| The Mexican YMCA in Miami, Arizona |
In 1910, the Miami Copper Company formed an alliance with the YMCA to
provide recreational and social activities for its employees in its one-story
frame building on Miami Hill, near the company’s concentrator facility.
Inside, company personnel played games such as checkers, chess and
billiards and read newspapers and magazines. A large handball court
outside provided additional recreational activity for the men. In 1915, the
state territorial YMCA secretary, D.W. Pollard, made an agreement with
company officials to expand the Y’s facilities, and strengthen its presence
within the community. The Miami Copper Company agreed to build a new
and modern YMCA building closer to the business section of town.
Dedicated on May 10, 1917, the imposing three-story YMCA building
became a community and mining company showpiece on the corner of
Sullivan Street and Miami Avenue. The building is still there on that same
corner.
provide recreational and social activities for its employees in its one-story
frame building on Miami Hill, near the company’s concentrator facility.
Inside, company personnel played games such as checkers, chess and
billiards and read newspapers and magazines. A large handball court
outside provided additional recreational activity for the men. In 1915, the
state territorial YMCA secretary, D.W. Pollard, made an agreement with
company officials to expand the Y’s facilities, and strengthen its presence
within the community. The Miami Copper Company agreed to build a new
and modern YMCA building closer to the business section of town.
Dedicated on May 10, 1917, the imposing three-story YMCA building
became a community and mining company showpiece on the corner of
Sullivan Street and Miami Avenue. The building is still there on that same
corner.
The YMCA building had a steam-heated indoor tiled swimming pool, a gymnasium with a stage, a two-lane bowling
alley and twenty-three dormitory rooms with showers for single Anglo men: engineers, chemists, accountants, and
other specialists and employees of the Miami Copper Company. A banquet room, conference room, billiard and pool
tables framed the spacious lobby, along with a library, reading room, and a well-furnished kitchen. In 1911, at least
eight-hundred Anglo YMCA members and their families had access to all “Y” facilities. YMCA boys’ clubs formed and
basketball teams and leagues competed against each other in afternoon games after school. The YMCA doubled as a
community center and a recreational facility for the Anglos in Miami.
In the midst of all this wholesome activity, the dark side of the Miami YMCA emerged. Segregation and an unwritten
“No Mexicans Allowed” policy marred the beauty of the new YMCA building. The practice of segregation kept Mexicanos
from bowling and playing card games or billiards inside the “Y.” Segregation kept them at a distance and prevented
them from relaxing in the reading room and lobby after working a day shift at the mine. It also kept Mexicano youths
from using the gymnasium after school. As for using the swimming pool, Mexican boys swam once a week under strict
supervision: on the day before, an official cleaned and drained the pool. Despite the segregation policy, YMCA leaders
believed it to be in their best Christian interest to at least show a concern for the spiritual welfare of the Mexicanos
and wanted to fulfill their godly duty by proselytizing righteousness and clean living. In order to forge Christian
Americanization efforts among them, YMCA leaders opened the “Mexican Y” and promoted physical activities and music.
The “Mexican Y”, a small and unused one-room wood-frame storage building owned by the Miami Copper Company
opened in May, 1919. Several make-shift wooden tables and chairs stored inside the building served as the furniture,
with a second-hand piano and a used blackboard inside the little building. There was a wood stove to heat the
building in the winter, a stark contrast to the new, modern state-of-the-art YMCA building just a few feet away. In
1925, YMCA officials selected Alejandro Trujillo, my father’s uncle, to serve as the Director of the “Mexican Y.” Trujillo
was a lay pastor and Sunday school teacher at the El Divino Salvador (The Divine Savior), the Mexican Presbyterian
church in Miami. He also labored for the Miami Copper Company. Trujillo and his cousin, Mauricio Trujillo, formed an
adult musicians’ group, who called themselves the “Mexicanos Y Orchestra.” The “Mexican Y” remained segregated
until 1947, twenty-eight years after it opened in 1919.
alley and twenty-three dormitory rooms with showers for single Anglo men: engineers, chemists, accountants, and
other specialists and employees of the Miami Copper Company. A banquet room, conference room, billiard and pool
tables framed the spacious lobby, along with a library, reading room, and a well-furnished kitchen. In 1911, at least
eight-hundred Anglo YMCA members and their families had access to all “Y” facilities. YMCA boys’ clubs formed and
basketball teams and leagues competed against each other in afternoon games after school. The YMCA doubled as a
community center and a recreational facility for the Anglos in Miami.
In the midst of all this wholesome activity, the dark side of the Miami YMCA emerged. Segregation and an unwritten
“No Mexicans Allowed” policy marred the beauty of the new YMCA building. The practice of segregation kept Mexicanos
from bowling and playing card games or billiards inside the “Y.” Segregation kept them at a distance and prevented
them from relaxing in the reading room and lobby after working a day shift at the mine. It also kept Mexicano youths
from using the gymnasium after school. As for using the swimming pool, Mexican boys swam once a week under strict
supervision: on the day before, an official cleaned and drained the pool. Despite the segregation policy, YMCA leaders
believed it to be in their best Christian interest to at least show a concern for the spiritual welfare of the Mexicanos
and wanted to fulfill their godly duty by proselytizing righteousness and clean living. In order to forge Christian
Americanization efforts among them, YMCA leaders opened the “Mexican Y” and promoted physical activities and music.
The “Mexican Y”, a small and unused one-room wood-frame storage building owned by the Miami Copper Company
opened in May, 1919. Several make-shift wooden tables and chairs stored inside the building served as the furniture,
with a second-hand piano and a used blackboard inside the little building. There was a wood stove to heat the
building in the winter, a stark contrast to the new, modern state-of-the-art YMCA building just a few feet away. In
1925, YMCA officials selected Alejandro Trujillo, my father’s uncle, to serve as the Director of the “Mexican Y.” Trujillo
was a lay pastor and Sunday school teacher at the El Divino Salvador (The Divine Savior), the Mexican Presbyterian
church in Miami. He also labored for the Miami Copper Company. Trujillo and his cousin, Mauricio Trujillo, formed an
adult musicians’ group, who called themselves the “Mexicanos Y Orchestra.” The “Mexican Y” remained segregated
until 1947, twenty-eight years after it opened in 1919.
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Dr. Christine Marin Curator/Archivist and Historian of the
Chicano Research Collection, Department of Archives andd
Special Collections, Hayden Library, Arizona State University
E-mail: Christine.Marin@asu.edu
Chicano Research Collection, Department of Archives andd
Special Collections, Hayden Library, Arizona State University
E-mail: Christine.Marin@asu.edu
Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues in Phoenix, Arizona
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