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In 1950, after losing his leg in a farming accident, Kapur Dhillon met his future bride. Dhillon employed Anatasia Pereira as domestic assistance while he was hospitalized, and the two fell in love through English and Spanish-language discussions.
They formed an improbable pair. Dhillon was a Punjabi of the second generation who was born in Paso Robles, California in 1908. Pereira, of Spanish and French ancestry but born in Mexico, grew up in a home defined by divorce and alcoholism. Their daughter, Kartar Smith, told Insider that Dhillon’s college-educated Sikh family disapproved of their union.
However, the pair discovered commonalities in their various cultures. Dhillon taught Pereira Punjabi, while she prepared paella and ceviche, followed by paratha and curries. Pereira was considered Mexican and subjected to menial work such as bussing tables and cleaning, and Dhillon was discriminated against due to his Indian heritage.
Smith stated that it was tough to have brown skin in California at the time.
Dhillon and Pereira are among the hundreds of Punjabi-Mexican couples that have established a distinct community in California. The couplings resulted in the formation of a hybrid society, which included foods like roti quesadillas and performances that combine Bhangra and Mexican folk dancing.
Anti-immigrant prejudice led to Punjabi-Mexican unions
Early in the 20th century, Sikh settlers immigrated to the United States in quest of employment and fertile farms. According to Harvard University’s Pluralism Project, there were around 7,000 Indians living in the United States in 1915, with 85 percent of them being Sikhs.
Kapur Dhillon and Anastasia Pereira with Pereira’s sister, brother-in-law, and children, as well as Smith’s infant son, Kartar.
Thanks to Kartar Smith
However, the settlers encountered anti-immigrant prejudice. On September 4, 1904, 500 white laborers, largely members of the Asiatic Exclusion League, assembled in Bellingham, Washington, to protest the employment of Indian immigrants in timber mills. Some attacked the homes of South Asian Indians with the intention of driving them out of town and frightening them so severely that they would not displace white workers from the mills.
Fear was also fueled by erroneous assumptions of South Asians, who were viewed as “troublesome” and having a “poor” “moral code.”
The California Alien Land Act of 1913 barred the immigrant Sikh and Indian populations from owning farmland, and the Immigration Act of 1917 restricted the immigration of Asians into the United States, prohibiting Punjabi workers from bringing their family to join them.
Karen Leonard, professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, told Insider that this put some 2,000 Punjabi men in a legal limbo, separated from their wives and children.
By writing “brown” on their marriage licenses, these individuals circumvented miscegenation laws that prohibited interracial marriage. In the 1940s, almost 400 Punjabi-Mexican couples lived in California, according to Leonard.
The beginning of a culture fusion
The Punjabi-Mexican marriage resulted in the formation of a subculture that incorporated features from both cultures. Many Indian males, such as Mohammed to Mondo and Magga to Miguel, altered their first names, while Hispanic women adopted their spouses’ surnames. Families spoke Spanish and attended gurdwaras or mosques while observing Ramadan.
Another area in which the two civilizations merged was cuisine. Indian and Hispanic cuisines utilize comparable spices, such as cumin and chili, and breads, such as roti and tortillas.
In 1954, the migrant farmer Gulam Rasul and his wife Inez Aguirre Rasul opened El Ranchero in Yuba City. In addition to classic Mexican and East Indian dishes such as enchiladas and chicken curry, El Ranchero offered a unique dish: the roti quesadilla, which consisted of roti covered with melted cheese, onions, and shredded beef and served with a side of curry or hot sauce for dipping.
The Rasul family ate roti quesadillas snack home, then brought them to the restaurant to share with their community.
1951 dinner with another Punjabi-Mexican family, the Singhs.
Amelia Singh Netervala and SAADA kindly
Tamara L. Rasul English, granddaughter of Gulam and Inez, told Insider, “They truly appreciated being able to feed the neighborhood and sharing their delicacies with others.”
In 1967, when her father, Ali Rasul, took over his parents’ restaurant, El Ranchero, he continued to welcome the community.
“People might just enter into the kitchen. Someone constantly bought him beer “English stated. “I referred to my father as the ‘little mayor’ because everyone always came to see him,”
Descendants are preserving their ancestry
As the United States became increasingly receptive to Asian and Indian immigration and as more Punjabi women immigrated, the Punjabi-Mexican population began to decline. Leonard stated that marriages between Punjabis became more prevalent, and that some Punjabi women neglected Mexican women in their communities, sometimes throwing them out of gurdwaras.
In 2008, Moola Singh, a Punjabi-Mexican, noted in Hardnews magazine that the new Punjabi immigrants overturned some customs the Punjabi-Mexican community had developed, such as sitting in chairs and eating with utensils.
“The newcomers did not wish to recognize the early pioneers because they had since mated. But they had no alternative! They circumvented regulations, created comfortable and fulfilling lifestyles, and are proud of them “Leonard said to Insider.
As people left their hometowns and married outside of the Punjabi-Mexican culture, the group shrank further.
The daughter of Dhillon and Pereira, Kartar Smith, recently learnt Punjabi, and the granddaughter of the Rasuls, Tamara English, prepares Indian-Mexican cuisine for her own children.
“There are so few members of our community’s older generation left, so this is one way I preserve my culture,” English added.
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