Granjenal Adds a Chapter to the Story of America

America is a nation of immigrants, and in Orange County, many who have traveled north from Mexico literally have built the fabric of a new suburban society. In a two-part series of articles last week, Times staff writer Nancy Cleeland told the story of Granjenal, of one town’s deep economic and cultural link with Santa Ana.

In this portrait, it is possible to see the human tapestry in the sweep of complicated events. Here are the people who make up the great debates of our time over immigration, free trade, over domestic and foreign policy. Their stories suggest how few easy answers there are to complex problems. In their simple wisdom, they are keenly aware that they are caught up in history.

The global economy and the ebb and flow of relations between the United States and Mexico are never far from the surface in the profile of a single farming town’s life. Today, Granjenal has a local priest who no longer has much of a congregation. Over the past 35 years, thousands have traveled the 1,500 miles north to Santa Ana in search of a better life, leaving their hometown behind and re-creating a new community in the heart of Santa Ana.

Life has not always delivered. Migrants have traded in their rural setting with few jobs, poor living conditions and economic forces that were arrayed against them. In return, they have taken their chances on crime, pollution, crowded living conditions. Families have been separated, and something has been lost for something gained. Granjenal’s honorary mayor and police chief, Antonio Lopez, offered this poignant assessment: “We have made many sacrifices. But what choice did we have? There is no work in Granjenal.”

Improvements have come back to the town because of the relationship, but not enough to stem the northward tide. The Granjenal-Santa Ana connection is really the story of relations between two countries and of domestic policies in Mexico, and of far-reaching trade agreements of the modern era.

Mexican agricultural policies, immigration laws and jobs in the United States all conspired to create conditions for the migration. For years, those who left sent money home and returned for holidays. In 1986, the amnesty given to undocumented workers affected hundreds, who, on becoming legal, sent for their families. This was further accelerated by the plunge in Mexican corn prices brought on by the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trade reform ironically promises other blessings in the form of investment opportunities in Mexico and of jobs closer to home.

The migrants recognize the tides of fortune that have been the result not only of recent free trade agreements but also of revolution at home, war abroad and agricultural reform in the 1930s. But as much as they are caught up in history, they too are shaping it now, motivated by the attraction of a better economic lot.

The small immigrant community that has banded together in Santa Ana gives evidence of holding to many of the same patterns as other recent immigrants. They have taken entry-level jobs to move on to better-paying ones as secretaries, police officers, teachers and small business owners. In time, as the experts have noted, the small band began to assimilate. Manuel Garcia y Griego, a political science professor at UC Irvine, notes, “ . . . Certainly by the third generation the solidarity is no longer necessary.”

While much has been tied to politics and larger policies, this is really a familiar American story in the end. Those escaping poor conditions at home come in search of a better life. Through the perils of transit, they have contributed mightily to the growth and evolution of their adopted home. They have been lured by America’s story, only to become a part of it themselves.