impact of people who migrated to Southern California and the\u00a0United States in general. They argued that it was the labor force, which drove the citrus industry\u2019s\u00a0growth. Hal Barron supported this perspective in his article, \u201cCitriculture and Southern California:\u00a0New Historical Perspectives.\u201d He recognized that labor history was a \u201ccritical factor\u201d to\u00a0understanding the region\u2019s diversity.4 In the same way, James Barrett argued, in \u201cAmericanization\u00a0from the Bottom-Up,\u201d that national migration history should be viewed from the perspective\u00a0of marginalized laborers and immigrants.5 This method allowed him to explain how diverse\u00a0groups developed into interconnected communities on a national level. These bottom-up interpretations\u00a0demonstrated that ordinary migrants and laborers should be viewed as central and significant.\u00a0A history that started with migrants gave new agency to those people and turned it into a<\/p>\n

4\u00a0 Hal S. Barron. \u201cCitriculture and Southern California: New Historical Perspectives.\u201d California History<\/em>\u00a074, no. 1 (1995): 3.<\/p>\n

5\u00a0 James R. Barrett, \u201cAmericanization from the Bottom Up: Immigration and the Remaking of the Working\u00a0Class in the United States, 1880-1930.\u201d The Journal of American History<\/em>, Vol. 79, No. 3, (Dec. 1992), 997-998,\u00a01020.<\/p>\n

Perez 6<\/p>\n

more relatable story. They showed that migrants were far from passive characters in the history;\u00a0rather, they actively made decisions to move to the United States and find work in California.<\/p>\n

Other scholars analyzed immigration through the lens of the \u201cCalifornia Dream\u201d and efforts\u00a0to establish communities in the state. Kevin Starr\u2019s Americans and the California Dream<\/em>\u00a0discussed \u201cthe imaginative aspects of California\u2019s journey to identity\u201d by studying how settlers\u00a0created and sought after their ideas of the California Dream.6 Many people pursued this dream\u00a0but economic success came mostly to those who had power, money, or land. In Freedom\u2019s Frontier:\u00a0California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction<\/em>, Stacey\u00a0Smith offered a broader analysis on the state\u2019s labor and slavery history during the 1800s by\u00a0connecting them to similar national developments. Smith and Starr utilized the immigration\u00a0theme to show how California\u2019s migrant population influenced the state\u2019s development.7 A variety\u00a0of people came to the state in pursuit of the dream, but those opportunities were not available\u00a0to everyone. Smith\u2019s argument brought particular attention to misconceptions about labor practices\u00a0in the state. These works portrayed specific aspects of migration and labor during the nineteenth\u00a0century that laid the groundwork for the social and cultural changes in the next century.<\/p>\n

Immigration provided a useful, but complicated, approach for historians who wrote history\u00a0that included ordinary people. Both Douglas Sackman\u2019s Orange Empire<\/em> and Smith\u2019s book built\u00a0upon Starr\u2019s history by placing either enslaved or migrant laborers next to other privileged,<\/p>\n

6\u00a0 Kevin Starr, Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915<\/em>.\u00a0 (New York: Oxford University Press,\u00a01973), vii.<\/p>\n

7\u00a0 Stacey Smith, Freedom\u2019s Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and\u00a0Reconstruction<\/em>. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013), 4; Starr, Americans , 415-444.<\/p>\n

Perez 7<\/p>\n

wealthy Californians.8 Sackman appeared to be in the middle \u00a0of the historical debate because he\u00a0emphasized the citrus corporations\u2019 marketing as a significant growth factor. However, he also\u00a0recognized the role of migrant workers. Samuel Truett, in Fugitive Landscapes<\/em>, is in conversation\u00a0with Sackman as another scholar of the West. Truett identified immigrants and native peoples\u00a0as key contributors to the Southwest borderlands\u2019 development.9 Even though his work did\u00a0not specifically refer to California history or citrus, his methodology is still applicable to those\u00a0histories that are about the community development of Orange Country. Personal examples in\u00a0these histories presented a complex and authentic perspective of community life. Starting with\u00a0people to trace the region\u2019s development allowed historians to give a voice to community members,\u00a0whose work directly affected the growth.<\/p>\n

