1920s–1940s Photo Album of a Mexican American Family in Santa Ana, California.
Mexico and California: 1920s–1940s. Photo album measuring 7 ¼ x 11 ¼ inches, containing approximately eighty-five photographs generally 4 ½ x 2 ½ inches and smaller, with three Rito Nacional Mexicano (Freemason) membership cards, one 1943 tax return, and one 1943 letter. A photo album belonging to the Sifuentes (also recorded as Cifuentes) family of Santa Ana, California. Alfonso Sifuentes Rodarte (1896/9–1994) was born in Coahuila, and his wife Enriqueta “Harriet” Gonzalez Galvan (1903–d.) in Jalisco. The couple married in Orange, California, in 1923. The album situates the family at several Santa Ana addresses, including W 4th Street and E 1st Street (the latter appearing on a 1927 Masonic membership card from the University of Mexico); commercial signage also suggests an address on Bristol Street.
The earlier photos, from the 1920s and 30s, show children and family playing and posing in front and back yards, beach trips, and two formal baby shots (real photo postcards); two men pose in sombreros and stylish young ladies pose with a car in front of the house. What are likely photos with extended family look to have been taken on a farm. There are also wedding and church shots, and later photos of men in uniform—Alfonso Sifuentes joined the Coast Guard during World War II. Photos are occasionally captioned in Spanish on the verso, giving names and relations.
The 1943 letter included in the album is from a fellow Coast Guardsman, “Andrés,” to his girlfriend Celia Sifuentes, one of the family's daughters. Andrés mentions (translated) passing “the famous exams [...] without incident”, and how much he enjoys spending time with Sifuentes’ family: “I wish my parents had the harmony that exists in your home.” According to the National Parks Service, some 500,000 Mexican Americans served in World War II, while at the same time facing anti-Mexican and anti-Latine sentiment at home.
Of interest to historians of Mexican American and Southern California regional history in the interwar era. Album cover broken and beginning to detach, else excellent; contents excellent to Near Fine. Item #List3659
Price: $1,250.00