Coachella ( , commonly Languagehat.com which quotes ) is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. It is the namesake and easternmost city of the Coachella Valley, in Southern California's Colorado Desert. Originally a railroad town, Coachella is a prominent hub for agriculture and shipping across Southern California and the Western United States.
Coachella had a population of 41,941 in the 2020 Census. The city is officially bilingual in English and Spanish, with 90% of people speaking Spanish.
History Founding of the community The city was founded as Woodspur in 1876, when the Southern Pacific Railroad built a rail siding on the site to allow the harvesting of mesquite lumber for use by the railroad and later for shipment to the Los Angeles market. Jason L. Rector, an employee of Southern Pacific, was the first recorded non-Native American resident of Woodspur.
In the 1880s, in the decade after the federal government divided the land the indigenous Cahuilla tribe had historically occupied between the tribe and railroads on a checkerboard pattern, the tribe sold its land plots to the railroads for new lands east of the current town site. In the 1890s, a few hundred traqueros, including a number of immigrant Mexican railroad workers, settled along the tracks.
Coachella was transformed from a territory gridded out on the mesquite-covered desert floor to a town in its own right after Rector and his brother dug the first artesian well in 1900, providing fresh water to support incoming settlers and irrigation for agriculture.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) p.12
In 1901, the citizens of Woodspur voted on a new name for their community at a town hall meeting, settling on "Coachella". The name does not mean anything in Spanish or any of the indigenous languages of the region."Coachella History" The origin of the name Coachella is unclear. Some locals believe it was a misspelling of conchilla, a Spanish word for the small white snail shells found in the valley's sandy soil, vestiges of a lake that dried up over 3,000 years ago.
Development of Coachella and the eastern Coachella Valley After their first test well proved successful the Rector brothers cleared 25 acres, which they planted in barley, wheat, cantaloupes, watermelons and sugar beets, later that year. As the Los Angeles Times reported at the time, "the land proved wonderfully fertile, and all of the crops did well, coming to maturity in a phenomenally short time."Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) p.13
The Coachella Valley was especially attractive because it was able to produce crops earlier than other regions in the Southwestern United States. By 1902 over 100 artesian wells had been drilled in the Valley as hundreds of farmers arrived there.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) p.13
By 1902 Rector had organized the Coachella Valley Produce Association, which shipped the first boxcar of fruit ever raised in the valley. A packing house was later built in the town, followed shortly by an ice and pre-cooling plant.
These anglo growers initially relied on local Cahuilla Indians, whose traditional economy and way of life had been destroyed by smallpox, reservations and land allotments,Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) pp.17-19 to grow and pack their crops. When these farmers' need for labor outstripped that supply they recruited farmworkers from Japan.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) p.14
They were followed by large numbers of Mexican immigrants seeking work in the United States as a result of the turmoil produced by the Mexican Revolution beginning in 1910 and the Cristero Rebellion of the 1920s.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) p.25 These immigrants, joined by Mexican-American migrants from elsewhere in the Southwest, worked as farmworkers, cooks, construction workers and ran produce transport companies, markets, restaurants and ranches.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) pp.28-36
Many of these Mexican immigrants were driven out, either by formal deportation proceedings or informal coercion, during the Great Depression.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) pp.54-57 Later, during World War II, the United States government entered into agreement with the Mexican government to bring back thousands of Mexican farmworkers under the Bracero Program.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) pp.73-74
Japanese immigrants and their American-born families were also removed from the Coachella Valley when the United States government interned them during World War II.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) pp.61-62 Many of these internees returned to the Coachella Valley, where they received a warmer reception than in other parts of California.
African-Americans also moved to the Coachella Valley during the Great Migration beginning in the 1910s.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) pp.40-41 Smaller numbers of migrants came from places such as Turkey and Portugal.Crider A History of Coachella and Its People (2019) pp.37-39
Post-War changes Coachella became a city in 1946. During the incorporation voting process, the first city council was tentatively elected.
In the 1950s Coachella begin to expand its range, about , an area which contained large year-round agricultural corporate farms and fruit groves, particularly of citrus (lemons, oranges, grapefruit) and date palms.
The Coachella Valley proved to be a key site in the United Farm Workers's efforts to organize farmworkers. The union reached its first collective bargaining agreement with a table grape grower in 1970, when David Freedman & Co. broke with other grape growers and signed with the UFW. The rest of the industry soon followed suit.
