Immigration into the United States

The date was 15 August 1914. Juan Dominguez and Maria Marquez exchanged vows in the Catholic Church parish of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico.

He was 25 years old an a day laborer at the Rancho Obligado. His parents were Vincente Dominguez and Felipa Martinez who had died on 5 February 1902. He was restless and wanted more for their lives. I think, to be brutally homest, he wanted more for his life.

Maria was 16 years old and lived within Rancho Obligado. Her mother was Aurelia Marquez. No name for her father is recorded although her death certificated names him as Francisco Perez. Family history suggests that Aurelia who was a servant in the main house was sexually abused and Maria was the result of the relationship.

North to El Dorado

"Over the Mountains of the Moon, down the Valley of the Shadow, ride, boldly ride…if you seek for El Dorado." Edgar Allen Poe

Mexico in the late 1800s and the early decades of the 1900s was experiencing great change and turmoil. Porfirio Díaz (president from 1876 - 1911) took communally owned land (ejidos) and sold it to large corporations. Many campesinos or rural farmers were forced into low wage work. Mexico’s population increased 50% between 1875 and 1910. This resulted in a labor surplus, inflation and depressed wages. In addition the Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1920) induced many people and families to move.

The pull of the United State for many Mexicans migrants were many. There was the rapidly developing agricultural region of the American southwest. Viable irrigation systems created booms in cotton, citrus and beet farming. The need for the labor of harvest was met by thousands of migrants. They sought the higher wages and political stability of America. During the first three decades of the 20th century the immigrant labor pool became indispensable.

22 year old Gaspar Dominguez along with his wife and infant son entered the United States on October 5, 1916. They had traveled, most likely by train, from Mexican state of Zacatecas to El Paso, Texas. Eight months later he was working with Southwestern Railway in Pelea, New Mexico.