California’s Sikh Community

The first Gurdwara in the United States was built in Stockton, California, to support the growing Sikh farming community rising up in California. Land was purchased on South Grant Street in 1912, with a small frame house used as the Gurdwara, until a more permanent building was constructed in 1915.

In California, a small “Mexican-Hindu” community rose up in the early 20th century, as male immigrants from Punjab – mostly Sikh – married Hispanic women and started uniquely bicultural families. U.S. immigration laws restricted South Asian women from immigrating to America, while miscegenation laws forbid South Asian men from marrying white women. Marriages between South Asian men and Hispanic women – classified by law within the same racial category – resulted in bicultural children with names like “Maria Singh” and “Jose Rai.”