Historic Cannery Row

During World War I and the decade that followed, much of the workforce in the developing sardine industry along Cannery Row was made up of Spanish immigrants, who had fled crushing poverty for the promise of a new life. Many single men sailed from the port of Malaga in southern Spain, stopping at the Hawaiian Islands to work as contract laborers before reaching California.

The first Spanish migrant generation established a pattern of movement between Monterey and the Santa Clara Valley, where they harvested fruit and prune orchards between fishing seasons. In the canneries, a Spanish migrant might work as a boilerman, whistling crews to work when a fresh catch arrived, or a seamer, sealing the oval sardine cans. They helped sardine production grow to 1,400,000 cases by 1918.

In their limited free time, single men smoked hand-rolled cigarettes of Tobacco de la Libre, read the Spanish newspaper La Prensa and conversed with their countrymen. They played the songs of their homeland on guitars and mandolins while sharing the muscatel wine that was produced in neighborhood garages.

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The Del Mar Canning Company, 1927-1947

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