Exodus from Tiny Mexican Town Enriches San Clemente Culture

Deep in central Mexico, north of Mexico City, east of Guadalajara and about 30 miles southwest of the small city of Guanajuato, lies a little agricultural town called El Bajio de Bonillas.

It's odd to think that such a remote town with a different culture and language could be intertwined in the fabric of San Clemente's "Spanish Village by the Sea." But an exodus from the tiny farming village that started more than 40 years ago has helped build an enclave of tightly knit families, preserving their traditions in San Clemente’s Las Palmas neighborhood.

It's this heritage that OC Human Relations, with a $15,000 grant from the Swayne Family Foundation and in coordination with the city, has recorded through oral histories. The families from El Bajio, many of which are now in their third generation in San Clemente, helped create the booklet, "El Bajio to San Clemente: an Inter-Generational Exploration of a Cultural Journey," said Denise Obrero, housing coordinator for the city of San Clemente.

(Download the full book in PDF form attached to this article.)

Representatives from the nonprofit OC Human Relations, the city of San Clemente, residents in general and the Las Palmas neighbors featured in the book of photos and oral histories all attended a reception Wednesday at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church to celebrate the completion of the project.

One of the group’s goals is to integrate the history into the local third-grade school curriculum, the level at which kids learn about the history of San Clemente.

The book offers the personal stories behind the events that shaped San Clemente. The first immigrants from El Bajio were part of the Bracero program, which recruited Mexican agricultural workers to handle all kinds of crops. As the Braceros established themselves, they began to send for more and more family members to build a life in the States.

The men and women who came to the U.S. in their youth embrace San Clemente as their own, said the residents.

Jose Gomez, 46, has lived in town for 29 years; he and his wife are U.S. citizens and all his children were born in San Clemente. He said he was born in El Bajio when the town had only one telephone in the general store, no televisions or other modern conveniences. His job as a child was to plant crops and work the ranches there -- the town for most of its history was largely a collection of farms.

"In [San Clemente], we feel safe and feel part of it. We are homeowners and have our own business," Gomez said in his personal history. "The United States has given me many opportunities to succeed. I have found work, I can live up to my potential, I have learned a new language, my children attend college and soon they will transfer to a university. I was able to open a restaurant called 'El Jefe' it’s here to serve the residents of San Clemente."

Even the children and teenagers of the second and third generation of El Bajio immigrants are interviewed -- their drawings depicting El Bajio, San Clemente and neighborhood traditions adorn the book of histories.

But a couple of the elderly matriarchs were brought here over the last decade by concerned children and grandchildren. Their health was failing, they said, and all their family had left El Bajio. They express in their oral histories a yearning for their rural homes in Mexico. They find life in the U.S. bewildering and the cost of living too expensive.