El Paso's Chinese Community

The Southern Pacific crews who built toward El Paso in 1881 came from California, and all but about 400 of the 3,000 workers were Chinese. Some stayed when the line was finished in 1883. By 1890, 225 of the 710 Chinese in Texas lived in El Paso County, nearly a third, and around 1900 they were numerous enough for a small, compact Chinatown. Most of the 527 Pershing Chinese who arrived in 1917 settled in San Antonio, which then passed El Paso as the largest Chinese community in Texas.

What the plaque says

El Paso's Chinese Community Chinese immigrants first arrived in El Paso shortly before the Southern Pacific Railroad completed its line here in 1881. The earliest immigrants opened a rooming house and a grocery store. Soon afterwards, the U.S. government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) which restricted Chinese immigration. However, enough Chinese remained to create a vibrant community throughout downtown El Paso. Into the early 1920s, El Paso's Chinese community was the largest in Texas. The Chinese contributed to the area's economy largely by growing and selling fruits and vegetables for the local market, and by opening businesses, including laundries and restaurants. The mostly-male sojourners sent earning to families in China, with the intention of returning home. While retaining their native culture through language (most spoke the Toishonese dialect), food, community associations and traditions, the newcomers also adopted area languages and customs. The immigrants experienced discrimination, but faced fewer problems here than did the Chinese in other parts of the United States. Chinese continued to migrate to El Paso into the 20th century. During the Mexican Revolution, General John J. Pershing brought hundreds of Chinese into the United States for their protection from racial violence. They were legally allowed to immigrate following General Pershing's petition to Congress. The Chinese continued to immigrate to the city during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Another wave began in the late 1940s, prompted by the Communist takeover of China. Today, Chinese El Pasoans continue to maintain a sense of community in the city they helped develop. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 0.7 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Chamizal National Memorial — 2.0 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 11 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 11 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.

More markers nearby

• El Camino Real (The King's Highway) — steps away
• San Jacinto Plaza — steps away
• El Paso County, C.S.A. — steps away
• Pioneer Plaza — steps away