When people appeared in the narrative, California historians studied them as Anglo or\u00a0non-Anglo groups in their separate worlds, even though they lived or worked in the same cities.\u00a0Histories by Sackman, Starr, and also Stephen Gould identified key figures, often men, who\u00a0shaped communities. However, scholars, such as Stephen O\u2019Neil, Lisbeth Haas, and Gilbert G.\u00a0Gonzalez, also identified Mexicans and women as important members of the community.\u00a0Stephen Gould in \u201cOrange County Before It Was A County\u201d and Stephen O\u2019Neil in \u201cThe Role of\u00a0Colonias In Orange County\u201d made general assumptions about communities by drawing examples<\/p>\n

8\u00a0 Smith, Freedom\u2019s Frontier<\/em>, 5-6; Douglas Cazaux Sackman, Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of\u00a0Eden<\/em>\u00a0(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 8, 123-153, 176-177, 225-261.<\/p>\n

9\u00a0 Samuel Truett. Fugitive Landscapes: The Forgotten History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.<\/em>\u00a0(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 129.<\/p>\n

Perez 8<\/p>\n

either from elite Anglo families or minority enclaves.10 Lizbeth Haas\u2019 \u201cSan Juan Capistrano: A\u00a0Rural Society in Transition to Citrus\u201d provided examples of men and women who experienced\u00a0the growing disparities between the Anglos and the californios and Indians in San Juan Capistrano\u00a0at the turn of the century. She explained that the city\u2019s transition away from subsistence farming\u00a0and towards industrial agricultural created more segregated urban spaces, such as the workplace,\u00a0that did not exist in the previously non-Anglo dominated rural period.11 Gilbert G. Gonzalez\u00a0referred to cross-ethnic interactions, but he only briefly mentioned them in his article entitled\u00a0\u201cWomen, Work, and Community in the Mexican Colonias of the Southern California Citrus\u00a0Belt.\u201d12 Historical methods that separated ethnicities or emphasized a certain group ensured that\u00a0people were not left out. Yet, they also created a limited understanding of integrated interactions\u00a0in the rest of the community.<\/p>\n

Three scholars\u2019 specific analysis of gender roles and ethnicity established a good starting\u00a0point for future interventions in Orange County history. They included Gonzalez, Margo\u00a0McBane, and Truett. Gonzalez argued that Mexican women who worked in the packing houses\u00a0also formed social and cultural identities in the colonias, or segregated communities.13 He portrayed\u00a0Mexican women more as important members of their own society and made only a few\u00a0connections to their roles in the city they lived in. By contrast, Margo McBane\u2019s article, \u201cThe<\/p>\n

10\u00a0 Stephen Gould, \u201cOrange County Before It Was A County,\u201d Proceedings of the Conference of Orange\u00a0County History, 1988<\/em>. edited by Robert A. Slayton and Leland L. Estes, (Orange: Chapman College, 1989), 84-88;\u00a0Stephen O\u2019Neil, \u201cThe Role of Colonias In Orange County,\u201d Proceedings of the Conference of Orange County History,\u00a01988<\/em>. edited by Robert A. Slayton and Leland L. Estes, (Orange: Chapman College, 1989),\u00a0 114-115.<\/p>\n

11\u00a0 Lisbeth Haas, \u201cSan Juan Capistrano: A Rural Society in Transition to Citrus.\u201d California History<\/em>\u00a0 74, no.\u00a01 (1995): 48-51, 56.<\/p>\n

12\u00a0 Gilbert G. Gonzalez, \u201cWomen, Work, and Community in the Mexican Colonias of the Southern\u00a0California Citrus Belt.\u201d California History<\/em>\u00a0 74, no. 1 (1995): 64-66.<\/p>\n

