| barriozona |
| HISTORY IS ABOUT TO CHANGE Grassroots Journalism |
| Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues |
From Phoenix, Arizona to the World Wide Web
Manuela Sotelo and Her Daughter,
Maria: A Heritage of Education
in Early Tempe
Maria: A Heritage of Education
in Early Tempe
Maria Sotelo Miller was able to maintain a solid business ethic and helped
to strengthen a Mexican and Anglo-American business and social
relationship in Tempe that began in 1873 and continues today.
to strengthen a Mexican and Anglo-American business and social
relationship in Tempe that began in 1873 and continues today.
Tempe, Arizona, June 8, 2009 - Maria Sotelo Miller is the daughter of
Tiburcio and Manuela Sanchez Sotelo. Maria’s grandfather, Ignacio
Sotelo, a Lieutenant in the Mexican government, served as the
Commander of the Presidio of San Ignacio de Tubac from 1813 to 1814.
In 1820, the Mexican government assigned him the responsibility of over-
seeing the Tumacacori Mission in southern Arizona.
Tiburcio Sotelo came to Tempe in 1870 with his sons, José and Feliciano
and his brother, Pedro. They helped the Mexican farmers who lived in the
South Mountain area along the Salt River beneath present-day 24th and
40th streets build the “Mexican Ditch”, also known as the San Francisco
Canal. The Mexican Ditch brought life-saving water to their farmlands.
The head of the canal was located near what is now downtown Tempe;
and the channel extended three and one-quarter miles in a
southwesterly direction toward the northern foothills of South Mountain.
The industrious nature and strong work-ethic of the Sotelo men caught
the attention of Winchester Miller, a Confederate soldier from Ohio who
came to Tempe via California in 1869. Miller was the first zanjero (water
master) for the Hardy Irrigation Canal, later called the Tempe Canal
Company when it became part of the Salt River Valley Water Users’
Association canal network. In 1871, Miller hired Tiburcio, his sons and his
brother to work for him as irrigation workers. Their steady work and pay
enabled Tiburcio and his sons to settle on 160 acres of land in Tempe,
which was platted in 1890 by Tiburcio’s wife, Manuela, and called the
Sotelo Addition. Manuela and her children forged a living as enterprising
farmers within a wilderness ready for improvement by Mexican families
like the Sotelos. They grew herbs, beans, squash, and corn and sold or
traded their crops with other farmers.
Maria Sotelo was now a lovely, well-mannered and intelligent nineteen
year-old in 1872, educated in a private school administered by the
Catholic Church in Pitiquito, Sonora, Mexico. Winchester Miller, a widower
twice Maria’s age with teen-age children of his own, became captivated
by Maria’s youthfulness and beauty and after a five-month courtship
approved by Maria’s father, Miller made Maria his bride in Tucson on
January 8, 1873. Unfortunately, an ailing Tiburcio died in Florence some
time before the wedding and did not see his daughter marry Miller.
Miller took young Maria to his sparse home in the settlement of Lehi, the
home provided to him by the Tempe Canal, when Miller served as its
Superindendent. The one-room house, fortified only by a door, bore no
windows; instead, portholes served as protection against the Apache
and Pima Indians nearby. The Millers soon moved to Tempe, where their
first child, Anna Manuela Sotelo Miller was born in October, 1873. It is
believed that Anna is the first Anglo-Mexican child born in Tempe, a
frontier example of the results of a mixed-culture marriage so
characteristic of what brought prosperity and development to Tempe and
what made the community unique in its own heritage of cultural diversity.
Maria Sotelo Miller raised eleven (11) children. Records show that six of
her children attended the Arizona Territorial Normal School in the period
from 1896 to 1906. Her daughters, Anna Manuela Sotelo Miller and Clara
Maria Sotelo Miller graduated from the Arizona Territorial Normal School,
each with two-year teaching diplomas, becoming the first Mexican
American Arizona State University alumni members. Anna taught school
in Flagstaff for three years and Clara taught in Tempe and Buckeye. It is
important to note that their mother, Maria Sotelo Miller, regarded
education as a civic and parental responsibility. Thus, it is likely that all of
Maria’s eleven (11) children attended the Arizona Territorial Normal
School. Maria’s children, all born in Tempe, are:
Anna Manuela Miller, born in 1873
In Tempe, Winchester and Anna Sotelo Miller owned a quarter section of
land adjacent to and north of the Sotelo Addition. Manuela Sotelo
allowed them to join her ranch on the Sotelo Addition and the Miller
ranch in order to preserve Manuela’s water rights, as the two
homesteads were separated by a canal. The Sotelo Addition, located
east of Rural Road and south of the Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa Railway,
was later subdivided when Manuela Sotelo began sharing her property
with her children and their spouses and selling parcels of land to other
Mexican families coming from Hermosillo, Mexico to Tempe for
homesteading purposes. For example, she sold a lot 143 feet by 25 feet
to Jesus Arros for $75.00. Manuela Sotelo also held two of fifty shares
(valued at $200 each) issued to the original founders of the Irrigating
Canal Company, shares given to her by her husband, Tiburcio. Manuela’s
entreprenurial skills and sharp business acumen, linked with her financial
resourcefulness and knowledge, served her well: with her daughter,
Maria Sotelo Miller, she was able to maintain a solid business ethic
among Tempeans and she helped to strengthen a Mexican and Anglo-
American business and social relationship in Tempe that began in 1873
and continues today.
