The ambitious young family that migrated into the Yakima Valley undocumented in search of agricultural opportunities in 1909.

In 1885, the Northern Pacific Railway arrived in the Yakima Valley and attracted immigrants from all over the world. Yakima and nearby towns experienced rapid growth. Early twentieth century Yakima Valley consisted of orchards, hop fields, and vineyards. The excellent climate and soil, abundant water power and fine fruit land was a gold mine for white investors.

This valley of fruit and hop fields appealed to diverse farm workers, who sought to obtain the “American Dream” through their work in the agricultural industry. Mexican laborers worked alongside American Indians and poor whites in these years.

In 1920, the Sanchez family was the first known family of undocumented farm workers in the Yakima Valley. Felipe Sanchez emigrated from Mexico in 1909, accompanied by his wife, Florentina and two young sons Andres, 7, and Gonzalez, 5. They fled Mexico during the chaotic violence of the Porfirio Diaz regime, crossing the border undocumented.

They came first to Colorado. In 1910, Florentina gave birth to her first daughter, Maria, the first American citizen in the Sanchez household. By then they were in Kansas. The next child, Joe, became the second American citizen in the household.

By 1920 the Sanchez family had established their permanent home in the Yakima Valley. They worked eight to twelve hours, seven days a week, in temperatures that exceed one hundred degrees Fahrenheit.

The Yakima Valley since has long appealed to documented and undocumented Mexican migrant workers. Like the Sanchez household, many other Mexicans during this era upon emigrating from Mexico sojourned through the Southwest United States. Eventually, many Mexican migrants made their way to the Pacific Northwest.

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Among the very first Mexican immigrants to eastern Washington, Alberto Ricardo overcame intense prejudice to become a successful printer, newspaper owner, and town father in Dayton, Washington.

To many early white settlers, “Mexican” was synonymous with criminal. In 1867, the Walla Walla Statesman Review published several editorials, which, defined Mexicans as deceitful, jealous, and fickle. The Walla Walla Statesman editorialized that “The Mexican is not a man or a brother he is a totally different creature from Americans.” The editor went on: “The Mexican as a man is probably the lowest specimen of moral testimony that can be produced to prove the equality of the human race … they are as jealous as Turks; deceitful as mules, and fickle as the wind."

Despite such prejudice, Alberto Ricardo was a perfect example of a Mexican individual who rose to become a successful and assimilated American citizen. Ricardo was born in Mexico in 1854. Perhaps it was there that Ricardo and his wife, who was also listed in the census as a Mexican-born printer, learned their trade. It is unclear when Ricardo left Mexico but by 1885, he migrated into the city of Walla Walla. Upon his arrival in Walla Walla, Ricardo became the newspaper manager for the Walla Walla Statesman Review--the same newspaper that published various anti- Mexican editorials since 1867.

Ricardo’s success continued beyond the Palouse hills and the Blue Mountains of the Walla Walla Valley and into the Columbia County. By 1900 Ricardo established his permanent home in Dayton, Washington. Ricardo became the owner of two newspapers, the Courier and the Press.

The Ricardos spent the rest of their lives in the city of Dayton, where they were respected citizens. Alberto became assimilated, at least outwardly, going by the name of Al instead of Alberto. Perhaps because of his success, Ricardo never had the necessity to return back to Mexico. Lyman’s suggested that through his success in the newspaper industry “Ricardo gave emphasis to his Spanish heritage rather than his Mexican nationality.”

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