13\u00a0 Gonzalez, \u201cWomen, Work, and Community,\u201d 58, 60, 64-66.<\/p>\n

Perez 9<\/p>\n

Role of Gender in Citrus Employment,\u201d explained how the labor force of Ventura County\u2019s\u00a0Limoneira Company included men, women, and multiple ethnicities. Although she identified\u00a0segregated housing in this California community, the workforce was still integrated in the first\u00a0half of the twentieth century.14 However, this particular case happened outside of Orange County.\u00a0Truett also provided a good model for a dynamic cross-ethnic history when he gave agency to\u00a0the various people living in the diverse Southwest borderland communities.15 McBane and\u00a0Truett\u2019s approaches to their histories are applicable to the farm and city life within Orange County.<\/p>\n

Despite the existence of segregation in Orange County, there needs to be more historical\u00a0analysis on commingling among different genders and ethnicities as it related to migration. This\u00a0would recreate a complex and dynamic view of those communities. For example, historical photographs\u00a0of Orange County citrus workers suggested that Anglos and non-Anglos worked in the\u00a0same spaces, rather than being separated into two places. When future scholars give more attention\u00a0to this diversity, the interpretation of community life will change from a narrative focused on\u00a0segregation to one that will now consider the integration of men, women, and minorities in Orange\u00a0County history.<\/p>\n

Overall, there was a historiographical turn around the 1990s towards more of a social and\u00a0cultural history of California\u2019s growth. Rather than viewing the history mainly through major\u00a0institutions and themes like the railroad or the \u201cCalifornia Dream,\u201d scholars reconstructed the\u00a0story to shift the focus onto ordinary people and the spaces they inhabited. Yet, the historiography<\/p>\n

14\u00a0 Margo McBane, \u201cThe Role of Gender in Citrus Employment: A Case Study of Recruitment, Labor, and\u00a0Housing Patterns at the Limoneira Company, 1893 to 1940.\u201d California History<\/em>\u00a0 74, no. 1 (1995): 69, 73, 76, 78-81.<\/p>\n

15\u00a0 Truett, Fugitive Landscapes<\/em>, 7-9, 30, 108, 140.<\/p>\n

Perez 10<\/p>\n

still lacked analysis that connected all of the types of people associated with the citrus industry\u00a0in Orange County. Scholars considered each of these individuals on their own, but further research\u00a0needs to examine how those individuals worked together as a diverse whole to establish\u00a0the community. It is necessary to study the relationships between community leaders, non-Anglo\u00a0workers, and women workers, to name a few, to understand the dynamic growth of the region.\u00a0This move towards greater complexity in citrus history will provide a relevant connection between\u00a0an old historical instance of integration and the increasingly diverse modern world.<\/p>\n

Photographs of packing house workers in Orange County will help historians establish\u00a0the complex story of integrated work spaces. So far in Southern California citrus history, historians\u00a0identified railroad corporate leaders, citrus growers, and citrus workers as important individuals.16\u00a0While some historians gave Anglo men credit \u00a0for developing the citrus industry, others,\u00a0like McBane, recognized the substantial role of women in the citrus work force.17 One photograph\u00a0from the city of Orange, entitled David Hewes’ Packing House Interior With Workers, ca.\u00a01905<\/em>, depicted the direct role of women in the early years of the industry.18 During the 1900s, the\u00a0need for workers in this growing industry encouraged not only American, but also Mexican migration\u00a0to the area.19 Another photograph in 1933 Irvine, Employees of the Irvine Valencia Growers\u00a0Packing House, revealed that over time more Mexicans worked alongside Anglo men and\u00a0women in the packing environment. Both photos are in the archive of the Orange Public Library<\/p>\n

