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Teguana (inhospitable place or place without food) supposedly captures the Cochimi's frustration with the area's poor agricultural quality. Alternatively, some sources derive the city's name from references to an abundance of food: "Tía Juana," in this popular version of the town's origin, was the affectionate name for an extremely hospitable woman from Sonora who established herself in the area; she became so well known as a wonderful cook that people came from far and wide to sample her cuisine, and a small town sprang up around her to handle all the hungry visitors.
Tijuana has been relocated several times—partly because of disastrous floods—and has gone through numerous boom-and-bust cycles. |
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| 1542 - The area that is now known as Tijuana was originally populated by kumiai (k'miai), a tribe of hunters that spoke yuman. The European arrived for the first time in 1542, when the explorer Spanish-Portuguese Joao Rodrigues Cabrillo crossed the coast of the region that would be registered in maps in 1602 by Sebastián Vizcaíno. |
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| 1719 - "Tijuana" was first used in documents
for a Kumiai Indian settlement, one of several hundred
in the area. |
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| 1769 - Father Juan Crespí documented detailed information of the area that would be called later Valley of Tijuana. Father Junípero Serra founded the first mission of the High California on San Diego. The European presence, nevertheless, was limited to a great extent to the Dominican and the Franciscanos who settled down in different missions throughout the region until 1846. |
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| 1821 - Mexico gained independence from Spain. |
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| 1848 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which Mexico
lost 1/2 its territory, cut a straight line between the
meeting point of the Gila and Colorado Rivers to one marine
league south of San Diego. A Boundary Commission set up
a monument in 1851-Border Field State Park. |
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| 1851 - Butterfield Overland stage mail route from San Diego
to Yuma, AZ passed through Tijuana, and continued for
a decade. |
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| 1853 - American military adventurer William Walker surrendered
to U.S. forces at the Rancho Tia Juana after his abortive
attempt to take over Baja California. He successfully
took over Nicaragua and ruled from 1856-7, but was then
ousted. His attempt to gain control of Honduras in 1860
failed and he was executed. |
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| 1857 - Presidio Commandant Santiago Arguello registered
the Tijuana Ranch. A property of 25,000 acres. He first claimed the land in 1829.
He bought Mission San Diego de Alcala in 1845. Litigation
by his descendents over Tijuana land ownership continued
until 1972. |
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| 1887 - The Tia Juana Valley was described as an "Eden",
a "paradise" and a "beautiful valley".
Said one resident, "it is almost a pity so beautiful
a spot is destined to become a busy city." 1873 One
naturalized English immigrant guarded the border from the
Colorado River to the Pacific. 1885 Tourism encouraged at
a Hotel/Spa several miles south of international line. |
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| 1890 - Horse races, boxing matches and bullfights added
to the tourist attractions. A small railroad operated
between San Diego and Tijuana. Tourists crossed the river
on a wagon. |
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| 1891- Store partners shared a Mexican and American operation
on the international line, with the customs agent between
them in the same building. A flood floated the store across
the street where it stopped against a flagpole. |
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| 1895 - A flood left the boundary marker in mid stream.
The following year the boundary commission erected a new
monument north of the river and 1,000 meters east. Boundary
Marker No.255 still stands on the hill above the old customs
house. |
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| 1899 - First bullfights sponsored in Tijuana. |
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| 1900 - Tijuana population = 242 people |
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| 1904 - Construction of San Diego/Yuma railroad begins;
route crosses back and forth across the border. |
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| 1907 - Mexicans pay $4.00 for health clearance for a lifetime
visa. Up to this time no visas were required. |
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| 1910 - Passengers opened the San Diego and Arizona Eastern
railroad. |
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| 1911 - Revolutionaries, only 9 of whom
were Mexicans, seized the railroad, overcame Tijuana’s
27 soldiers, and burned the church and bull ring. San
Diegans arrived by buggy and bicycle to watch the 16 hour
battle from the border a mile away. |
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| 1916 - California outlawed horse racing
in 1915. A Racetrack opened near the international line.
The track established numerous innovations: a moveable
starting gate, the first photo finish, a sprinkler car,
Sunday racing, a public address system, the jockey helmet,
and the first large purse. Race-goers included Jack Dempsey,
Charlie Chalie Chaplin, Fattly Arbuckle, Tom Mix, and
Buster Keaton. |
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| 1916 - Mexican Customs house crumbled
in a flood. |
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| 1917 - A literacy test and $8 required
for Mexicans to enter the US. |
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| 1924 - US Border Patrol created. Mexicans
sill exempt from quotas. |
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| 1926 - Agua Caliente Casino opened and
became a Prohibition hotspot. Territorial General Abelardo
Rodriguez (later a Mexican president) was a partner in
the venture. Celebrities who played the Agua Caliente
Casino or started their careers there include Jimmy Durante,
Rita Hayworth, Tom Mix, Oliver Hardy, and Fred Astaire.
Charlie Chaplin and Al Capone were guests. A racetrack,
golf course, and airstrip were later added to the complex. |
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| 1929 - Legal immigration averaged 50,000
annually in the 1920s, but only 1,500 after the ’29
crash. |
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| 1935 - Agua Caliente Casino permanently
closed by President Lazaro Cardenas. The site was replaced
by 5 schools. |
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| 1942- Bracero program of Mexican workers
on US contracts begins. The program was designed initially to bring a few hundred experienced Mexican agricultural laborers to harvest sugar beets in the Stockton, California area but soon spread to cover most of the United States to provide much needed farm workers to agriculture labor market. |
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| 1944- 62,000 Mexicans on 6 month agricultural
contracts in 21 states. |
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| 1947 - Jai lai court opened. |
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| 1951- US recruiters go to areas in
central Mexico to recruit farm workers. |
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| 1953 - Baja California becomes a state. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North Territory of Baja California. |
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| 1954 - Mexicans are deported under "Operation
Wetback" for two years. The object of his intense border enforcement were "illegal aliens," but common practice of Operation Wetback focused on Mexicans in general. In some cases, illegal immigrants were deported along with their American-born children, who were by law U.S. citizens. This practice incited and angered many U.S. citizens who were of Mexican American descent. Opponents in both the United States and Mexico complained of "police-state" methods, and Operation Wetback was abandoned. |
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| 1964 - Bracero program ended. |
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| 1965 - Maquiladoras began; Mexican immigration
capped at 20,000/year. |
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| 1970 - Zona del Rio developed. |
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| 1975 - INS commisioner defines Mexican
migration as a "vast and silent invasion of illegal
aliens". |
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| 1977 - "Tia Juana Trolley"
linking TJ and SD began construction. |
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| 1979 - A chain link fence, labeled the
"tortilla curtain" by Mexicans, was raised on
the border. In 1992 Navy Seabees and the army reserves
built a fence of surplus corrugated steel sheeting left
over from the Vietnam War, about ten feet high and fourteen
miles long. |
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| 1982 - Mexico faced a severe economic
crisis. |
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| 1985 - Population over 1.1 million;
Tijuana larger than San Diego. |
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| 1994 - Operation Gatekeeper pushes immigration
eastward. |
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| 1999 - Nearly 400 people had died attempting
to cross the border farther to the east since Operation
Gatekeeper began in 1994. |
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