Simons, California

Simons: to the outsider, was no more than a shantytown slum. But to the inhabitants, especially us kids when we lived there, it was heaven. - kiki                 

                                            My home town

        An excerpt from ‘The Brick People’ by Alejandro Morales

“Mr. Simons made it happen. Everything is his. The store, pool hall, post office, movie show, bachelor’s cabins, Vail School, the library, the church, the water tower, the electricity, the clinic, the trains, the machines, the lots. The houses, unpainted and battered by the weather, the walls of scrap lumber, barely standing together, all the same; two, maybe three bedrooms, a kitchen and small living room, no bath, no toilet. Some had been there for thirty, forty years, but they’re clean on the inside and the outside, pretty garden, lots of plants. It’s not too bad, it’s not too good. It was planned by Mr. Simons and the City.

Simons was built at just the correct distance from Montebello to discourage the Mexicans from going into town. It was logical to have a separate school, church, and other conveniences. The Simons Mexicans were to live, work, play, worship, and trade apart, at a safe distance from Montebello. When Simons was established it was never proposed that the company town be a part of Montebello, or for that matter any city. It was understood that the Mexicans were to remind apart in every way”