The historic poverty of Chihuahua Hill is apparent from the very first photos taken in the early 1870s, and remained throughout most of the neighborhood’s past. While photos show these differences in living conditions between Chihuahua Hill and the rest of Silver City, stories and Historical documents tell the story behind the photos.
The 1880 Census is the first real look into the social/economic breakdown of early Chihuahua Hill. Mexican workers only worked a fraction of the 80 different types of jobs shown on the census. These jobs were usually dangerous, laborious, paid little, and had little room for economic advancement. This is opposed to their white counterparts who were present in 77 of the types of jobs available in Silver City. These jobs were usually of a higher quality, ranging from engineer, assayer, sheriff, office clerk, or machinists. It is important to say that while there was no policy of segregation in Silver City, there was an informal economic and social segregation that fell along ethnic lines.
Another difference is that people on Chihuahua Hill began working earlier than their counterparts in downtown Silver City. In Chihuahua Hill there were at least 40 Mexican children younger than the age of 15 working as opposed to none in the downtown Silver City Anglo population. In a sad, but revealing, detail of history, Chihuahua Hill’s youngest worker, 5 year old Monica De La Cruz, and 75 year old Rosa Lopez, were both domestic servants.
These are the historic roots of poverty in Chihuahua Hill. Poverty, and the need to work younger to support the family, dictates certain experiences within the community. those living in poverty were more likely to experience social exclusion, and have unequal opportunities for education, occupations, or standards of living. The poverty faced by many chihuahua hIll would influence generations of people.
Census data like this can help us understand the social situation of the early town, but it does not address the experiences of those who lived through it. The Chihuahua Hill History Project has uncovered countless stories of what living in this environment was like.