Above : Photo looking toward Stierlin Road from Railroad Ave ( Central Expressway ) and Castro Street taken on June 3 , 1937 . The Red & White Market on the left would eventually house Escano ’ s Market . La Charca de La Rana is in the distance ( Source : MVHA Archives ). Right : Escano ’ s Market on Stierlin Road ( Source : Hawaiian Spaniards Facebook group , Steven Alonzo ).
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The name was a tongue-in-the-cheek reference to the muddy condition of the neighborhood ’ s unpaved streets after a rainstorm . In her entry in the oral history of Mountain View ’ s Spanish population Bittersweet : Memories of Old Mountain View , former resident of the neighborhood Maria Josepha Miras gives some additional insight into how the neighborhood got its name :
It was nothing but mud . There were no streets , no lights , or anything . That is why they called Washington Street the “ frog pond ”.
Different people would have parties that lasted the whole night and they really had a ball . Isabel Nava used to have a party . They used to have a pool hall and they put everything away for the weekend . They had a big party for everybody . Then they would come home staggering in the middle of the night , not because they drank , but because they were tired .
They were up to their knees in mud .
The number of Spaniards in the area grew large enough to support small businesses such as markets , service stations , billiard halls , barbers , and shoe repair . Spaniards opened their own businesses such as the Escano ’ s Market , Guerrero ’ s service station , and Galvan ’ s barbershop . To help each other , the Spaniards also formed a branch of a social club based in Sunnyvale called Sociedad Cervantes Espanola . This started with funeral benefits , but like many Spanish clubs in the U . S . at the time , it raised money to support the Spanish Republic . At the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War ( 1936-1939 ), any
hopes of returning to Spain were mostly dashed . These new Americans now had established roots in Mountain View . Most of their children were American citizens , and those who weren ’ t applied in earnest to become naturalized citizens .
During the Great Depression other Spanish-speaking families , predominantly immigrants from Mexico and Mexican-American migrants from the Southwest , also settled in the Washington Street neighborhood . As was shared in our last newsletter , this Hispanic barrio was largely destroyed by the construction of Central Expressway and Shoreline Boulevard ( then Bailey Avenue ) in the 1960s and its residents forced to relocate .
Today , the descendants of the original Spanish immigrants in Mountain View have assimilated with the rest of the residents of the city . They might hold on to traditions by preparing Spanish recipes passed down from previous generations , but they no longer live together in one section of the city . Unless you know where to look , there are few indicators of the original “ La Charca de la Rana ”. The original Spaniards forged a better life for their families . Their descendants have benefited from their hard work to realize the American Dream .
David P . Salinero is a third generation resident of Mountain View . Between 1913 and 1921 , all his grandparents immigrated to California from the same small town located in the Salamanca region of Spain , named Macotera . His maternal grandparents arrived via Cuba , his paternal grandfather via Hawaii , and his paternal grandmother via Ellis Island .
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