The unions of Tempe’s prominent Anglo-American men with Mexican
women (Winchester Miller and Maria Sotelo; James T. Priest and Mariana
Gonzalez; Dr. Walter Wilson Jones and Alcaria Montaño; Dwight “Red”
Harkins and Alica Peralta; Frederick Dick and Rosa Pauline Jaime) offer
examples of mixed-cultural companionships. The results of these
marriages provided the cultural and educational underpinnings for the
growing community of Tempe, as evident in Maria Sotelo Miller’s story. It
is important that the names of Manuela Sotelo and Maria Sotelo Miller
and their contributions to the history and development of Tempe, and to
Arizona, since the 1870s, be recognized and acknowledged.
Tiburcio and Manuela Sanchez Sotelo. Maria’s grandfather, Ignacio
Sotelo, a Lieutenant in the Mexican government, served as the
Commander of the Presidio of San Ignacio de Tubac from 1813 to 1814.
In 1820, the Mexican government assigned him the responsibility of over-
seeing the Tumacacori Mission in southern Arizona.
Tiburcio Sotelo came to Tempe in 1870 with his sons, José and Feliciano
and his brother, Pedro. They helped the Mexican farmers who lived in the
South Mountain area along the Salt River beneath present-day 24th and
40th streets build the “Mexican Ditch”, also known as the San Francisco
Canal. The Mexican Ditch brought life-saving water to their farmlands.
The head of the canal was located near what is now downtown Tempe;
and the channel extended three and one-quarter miles in a
southwesterly direction toward the northern foothills of South Mountain.
The industrious nature and strong work-ethic of the Sotelo men caught
the attention of Winchester Miller, a Confederate soldier from Ohio who
came to Tempe via California in 1869. Miller was the first zanjero (water
master) for the Hardy Irrigation Canal, later called the Tempe Canal
Company when it became part of the Salt River Valley Water Users’
Association canal network. In 1871, Miller hired Tiburcio, his sons and his
brother to work for him as irrigation workers. Their steady work and pay
enabled Tiburcio and his sons to settle on 160 acres of land in Tempe,
which was platted in 1890 by Tiburcio’s wife, Manuela, and called the
Sotelo Addition. Manuela and her children forged a living as enterprising
farmers within a wilderness ready for improvement by Mexican families
like the Sotelos. They grew herbs, beans, squash, and corn and sold or
traded their crops with other farmers.
Maria Sotelo was now a lovely, well-mannered and intelligent nineteen
year-old in 1872, educated in a private school administered by the
Catholic Church in Pitiquito, Sonora, Mexico. Winchester Miller, a widower
twice Maria’s age with teen-age children of his own, became captivated
by Maria’s youthfulness and beauty and after a five-month courtship
approved by Maria’s father, Miller made Maria his bride in Tucson on
January 8, 1873. Unfortunately, an ailing Tiburcio died in Florence some
time before the wedding and did not see his daughter marry Miller.
Miller took young Maria to his sparse home in the settlement of Lehi, the
home provided to him by the Tempe Canal, when Miller served as its
Superindendent. The one-room house, fortified only by a door, bore no
windows; instead, portholes served as protection against the Apache
and Pima Indians nearby. The Millers soon moved to Tempe, where their
first child, Anna Manuela Sotelo Miller was born in October, 1873. It is
believed that Anna is the first Anglo-Mexican child born in Tempe, a
frontier example of the results of a mixed-culture marriage so
characteristic of what brought prosperity and development to Tempe and
what made the community unique in its own heritage of cultural diversity.