16\u00a0 Deverell, \u201cRailroad,\u201d 191-192; Tobey and Wetherell, \u201cCorporate Capitalism,\u201d 8, 17; Bachus,\u00a0\u201cOranges,\u201d 161-165.<\/p>\n

17\u00a0 McBane, \u201cThe Role of Gender in Citrus Employment,\u201d 69-70.<\/p>\n

18 David Hewes’ Packing House Interior With Workers, ca. 1905<\/em>.\u00a0 1905. Orange Public Library Collection,\u00a0Orange Public Library and History Center, Orange, CA.<\/p>\n

19 O\u2019Neil, \u201cThe Role of Colonias In Orange County,\u201d Proceedings,\u00a0 114-115.<\/p>\n

Perez 11<\/p>\n

Collection. With these images, I identified who was in the picture and the genders and ethnicities\u00a0represented in them. Using a bottom-up approach, I analyzed how immigration affected packing\u00a0house workers and how those workers also impacted the citrus industry. These two photos suggested\u00a0that the historical narrative should incorporate the diversity of citrus workers into a more\u00a0cross-gender and cross-ethnic view of the Orange County citrus industry.<\/p>\n

Since the Hewes<\/em>\u2019 picture came from 1905, it represented the early years of the county\u2019s\u00a0citrus industry. It captured three Anglo men and eight Anglo women posing next to tables and\u00a0crates filled with lemons and other produce at the El Modena packing house in Orange, California.\u00a0The crates in the foreground held produce that was unprocessed, while a few boxes in the\u00a0background looked already packed.20 In general, Sackman explained that Anglo women occupied\u00a0about half of the packing house jobs by 1913 and their numbers grew from then on. Women may\u00a0have worked in the packing houses, but they were often characterized as symbolic figures in citrus\u00a0advertising. In addition to using efficient packing methods, workers needed to use great care\u00a0in packaging citrus that was shipped throughout the United States. Because citrus growers\u00a0viewed Anglo women as having a more \u201cnurturing touch,\u201d they did not initially hire Mexican\u00a0women around this time.21 The Hewes\u2019<\/em> picture supported Sackman\u2019s analysis because it showed\u00a0that both men and women worked in packing houses together in 1905. This early photo displayed\u00a0cross-gender Anglo work spaces before the later inclusion of non-Anglo workers.<\/p>\n

Why did the Hewes\u2019<\/em> photographer choose these people for the image? It is interesting\u00a0that the photographer stood further back to include men, women, and produce crates in the picture.<\/p>\n

20 David Hewes’ Packing House Interior With Workers, ca. 1905<\/em>.<\/p>\n

21\u00a0 Sackman, Orange Empire<\/em>,\u00a0 89-92, 146-151.<\/p>\n

Perez 12<\/p>\n

The women also wore long dresses or skirts that must have made it challenging to do their\u00a0work.22 Perhaps the photo was an advertisement that emphasized the able-bodied men required to\u00a0move heavy crates for the women, the nurturing and orderly-looking women to handle the fruit,\u00a0and the company\u2019s abundant amount of fruit. Citrus workers in this photo might not have had the\u00a0right to consent to the picture. Maybe the packing house owner, David Hewes, expected them to\u00a0agree to it or maybe they wanted their picture taken at a time when it was not so common. According\u00a0to this 1905 image, women had the opportunity to work in a public environment outside\u00a0of the private sphere of the home. It was also an example of them working alongside men in a\u00a0packing house. Considering gender roles, women still appeared to remain under the men\u2019s authority\u00a0and the physical constraints created by their clothing. Although women had these limitations,\u00a0one consequence of this photo was that it portrayed women in a more public and social setting.\u00a0Because the photographer took this particular shot, the result was an image that preserved a\u00a0record of their role as citrus laborers contributing to the economy.<\/p>\n

