A Prelude to Displacement: An Archaeological Reconstruction of Community History at San Pablo and Barrio del Hoyo in Tempe, Arizona

Summary

Recent excavations on the Arizona State University Tempe campus provide a glimpse into the early 20th-century Mexican-American neighborhoods of San Pablo and Barrio del Hoyo. Located next to the original campus grounds, San Pablo and Barrio del Hoyo were residential and commercial hubs of early Tempe. After World War II, urban development and renewal efforts by the university and land developers targeted these two neighborhoods for campus expansion and displaced their residents, quickly destroying the neighborhoods with the construction of apartments, dormitories, and other university buildings. Domestic features excavated in these two neighborhoods show us that, in the decades preceding their destruction, both neighborhoods were thriving, with residents of a variety of different incomes who pursued various economic pursuits—not unlike the Euro-American neighborhoods of early Tempe. San Pablo and Barrio del Hoyo were not blighted or in need of renewal and the eventual fates of these neighborhoods reflected their status as minority communities within Tempe, a lack of political power, and structural racism. In this way, San Pablo and Barrio del Hoyo are similar to other examples of the destruction of Mexican-American communities in the West, such as Barrio Libre in Tucson and Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21422