Maria Sotelo Miller raised eleven (11) children. Records show that six of
her children attended the Arizona Territorial Normal School in the period
from 1896 to 1906. Her daughters, Anna Manuela Sotelo Miller and Clara
Maria Sotelo Miller graduated from the Arizona Territorial Normal School,
each with two-year teaching diplomas, becoming the first Mexican
American Arizona State University alumni members. Anna taught school
in Flagstaff for three years and Clara taught in Tempe and Buckeye. It is
important to note that their mother, Maria Sotelo Miller, regarded
education as a civic and parental responsibility. Thus, it is likely that all of
Maria’s eleven (11) children attended the Arizona Territorial Normal
School. Maria’s children, all born in Tempe, are:
Anna Manuela Miller, born in 1873
- Clara Maria Miller, born in 1874
- Albert James Miller, born in 1878
- Samuel B. Miller, born in 1880
- Andrew J. Miller, born in 1880
- Sarah “Sally” Miller, born in 1884
- Benjamin Miller, born in 1886
- Rosa Miller, born in 1890
- Louis Winchester Miller, born 1891
- Lydia L. Miller, born in 1894
- Laura Miller…birth date unknown
In Tempe, Winchester and Anna Sotelo Miller owned a quarter section of
land adjacent to and north of the Sotelo Addition. Manuela Sotelo
allowed them to join her ranch on the Sotelo Addition and the Miller
ranch in order to preserve Manuela’s water rights, as the two
homesteads were separated by a canal. The Sotelo Addition, located
east of Rural Road and south of the Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa Railway,
was later subdivided when Manuela Sotelo began sharing her property
with her children and their spouses and selling parcels of land to other
Mexican families coming from Hermosillo, Mexico to Tempe for
homesteading purposes. For example, she sold a lot 143 feet by 25 feet
to Jesus Arros for $75.00. Manuela Sotelo also held two of fifty shares
(valued at $200 each) issued to the original founders of the Irrigating
Canal Company, shares given to her by her husband, Tiburcio. Manuela’s
entreprenurial skills and sharp business acumen, linked with her financial
resourcefulness and knowledge, served her well: with her daughter,
Maria Sotelo Miller, she was able to maintain a solid business ethic
among Tempeans and she helped to strengthen a Mexican and Anglo-
American business and social relationship in Tempe that began in 1873
and continues today.
The unions of Tempe’s prominent Anglo-American men with Mexican
women (Winchester Miller and Maria Sotelo; James T. Priest and Mariana
Gonzalez; Dr. Walter Wilson Jones and Alcaria Montaño; Dwight “Red”
Harkins and Alica Peralta; Frederick Dick and Rosa Pauline Jaime) offer
examples of mixed-cultural companionships. The results of these
marriages provided the cultural and educational underpinnings for the
growing community of Tempe, as evident in Maria Sotelo Miller’s story. It
is important that the names of Manuela Sotelo and Maria Sotelo Miller
and their contributions to the history and development of Tempe, and to
Arizona, since the 1870s, be recognized and acknowledged.
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
| Photographs courtesy of University Archives Collection. Department of Archives and Special Collections. Hayden Library. ASU Tempe. |
| B I B L I O G R A P H Y Books: Hispanic Historic Property Survey. Final Report. (Phoenix: City of Phoenix, Historic Preservation Office, 2006), p. 18. Officer, James E. Hispanic Arizona, 1536-1856. (Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press, 1987). Schroeder, K.J. An Historic Sketch of the Sotelo-Heard Cemetery in South Phoenix, Arizona. Roadrunner Publications in Anthropology Series, No. 6. (Phoenix: Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, 1995), pp. 13; 60-64; 67. Dissertations/Theses: Muñoz, Laura K. Desert Dreams: Mexican American Education in Arizona, 1870-1930. Ph.D. dissertation. History. Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., 2006, pp. 144; 199-201; 222. Solliday, Scott W. The Journey to Rio Salado: Hispanic Migration to Tempe, Arizona. Masters thesis. History. Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., 1993. Government Documents: Arizona State Board of Health. Bureau of Vital Statistics. Certificate of Death. State File #242. Maricopa County Recorder. Subdivision Plat of Sotelo Addition of Tempe, Book 1 of Maps, Page 64, filed August 23, 1890. On file at the Office of the Maricopa County Records, Phoenix, Arizona. Journal/Newsletter Articles: Christine Lewis. “The Early History of the Tempe Canal Company.” Arizona and the West. Vol. 7, No. 3, Autumn, 1965, pp. 229-230; 232 Mark Estes. “Anatomy of Early Arizona Marriages: Companionship, Status and Money.” Pulse. Vol. 27, No. 26, June 24, 1993 (Tempe: Salt River Project, 1993). Newspaper Articles: “Changes During 60 Years Seen By Mrs. Miller.” Arizona Republican. (Phoenix), April 18, 1925. “Manuela Sotelo Sold Lot.” Phoenix Daily Herald. December 10, 1889. Unpublished Manuscripts: Kupel, Douglas E. “Tempe’s First Families: Soza, Sotelo and Elias.” Paper Presented to the Arizona Historical Convention, April 23, 1993. Robinson, Dorothy. “A History of Early Tempe.” (no date). Arizona Collection. Department of Archives and Special Collections. Hayden Library. Arizona State University, Tempe. “Maria Sotelo Miller: the Life of an Arizona Pioneer.” (no date). Arizona Collection. Department of Archives and Special Collections. Hayden Library. Arizona State University, Tempe. |
| RELATED ESSAY: The Mexicanas of the Tempe Normal School: A Look at the Cultural and Educational Foundation of Tempe, 1885 to 1936 |
| Hispanic Institute of Social Issues © 2006-2009 All rights reserved. webmaster@hisi.org |
| Copyright © 2009 by Christine Marin |