While the Hewes’ <\/em>photograph exemplified one working environment in Orange, I also\u00a0found the Employees<\/em> photo among several citrus worker images from the library\u2019s archive. The\u00a0Hewes\u2019<\/em> photo showed mostly Anglo women, but other photographs identified a variety of people\u00a0that included men, women, Anglos, and Mexicans working in packing houses and the fields. I\u00a0chose these two images from different decades in order to examine how the labor force changed\u00a0over time during the development of the Orange County citrus industry.<\/p>\n

The Employees<\/em> photo from 1933 represented a distinct ethnic shift among the packing\u00a0house workers. It showed presumably all seventy workers at an Irvine packing site and the<\/p>\n

22 David Hewes’ Packing House Interior With Workers, ca. 1905<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perez 13<\/p>\n

archival record identified almost all of people in the photo. Of the fifty-two women workers sitting\u00a0down, several were Hispanic. One of the eighteen men was also Hispanic.23 By the 1930s,\u00a0around 35,000 laborers, including women, came from Mexican families that formed their own\u00a0villages in Southern California.24 It is possible that the pictured non-Anglos, or Hispanics, came\u00a0from ethnic backgrounds of either Mexican, Spanish californio, or Indian heritage. However, it is\u00a0also important to note that non-Anglos could now work in the packing house, a place where they\u00a0could not work earlier on. Sackman\u2019s history described that workers of various ethnicities came\u00a0to California, but he did not really elaborate on how they worked together.25 Overall, this photograph\u00a0suggested that a diverse group of laborers eventually became associated with the citrus industry\u00a0by the 1930s.<\/p>\n

What was the second photographer\u2019s reason for choosing these people for the same picture\u00a0and organizing them in a certain way? It is fascinating that all of the people, except two,\u00a0were separated by gender but not by ethnicity. The two men in the front row wore nicer clothes;\u00a0so, they might have been the managers or owners of the packing house. The women sat in three\u00a0rows, the men stood behind them, and the work tables were not clearly visible. The women also\u00a0wore shorter, more practical dresses.26 Even though the photo distinguished between men and\u00a0women, the small and practical changes to the women\u2019s clothing showed that gender roles became\u00a0less constricting by the 1930s. The people might have consented to be in the photo because<\/p>\n

23 Employees of the Irvine Valencia Growers Packing House.<\/em>\u00a0 1933. Orange Public Library Collection, Orange\u00a0Public Library and History Center, Orange, CA.<\/p>\n

24\u00a0 Gonzalez, \u201cWomen, Work, and Community,\u201d 58.<\/p>\n

25\u00a0 Sackman, Orange Empire<\/em>, 127-135.<\/p>\n

26 Employees of the Irvine Valencia Growers Packing House<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perez 14<\/p>\n

they had to. On the other hand, maybe everyone wanted to be in the picture with their friends,\u00a0which would explain why Anglo and non-Anglo women sat together, rather than separately.<\/p>\n

Another consequence of the photo was that it suggested citrus employers eventually hired\u00a0more Mexicans for the skilled positions. It represented what the workforce possibly looked like\u00a0when Mexicans consisted of fourteen percent of Orange County\u2019s population after 1930.27 Based\u00a0on the historical narrative, this example of a multi-ethnic environment did not entirely fit with\u00a0previous scholars\u2019 interpretation of the citrus industry. The two ethnicities perhaps lived in different\u00a0parts of the city, but, by reading against the grain, one purpose of the Employees photo\u00a0might be to demonstrate the diversity among citrus packers. This image indicated that the historical\u00a0field should consider this and other early instances of labor integration in their understanding\u00a0of Orange County. Diversity is now a common occurrence in the United States, but this photo\u00a0proved that integration existed as early as the county\u2019s citrus industry during the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Because almost thirty years separated the two photos, they displayed many significant\u00a0differences. All of the individuals in Hewes\u2019<\/em> were Anglo compared to the second one that had a\u00a0mix of Anglo and Hispanic workers. There were also more workers in the second picture. This\u00a0might have been because all the workers were available to pose for the photograph, but it also\u00a0made sense because the booming citrus industry needed a larger workforce by the 1930s. It is\u00a0possible that previous historians did not write about non-Anglos because those people did not\u00a0always have the same opportunities. For example, San Juan Capistrano\u2019s californios struggled to\u00a0diversify their investments when agriculture became more industrialized around the turn of the<\/p>\n

