Santa Ana unveils memorial for Chinatown destroyed by city-ordered fire

The city of Santa Ana, California, dedicated a memorial monument Saturday to its historic Chinatown, a Chinese immigrant community that the city ordered burned down nearly 120 years earlier.

The memorial sits at the northeast corner of 3rd and Bush streets, facing the original Chinatown site. City officials say the monument tells the story of the community and is meant to educate residents while standing as a symbol of dignity, recognition and reconciliation.

Mayor Pro Tem David Penaloza led the unveiling ceremony, along with Councilmembers Thai Viet Phan, Benjamin Vazquez, Jessie Lopez, Phil Bacerra and Johnathan Ryan Hernandez. City Manager Alvaro Nuñez, members of the local Chinese American community and other residents also attended.

In the late 1800s, more than 200 Chinese immigrant workers settled in part of downtown Santa Ana, a population that peaked at as many as 800 residents. They built irrigation canals, drained swamps, worked in agriculture and helped construct Orange County’s railroad infrastructure.

The city eventually declared Chinatown a “public nuisance” and ordered it burned, later building a new City Hall on the site. The fire, sanctioned by the Santa Ana Board of Trustees, destroyed the community on May 25, 1906. In 2022, the City Council formally apologized to Chinese immigrants and their descendants.

The burning is one of many episodes of anti-Asian violence rooted in the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first federal law to bar a specific ethnic group from immigrating. Such histories shaped where Asian Americans could live, work and own property for generations. Formal acknowledgment of these injustices remains rare for many AAPI communities, making physical markers a step toward public memory and repair.