This is especially true for Tucson. The history of Mexico is also a history of Tucson, as we were once a community in the state of Sonora. Almost all Tucsonenses (i.e., Mexicans and Mexican Americans with generational roots in this community) can trace our family roots back to Hermosillo, Arizpe, Ures, Moctezuma, Obregon, or some other municipio in the mountains, valleys, or coasts of the Sonoran Desert.
Tucson’s Mexican Past
Today, these foundational roots, as well as our geographic proximity and familial ties, connect us in a very intimate way with Mexico. For Tucsonenses, much of our cultural identity and our origin story emanates from the south as opposed to the east.
Tucsonenses have been here since before this was the United States, some even before it was Mexico. Our ancestors lived their lives in a small, tight-knit community that had to work together, fight together and support each other in order to survive.
When the Tucson Presidio was founded in 1775, Spain was already more than 250 years into their conquest of Mexico. The “Spanish” soldiers and civilians that came here from Tubac were already mostly mestizos (mixed race) and their society had been transformed by multiple Indigenous cultures and the unique terrain and formative forces of the Sonoran Desert. In 1821, these Spanish citizens didn’t go away, they “became” Mexicanos, but because they lived here, they remained Tucsonenses.
Up until the 20th century, as the city morphed and the population grew, every Tucsonense family knew or was related to another Tucsonense family. Many of them lived their lives in small, tight-knit barrios like Libre (now Viejo), and Anita where you can still find their influence today. Even in the 1990s, my grandparents still knew every family in Tucson. We were all connected to each other somehow.
Honoring our Heritage Today
This interconnectedness of families and enduring sense of community has been one of the defining features of the Tucsonense community, as it has been for our primos in Sonora. As the city has grown and changed, however, this Tucsonense community has become a little harder to see, especially if you aren’t from here or familiar with how this city developed. That core, that community that has so helped define the modern general culture of Tucson, still exists. It's still there after all of these years. In 2025, it isn’t uncommon for me to meet someone who also has deep family roots here, and it doesn’t take long for us to realize that we are somehow connected.
The components of this Tucsonense culture, our customs and traditions, languages and food, beliefs and values, all of these have been kept alive, in large part, because of our continued connections to Mexico and the constant reinfusion it provides us. Our culture, our families and our economic health relies on these personal connections that we have with Mexico, and they help bolster and enrich communities on both sides of the border.
We live in a cultural estuary in the borderlands, and Mexico has always been and will always be a huge part of who we are. Today, on the anniversary of the Grito de Dolores Hidalgo, we would do well to acknowledge the history, beauty, and life that Mexico has contributed to our living culture and ongoing development.
¡Que Viva Mexico!