27\u00a0 O\u2019Neil, \u201cThe Role of Colonias in Orange County,\u201d Proceedings<\/em>, 115.<\/p>\n

Perez 15<\/p>\n

century. On the other hand, Anglos moving to the area had money to invest in the land.28 What\u00a0the Hewes\u2019<\/em> photo did not show in 1905 were the growing amount of immigrant Mexican field\u00a0workers picking the produce seen in the packing house.29 Although the Employees photo came\u00a0later, it portrayed a more integrated group of people. This integration occurred over time, most\u00a0likely because more Mexicans migrated to Southern California by then. The images provided a\u00a0visual representation of how immigration contributed to the diverse community in Orange County.<\/p>\n

These photos enhanced the historian\u2019s view of migration, which played a significant role\u00a0in the histories of Southern California and the United States. Americans attempted to fulfill their\u00a0ideal dreams, with mixed results. They sought after ideas such as connecting back to nature, a\u00a0return to health, happiness, and \u201cself-fulfillment.\u201d These were not always possible once they\u00a0started living in the state.30 For foreigners, life had its own challenges. Immigrants to the United\u00a0States attempted to maintain their own cultures in the midst of Americanization. Barrett explained\u00a0that others viewed \u201cAmericanization\u201d as the \u201csocial control\u201d of immigrants, but he referred\u00a0it as the immigrant\u2019s adaptive process to their new situation.31 Both American migrants\u00a0and Mexican immigrants hoped to establish new lives in the United States. By connecting Barrett\u2019s\u00a0theme to Truett\u2019s related discussion of agency and adaptability, the citrus community also\u00a0appeared to adapt to their working environments.32 Specifically, as more Mexicans moved to<\/p>\n

28\u00a0 Haas, \u201cSan Juan Capistrano,\u201d 48, 50-51, 54.<\/p>\n

29\u00a0 O\u2019Neil, \u201cThe Role of Colonias in Orange County,\u201d Proceedings<\/em>, 115.<\/p>\n

30\u00a0 Starr, Americans<\/em>, 434-444.<\/p>\n

31\u00a0 Barrett, \u201cAmericanization from the Bottom Up,\u201d 997.<\/p>\n

32\u00a0 Truett, Fugitive Landscapes<\/em>, 29-30, 129-130.<\/p>\n

Perez 16<\/p>\n

Southern California, they met the labor needs of the citrus industry. Perhaps, packing house\u00a0owners adapted to the demographic shift by allowing managers to hire more non-Anglos and fill\u00a0the need. The two packing house pictures supported a more complex view of the past where\u00a0workers adapted to the hard work and employers also adapted to demographic changes in the\u00a0community.<\/p>\n

Examining two packing house photos demonstrated that not all twentieth century workers\u00a0in came from one gender or ethnic group. Rather, the Orange County work force included a mix\u00a0of people working together to pack citrus boxes. Women and Mexicans had the opportunities to\u00a0become active and vital members of the citrus community. These individuals were much like\u00a0Truett\u2019s Americans, Spaniards, and Mexicans who created \u201chybrid spaces\u201d in the Southwest copper\u00a0borderlands during the same time period. 33 The photographs also provided an example of an\u00a0increase in \u201cwage labor\u201d in the citrus industry.34 Men and women of different races received\u00a0wages and contributed to the success of the citrus industry in their shared work spaces. Previous\u00a0historians studied different gender and ethnic groups separately in the citrus industry. So, it was\u00a0surprising that primary sources pointed out that Anglos and non-Anglos worked in the same\u00a0places. This discovery might lead to other examples of integration for historians to research. If\u00a0they worked along side each other in the packing houses, then were there any other integrated\u00a0community spaces at that time, such as churches? Photographs portray aspects of society not always\u00a0shown in the written record. In this case, they provided a more complicated view of social\u00a0and cultural integration within Orange County.<\/p>\n

