Chapter 6 : Revolutionary San Diego and Tijuana
1. When was Tijuana created?
In 1848 very few Mexicans lived in Baja California along the present-day border. It was a land composed mostly of brush and desert, suitable for stock raising but little else.
In the Spanish and Mexican period the rolling hills which today are beneath the city of Tijuana, were the rancho land grant owned by the Argüello family, descended from Santiago Argüello, the commandant of the San Diego presidio. Before the U.S.—Mexican war, portions of Rancho Tijuana passed to Pío Pico, who had grown up in San Diego with his brother, Andrés. The Argüellos continued to own most of what today is Tijuana, as well as the rancho lands comprising the present day communities of Lemon Grove, La Mesa, and East San Diego.
Tijuana, the town and later city, was officially founded on July 11, 1889, formed out of a portion of the Argüello lands. The official name for Tijuana was the Villa de Zaragoza (later changed to Tijuana in 1929). Initially this community was a small settlement of ranch houses. Later it would grow to include a customs house and a few trading stores. Not until the 1920s would it start to grow into the metropolis it is today.
Other portions of Mexican rancho land immediately adjacent to San Diego County were owned by the Bandini family, and, for the next 150 years, their descendants, along with the Picos and Argüellos, frequently crossed the border to visit with family members or to live in either country for periods of time. They were the first binational Mexican American families.