By Susie Ling|Monrovia Legacy Project – MonroviaWeekly.com – Courtesy photo|Mary Lou Sandoval.
Photo: Mary Lou Espinosa with her father and his Peterbilt, circa 1950s.
James William Espinosa (1904-1981) was born on Lucky Baldwin’s ranch in Arcadia, California. His father, Toribio, was then a ranch hand on the Baldwin estate and his mother, Maria, was of the Papago tribe (or Tohono O’odham) and born at the mission in San Luis Obispo. For Toribio’s work on the ranch, Baldwin gave him land on South Magnolia in Monrovia. This land was transferred before Monrovia started to enforce racially restrictive housing covenants that would otherwise have prevented a Hispanic family from owning property in this area outside the “barrio.”