33\u00a0 Truett. Fugitive Landscapes,\u00a0 22-23, 43, 120, 140.<\/p>\n

34\u00a0 Haas, \u201cSan Juan Capistrano,\u201d 47, 54-56.<\/p>\n

Perez 17<\/p>\n

In addition to photos, there are many other primary sources associated with Orange\u00a0County\u2019s citrus industry. Two relevant archives are the Center for Oral and Public History at California\u00a0State University, Fullerton, and the Orange Public Library Collection. Photos, oral histories,\u00a0and newspaper articles from these collections will be useful to reconstruct the integrated\u00a0communities of the citrus industry. With these sources, historians might utilize more of a bottom-up\u00a0approach to Orange County\u2019s early community life to discover other aspects, like the interactions\u00a0between people of different genders and ethnicities. For instance, Gonzalez and Haas included\u00a0photos of Mexican colonias and citrus workers in their articles to provide visual evidence\u00a0of those people\u2019s active roles in the community. 35 Future scholarship should build on their analysis\u00a0by considering what other available photos described about the social dynamics among workers.\u00a0Community interaction and the integration of non-Anglos and Anglos were not well-represented\u00a0in Orange County history, which is a possible future direction for the existing historiography.<\/p>\n

Although photographs add another dimension to the story, it will be helpful to include\u00a0different types of primary sources, such as oral histories or newspaper articles. Pictures described\u00a0what the community looked like, but they make it difficult to determine how that cross-gender\u00a0and cross-ethnic integration happened. Interviews will offer another personal perspective similar\u00a0to the packinghouse photographs. In particular, the Anglo oral histories on Orange\u2019s early growth\u00a0portrayed their understanding of life at the turn of the century that is useful for comparison with\u00a0other sources. Interviews and newspapers will reveal how people from that time period remembered\u00a0or explained community interaction. They will also provide insight into parts of the community<\/p>\n

35\u00a0 Gonzalez, \u201cWomen, Work and Community,\u201d 60, 63, 67; Haas, \u201cSan Juan Capistrano,\u201d 53, 55, 57.<\/p>\n

Perez 18<\/p>\n

aside from packinghouses and orchards. This primary source evidence will enhance the\u00a0historical record because it will present a more complex perspective of Southern Californian\u00a0community life.<\/p>\n

The history of the citrus industry considered several approaches and themes in order to\u00a0fully comprehend its significance. Historians analyzed the implications of institutions and the\u00a0people who supported them in Southern California. They also demonstrated that immigration is\u00a0one of the main factors for the success of the citrus industry and the development of Orange\u00a0County. The ordinary person entered the historiography more recently in a way that is more inclusive\u00a0of everyone in the community. However, the historical narrative did not yet have enough\u00a0analysis regarding integration in Orange County. Photographs from a local archive presented this\u00a0cross-gender and cross-ethnic view of labor, especially in the 1930s. It is crucial to acknowledge\u00a0the laborers in the story, but it is even more important to identify social and cultural developments\u00a0among the laborers themselves. The success of the citrus industry may have influenced\u00a0migration, but, in return, the industry had to adapt its standards to accept the increasingly diverse\u00a0Orange County citrus workers in the early twentieth century. Future researchers should consider\u00a0both sides of this adaptability and agency in the story of Southern California communities as\u00a0they continue to debate the significance of the citrus industry.<\/p>\n

Perez 19<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/p>\n

Bachus, Edward J. \u201cWho Took the Oranges Out of Orange County?: The Southern California \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Citrus Industry in Transition.\u201d Southern California Quarterly<\/em> 63, no. 2 (1981): 157-73.<\/p>\n