Political and economic developments in Coachella By the 1980 census, Coachella's population had reached at least 10,000 due to relatively slow population growth. Due to a high percentage of Hispanics in the city, Coachella was a scene of Chicano political activism.
In 1995, state and federal officials designated Coachella as part of the Coachella Valley Enterprise Zone to boost economic activity and entice businesses to relocate to this rural city which was once home to several fruit shipping plants.
In 2010, a Coca-Cola bottling facility (a LEED certified building) was added to the city's new light industry facilities, a boon in the rapid-growth community which has a currently troubled economy.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.
The elevation is below sea level, as the eastern half of the Coachella Valley is below sea level. The saltwater lake, Salton Sea, south of Coachella, is below sea level.
Climate This climate is dominated in all months by the subtropical anticyclone, or subtropical high, with its descending air, elevated inversions, and clear skies. Although only a short distance from Banning, California which has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, it also lies in a rainshadow that allows Coachella only about one-fourth the precipitation of Banning. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Bwh" (Tropical and Subtropical Desert Climate).
Demographics
Despite its image for Mexican immigration, a large percentage are US citizens, born and raised in Coachella. A multi-generational Mexican American culture has taken root in the town, including a significant portion particularly from the Mexican state of Sinaloa.
Much of the population consists of younger Latino families (an estimated 90 percent of Hispanic origin) and, in the outlying areas, migrant farm workers. The city is officially bilingual in the English and Spanish languages, though city council meetings are held in English. Historically, apart from the Hispanic/Latino and/or Native Americans, other ethnic groups in Coachella included Arabs, Armenians, Filipinos, Italians, Japanese, and recent immigrants from Southeast Asia and the former Yugoslavia.
Racial and ethnic composition +Coachella city, California – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)8495463639338369.30%3.23%1.60%2.29%1.99%Black or African American alone (NH)9269611401361.01%0.41%0.27%0.34%0.32%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)18455354830.20%0.27%0.23%0.13%0.20%Asian alone (NH)676351681430.07%0.45%0.15%0.41%0.34%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)11310 -0.03%0.02%Other race alone (NH)165331291630.18%0.31%0.14%0.07%0.39%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)xx48113149xx0.21%0.28%0.36%Hispanic or Latino (any race)8,14816,10722,13239,25440,42189.25%95.33%97.39%96.44%96.38%Total9,12916,89622,72440,70441,941100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Coachella had a population of 41,941. The population density was . The racial makeup of Coachella was 17.3% White, 0.5% African American, 2.1% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 55.7% from other races, and 23.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents numbered 40,421 (96.4% of the population).
The census reported that 99.9% of the population lived in households, 0.1% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and no one was institutionalized. Of residents, 98.9% lived in urban areas and 1.1% lived in rural areas.
There were 9,797 households, out of which 62.9% included children under the age of 18, 57.5% were married-couple households, 7.6% were cohabiting couple households, 23.5% had a female householder with no partner present, and 11.5% had a male householder with no partner present. 5.8% of households were one person, and 2.3% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 4.27. There were 8,861 families (90.4% of all households).
The age distribution was 32.3% under the age of 18, 12.1% aged 18 to 24, 28.7% aged 25 to 44, 19.6% aged 45 to 64, and 7.3% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 28.6years. For every 100 females, there were 98.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 95.2 males.
There were 10,069 housing units at an average density of , of which 9,797 (97.3%) were occupied. Of these, 62.3% were owner-occupied, and 37.7% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.6%, the rental vacancy rate was 1.7%, and 2.7% of housing units were vacant.
2023 ACS estimates In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $67,558, and the per capita income was $24,922. About 11.1% of families and 10.6% of the population were below the poverty line.
2010 census The 2010 United States census reported that Coachella had a population of 40,704. The population density was 1,406.0 people per square mile (542.9 per km2). The racial makeup of Coachella was 19,576 (48.1%) White (2.3% Non-Hispanic White), 320 (0.8%) African American, 290 (0.7%) Native American, 266 (0.7%) Asian, 34 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 19,154 (47.1%) from other races, and 1,064 (2.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 39,254 persons (96.4%).
The Census reported that 40,646 people (99.9% of the population) lived in households, 58 (0.1%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.