 
The City of Los Santos, California is the second most populous city in the
United States with an estimated population of 4.3 million. Like most regions
in the state, the city is subject to unpredictable seismic activity. Founded
230 years ago, for its first century Los Santos was a provincial outpost
under a succession of Spanish, Mexican, and American rule.
| Employment
Statistics |
| Agricultural
|
2.5% |
| Natural Resources
and Mining |
0.2% |
| Construction |
5.2% |
| Manufacturing |
11.1% |
| Trade, Transportation,
and Utilities |
18.4% |
| Information |
3.4% |
| Financial Activities |
5.7% |
| Professional and
Business Services |
14.3% |
| Educational and
Health Services |
10.1% |
| Leisure and Hospitality |
9.3% |
| Government |
16.5% |
| Other Services |
3.4% |
|
|
| Race
Statistics |
| White |
45.1% |
| Black |
7.6% |
| Native-American |
0.9% |
| Asian |
10.4% |
| Hispanic |
36% |
|
|
|
For 30 years, Saints Island
served as a point of entry to the United States for many immigrants. Like
Ellis Island in New York, it processed the entry of people from different
parts of the world. Unlike Ellis Island, it also served as a prison for
hundreds of Chinese immigrants. The immigration compound at Saints Island
was built to enforce an exclusionary law passed in 1882. This law, The Chinese
Exclusion Act, was passed to deny entry to Chinese. This denial was based
on racial fear and ignorance; the fear of jobs being taken away from Anglo-American
workers was caused by the economic conditions of the times, compounded by
the increased arrival of European immigrants.
Saints Island opened eighty-three years ago, four years after the great
Los Santos earthquake and fire. The island was chosen as a site for the
immigration station because of its isolation from the mainland and relatives
and friends of the new arrivals. Upon the arrival of a ship into Los Santos,
immigration officials inspected papers of those on board. Those who passed
were allowed to enter Los Santos. Those who were suspect were sent to Saints
Island. From that point, those who were sent to Saints Island were to be
granted entry based on a formidable interrogation process. The detainees
could hope for a brief stay, on the average two weeks, or be detained for
a longer period of time. The longest stay on Saints Island was for 22 months.
Life for the detainees was strange, stressful, demoralizing and humiliating.
One was separated from family members, placed in crowded communal living
quarters, subjected to a boring daily routine which compounded the stress
of waiting for their turn for the impending interrogation. The interrogation
was a frightening process for the detainee. The questions were detailed
and irrelevant, the questioning conducted to confuse and entrap a detainee,
rather than support and welcome the new arrival. As a result, poignant reminders
of the detainees' stay on Saints Island were written on the wooden barrack
walls. Poems were penciled, carved or brush painted on the walls to express
the detainees' anger and frustrations over their treatment and detainment.
These writing would have been lost to us if they were not discovered by
a U.S. Park Ranger and by the successful efforts of the Asian American community
to pressure the government to preserve the site from demolition.
Because a large fire destroyed several buildings, the immigration station
was closed fifty years ago. Three years later, the Exclusion Act was repealed. |