Barrett, James R. \u201cAmericanization from the Bottom Up: Immigration and the Remaking of the\u00a0Working Class in the United States, 1880-1930.\u201d The Journal of American History<\/em>, Vol.\u00a079, No. 3, Discovering America: A Special Issue (Dec. 1992), 996-1020.<\/p>\n

Barron, Hal S. \u201cCitriculture and Southern California: New Historical Perspectives.\u201d California\u00a0History<\/em> 74, no. 1 (1995): 2-5.<\/p>\n

David Hewes’ Packing House Interior With Workers, ca. 1905<\/em>. 1905. Orange Public Library\u00a0Collection, Orange Public Library and History Center, Orange, CA.\u00a0http:\/\/history.cityoforange.org\/awweb\/main.jsp?flag=browse&smd=1&awdid=16<\/p>\n

Deverell, William. \u201cThe Southern Pacific Railroad Survives the Pullman Strike of 1894.\u201d An\u00a0essay in Major Problems in California History: Documents and Essays<\/em>. ed. by Chan\u00a0Sucheng and Spencer Olin. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1997.<\/p>\n

Employees of the Irvine Valencia Growers Packing House.<\/em> 1933. Orange Public Library\u00a0Collection, Orange Public Library and History Center, Orange, CA.\u00a0http:\/\/history.cityoforange.org\/awweb\/main.jsp?&awdid=3&smd=1&flag=browse<\/p>\n

Gonzalez, Gilbert G. \u201cWomen, Work, and Community in the Mexican Colonias of the Southern\u00a0California Citrus Belt.\u201d California History<\/em> 74, no. 1 (1995): 58-67.<\/p>\n

Perez 20<\/p>\n

Gould, Stephen. \u201cOrange County Before It Was A County.\u201d Proceedings of the Conference of\u00a0Orange County History, 1988<\/em>. edited by Robert A. Slayton and Leland L. Estes. Orange:\u00a0Chapman College, 1989.<\/p>\n

Haas, Lisbeth. \u201cSan Juan Capistrano: A Rural Society in Transition to Citrus.\u201d California\u00a0History<\/em> 74, no. 1 (1995): 46-57.<\/p>\n

McBane, Margo. \u201cThe Role of Gender in Citrus Employment: A Case Study of Recruitment,\u00a0Labor, and Housing Patterns at the Limoneira Company, 1893 to 1940.\u201d California\u00a0History<\/em> 74, no. 1 (1995): 68-81.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil, Stephen. \u201cThe Role of Colonias In Orange County.\u201d Proceedings of the Conference of\u00a0Orange County History, 1988<\/em>. edited by Robert A. Slayton and Leland L. Estes. Orange:\u00a0Chapman College, 1989.<\/p>\n

Sackman, Douglas Cazaux. Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of Eden<\/em>. Berkeley:\u00a0University of California Press, 2005.<\/p>\n

Smith, Stacey L. Freedom\u2019s Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor,\u00a0Emancipation, and Reconstruction<\/em>. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,\u00a02013. Ebook.<\/p>\n

Starr, Kevin. Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915<\/em>. New York: Oxford University\u00a0Press, 1973.<\/p>\n

Tobey, Ronald, and Charles Wetherell. \u201cThe Citrus Industry and the Revolution of Corporate \u00a0 Capitalism in Southern California, 1887-1944.\u201d California History<\/em> 74, no. 1 (1995): 6-21.\u00a0http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/25177466.<\/p>\n

Truett, Samuel. Fugitive Landscapes: The Forgotten History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands<\/em>.\u00a0New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victoria Perez Dr. Shrout Hist 571: Directed Readings Seminar December 16, 2016 Final Paper Orange County: Integration in the Early Citrus Industry Southern California gradually transitioned from a rural region of ranches into a more urban\u00a0setting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This transformation is attributed\u00a0to the establishment of industrial agriculture and, specifically, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":924,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions\/924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}