The Spanish Community

During World War I and the decade that followed, Spanish immigrants formed much of the workforce in the developing sardine industry along Cannery Row after fleeing crushing poverty for the promise of a new life. Many single men sailed from the port of Malaga in southern Spain, stopped at the Hawaiian Islands to work as contract laborers, and then reached California. The first Spanish migrant generation established a pattern of movement between Monterey and the Santa Clara Valley, where they harvested fruit and prune orchards between fishing seasons. In the canneries, they worked as boilermen, whistling crews to work when a fresh catch arrived, or as seamers, sealing oval sardine cans. They helped sardine production grow to 1,400,000 cases by 1918. In limited free time, single men smoked hand-rolled cigarettes of Tobacco de la Libre, read the Spanish newspaper La Prensa, conversed with their countrymen, and played the songs of their homeland on guitars and mandolins while sharing muscatel wine produced in neighborhood garages.

Monterey, California · United States