Curious Unions: Mexican American Workers and Resistance in Oxnard, California, 1898–1961

1. Early Curious Unions

13 1 EARLY CURIOUS UNIONS Prior to the start of the twentieth century, four distinct yet interwoven cultures occupied the Oxnard Plain: Chumash Muwu, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo American. All conducted commercial activities with communities within and outside the region, exchanges that encouraged cross-cultural unions and adaptation. Change occurred under conditions of mutuality, on the one hand, and of violent coercion, on the other. Spanish colonizers, Mexican settlers, and U.S. conquerors continued a tradition of commercial activity that complicated cross-cultural relationships and begat curious interactions. Prior to the arrival of European interlopers, Muwu praetors assigned an’alak’tsum official to maintain security while large crowds enjoyed music, observed ceremonial performances, and conducted trade. Merchants from Arizona, Baja California, the Los Angeles Basin, the San Joaquin Valley, and Vancouver, British Columbia, traveled by foot and sea to participate in commercial festivals hosted by the Chumash Muwu village on what is today the Oxnard Plain. The Chumash of the Oxnard Plain have been largely erased from the general public’s memory. But the history of this civilization rose from the dead throughout the twentieth century as farmworkers tilled the soil and unearthed the faunal remains and artifacts of the area’s first Americans. The Muwu and their neighbors, the Wenéme, lived a few miles north of 14 early curious unions what is now Port Hueneme. The Ventura County Chumash were referred to as Ventureños after the Spanish mission of San Buenaventura. Many Ventureño rancherias (villages) existed along the Central Coast regions of the Santa Barbara Channel as well as the interior prior to and during the colonization of California by the Spanish.1 The Chumash civilization was one of the largest original populations in California, dating back 5000 to 6000 bce. They lived as far south as Malibu and as far north as San Luis Obispo. A distinction existed among the Chumash between those who occupied the Channel Islands, those who lived on the mainland coast, and those who resided inland.2 Despite this geographic segmentation, Chumash villages were economically interdependent. The Muwu, for example, lived on a lagoon. Chumash residents on the mainland coast traded with the Muwu, whose economy centered on the maritime. The Simo’mo, however, lived further inland and were dependent upon a hybrid economy of fishing, game hunting, and systematic gathering. The Simo’mo abandoned their inland villages around 1250 ce, most likely because drought forced them to migrate to more bountiful areas. The Chumash civilization, however, was not an island unto itself. An intricate system of trade and commerce between the Chumash and commercial representatives of other societies diminished the region’s insularity.3 Itinerant merchants exchanged specialty crops and products not accessible to their respective villages. Inland and mainland coastal Chumash traded food, baskets, and manufactured items derived from game animals. And the island Chumash benefited from the ocean’s bounty and produced ornaments made of fish bones and seashells.4 The Economy Southern California people of this period operated under a pre-capitalist surplus economy that used poncos (strings of rounded and polished olivella shell beads) as currency. Villages with a surplus crop of acorns bartered or accepted poncos from neighboring communities. Participants standardized a system of exchange to facilitate commerce. Trading parties used a system of basket measurement and strings of beads to measure goods. early curious unions 15 And merchants and political leaders of the Oxnard Plain hosted feasts, ceremonial music, and dance to promote these commercial fairs.5 Larger tribelet sites served as cross-cultural hubs that hosted the fiestas of commerce. These events were strategically located among mainland coastal villages between inland and island tribelets. The Muwu of the Oxnard Plain region, renowned as one of Southern California’s important commercial centers, enjoyed significant political influence in the region. Chumash representatives traveled from as far away as San Luis Obispo to conduct trade here, while merchants from other tribes journeyed from locations in the San Fernando Valley, Newhall, Tejon, and as far away as the Pacific Northwest to participate in the Muwu fiestas. They traded artistic and durable basketry, delectable foods, intricate fishing tackle, and premium plank canoes. The technical skill required to produce these specialty products made them highly prized. Chumash women of the Oxnard Plain and the rest of Southern California primarily produced the valued basketry to be sold at the fiestas and used as...