Driving Chandler's Streets

Pueblo Alto, widely known as Hightown, began in the 1920s as a small farm worker settlement for Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers. Hightown is located near the southeast corner of today's McClintock Road and Chandler Boulevard. The three-block subdivision was platted on June 1, 1946 and consisted of eighty lots.

Nellie and Lucy Ortega talked about the area of Hightown and their childhood memories in an interview on April 7, 2005.

Nellie was born on Feb. 14, 1923 in Chandler on Warner and McClintock Roads. Lucy was born on Jan. 7, 1931 in Chandler. The doctor was Dr. Gilbert.

Lucy and Nellie grew up in Hightown and attended Kyrene School, which was three miles away from where they lived. Their only method of transportation was the bus that would pick them up at the corner. Lucy got married and had one child and Nellie never got married. Lucy worked at the Chandler Regional Hospital as a nursing assistant for 25 years. Nellie worked in the fields mostly picking cotton and is now a food server at Kyrene. Lucy and Nellie lived most of their adult life in Hightown. They are Catholic and have four brothers and two other sisters, a total of eight siblings.

Their parents were Anastacio and Cornelia Ortega who came from Zacatecas, Mexico and migrated to the United States in the year 1919. They settled in Hightown in the year 1924.

When their parents first came to Hightown, there were only three houses, including their house. They said that no one owned the land in Hightown at the time they arrived. The area was described as having cotton fields, sage brush, and snakes.

In 1946 the area became known as Pueblo Alto because the land was on higher ground compared to other parts of Chandler. Two of the first families to come to Hightown were the Lopez and Chavez families. Most of the people in Pueblo Alto worked in the fields in order to support their families. The first houses in Hightown had dirt floors, out houses, and were usually built with one room, and a kitchen. There were two beds to sleep in, but usually two or three people slept in each bed. There was no running water at the time, so families would have to carry water from the canal or from the store.

The farms near Hightown produced cotton, wheat and corn. The farms were owned by the Dobsons and Tom Anderson. Lucy and Nellie's father worked for Mr. Dobson on his farm. When the Ortega family arrived in Hightown the school was already there, but Lucy and Nellie were placed into a separate classroom with other Mexican and Mexican-American children. There was still segregation in Arizona schools during the 1930's and 1940's.

Over the years the neighborhood grew little by little, with more homes and the Estrella Market opening. The Estrella market was renamed the Espinoza Market by David Espinoza. Lucy and Nellie said that the Estrella Market was small but had everything they needed. Also, the market gave credit to the people in the town. In 1974, David Espinoza built Espo's Restaurant which is located on Chandler Boulevard. Lucy and Nellie said that the people in Hightown shop at Espinoza Market, Savers, and Bashas.

Some of the memories that Lucy and Nellie have of growing up in Hightown include the other families. Lucy said that she remembers when they would play outside at night with the Lopez's and Chavez's children. Also, she remembers when the children would play in the water pumps and go swimming. Nellie remembers when the children would play red rover and kick the bucket. Also, another memory is that Kyrene School was called the Little Red House.

Their traditions are part of their memories and were associated with special occasions. On their birthdays their mother would make Mexican hot chocolate, red chile, chicken, and rice for them. At Christmas they made and ate tamales.

Another type of memory was of Kyrene School and how it looked. The school had one room with a few desks, boards, and only one teacher. Their teacher was also their music teacher. These children usually played baseball for P.E. because there was no P.E. teacher. Lucy and Nellie went to school up until the eighth grade.

Lucy and Nellie said that Hightown has changed somewhat from when they were younger. Their neighbors are nosy, not as nice, and keep to themselves. These aren't like the neighbors they had when they were little. Their original neighbors would talk with one another and visit at night. Also, not as many people who grew in Hightown still live in there. Lucy says, "Most of the neighbors around us we don't even know."

Hightown was incorporated into the city of Chandler in 1971 when the city annexed much of the West Chandler area to the I-10. The neighborhood by then had about sixty homes and 230 residents, primarily of Mexican descent. The area has been one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chandler, and the city helped rehabilitate ten homes in the 1990's. In 2000 the city also designed a small park for the neighborhood.

Images on this page courtesy of The Ortega Family and the Chandler Museum.

WORK CITED

Ortega, Nellie and Lucy Ortega. Personal Interview. 7 Apr. 2005.

Reynolds, Jean. Pueblo Alto/Hightown History.