One Year Ago

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Venice, CA. 9 Jan 2025.

Two photos, one of orange skies taken at Venice Beach, and another following take off from LAX showing the smoldering Santa Monica Mountains north of the city. It's been a year since the horrible fires in LA.

Photo by Patrick Jones. LA from above. 10 Jan 2025.

A gap in the timeline

 

Ancestry. Ures, Sonora. 30 Aug 1880.

Manuel Portillo Sr died in the town of Ures, Sonora, Mexico in August 1880. According to the civil registration record above, his wife Maria Bernal was from (or living in) Hermosillo. My 2nd-great-grandfather Manuel Portillo Jr would have been about 21 at that time, and would have been expected to take on support for the surviving family. His younger brother Alejandro would have been almost 14 years old.

The next record I have for Alejandro is the baptism of daughter Maria Luisa Portillo in Hermosillo listing her birth date as 14 April 1907. By then, Alejandro was 41. That's a huge gap in time between Alejandro's own birth record from 1866, and his next appearance in the records (or at least the ones currently available to me).

The Sonora Railway line to Nogales opened in 1882, creating a connection from the US border to the Mexican port of Guaymas, Sonora. Another rail connection linked Guaymas to Culiacan, Sinaloa along Mexico's western coast. Trade was significant between Guaymas and Mazatlan, Sinaloa by sea, and it is possible workers would have moved between the two ports, or between Hermosillo, Culiacan and Mazatlan at this time. In 1888, there was a steam railway linking Culiacan to the port of Altata, Sinaloa, and this would have been a stop on the route north to Guaymas.

Google Maps.

I have another post to follow describing the hypotheses based on the WATO results with Jarrett using the tools at DNAPainter, before I shift to another research question for a few weeks. There's also another Portillo branch or two to cover that links into the Leyva DNA matches.

More pieces of the puzzle

 

Arizona Republic, 10 Feb 1921.

Cotton is historically important in Arizona and has long been a key product for the state. Pima cotton is a particular varietal, and the name of Pima County (where Tucson is located). The clipping from the article above describes complications in 1921 between Arizona cotton growers, who relied on Mexican labor to pick cotton, and labor groups supporting the workers to ensure proper pay and transportation for their efforts. The article notes the involvement of the Latin protective league, the Liga Protectora Latina, in the discussions between the cotton growers association, Mexican labor groups in Nogales, and the Mexican government. 

Yesterday I wrote about Alejandro Portillo and his work as a laborer for Salt Valley cotton growers in 1918. He was among the many Mexican laborers working for cotton growers at this time. From the records it also looks like Flora Escobar and daughter Trinidad Leyva were working in Glendale, Arizona in 1920 through the Arizona Cotton Growers Association. Flora appears on a manifest from 4 October 1922 (source FamilySearch) to enter the US with her daughter Trinidad, and grandchildren Inez and Ignacio (who are curiously listed in the manifest as Inez and Ignacio Silva). The record confirms they were in Phoenix between 26 July 1920 and 22 January 1921, and their passage was paid by the Arizona Cotton Growers Association.

FamilySearch. 4 Oct 1922.

Trinidad delivered a daughter, Rosalva, in Culiacan, Sinaloa, in September 1921. The family, including mother Flora, returned to Phoenix again in September 1923. There are some mispellings (and mis-entries) on the names in these records. I'm not clear why Flora is listed as Flora Escobar vda Silva (widow of Silva) in the 1922 record, but I have figured out where the Silva name comes from. This was also a mystery in Trinidad's 1941 border crossing record, where she listed her cousin Amalia Silva as a contact.

Flora's sister, Fidencia Escobar, married Jose Silva. Fidencia's son Jose listed Aunt Flora Escobar as a contact in his border crossing record from 1930.

In the 1930 US Census, Jose and his mother Fidencia are living next door to sister Amalia, her husband Jesus Bayardo, and their children in Indio, Riverside County, California. This gives us a better picture of Flora's family connections living in California and more names to check against the border crossing manifests. While Coachella, California is well known today for music festivals, in the 1930s this valley was known for its date farming, grapes, other fruits, vegetables and cotton. The Escobars were working as farm laborers in Coachella.

At some point they moved to Mexico and the fluid border area around Mexicali. Fidencia crossed into the US in 1940 and named her daughter Amalia Escobar de Ballardo (Bayardo) as her contact in Mexicali, Mexico. This is near area where Trinidad and her children were living in Calexico, California, just over the border.

Ancestry. 1940 US Census. Calexico, CA.

A laborer's ID card

 

FamilySearch. 1918.

Here's another migration record from FamilySearch, showing the alien agricultural laborer's identification card for Alejandro Portillo. This was used to cross the border at Nogales, Arizona in 1918. The reverse shows this card was stamped by the Salt River Valley Egyptian Cotton Growers Association. This is part of the Arizona Cotton Growers Association, which still exists today.

Another card from the set (see above) shows Alejandro as 52 years old in 1918, which would match the birth year 1866 from the Sonoran records. It isn't clear if Alejandro worked on cotton fields associated with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, but this article includes some photos and history on cotton production in the same area where Alejandro could have worked.

Revisiting Alejandro

 

FamilySearch. Nogales Manifest of Alien Arrivals.

Back in COVID-era April 2020 I dove into the family connections for cousin MC and her ancestor Teodoro Alejandro Portillo. DNA matches in common between MC, my Mom and the mystery Leyva matches have me looking again at Alejandro and floating Portillo branches who may link with my 3rd-great-grandfather Manuel Portillo (1830-1880). The record above comes from FamilySearch and their collection of Nogales, Arizona Manifests of Alien Arrivals, 1905-1952. The indexing states this is from 1924, which would put Alejandro as born about 1864. This is pretty close to Alejandro's known birth year of 1866.

The reverse side of the card includes a photo and a signature.

Alejandro Portillo. 

The record states Alejandro was crossing at Nogales daily for business, and his nearest relative or friend in Mexico was Eduardo Soto of Sonora Bank in Nogales.