Decoto is a neighborhood of

Union City, California Union City is a city in Alameda County, California, United States in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population in the 2020 census was 70,143, up from 69,628 in the 2010 census. It is located approximately south of Oakland, from San Franci ...

originally established as a separate community. It is located north-northwest of downtown Newark, along

California State Route 238 Route 238, consisting of State Route 238 (SR 238) and Interstate 238 (I-238), is a mostly north–south state and auxiliary Interstate highway in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The southern segment is signed as SR ...

History

In 1867, Ezra Decoto, a local landowner sold land to the railroad. A settlement grew up around the place. A post office operated in Decoto from 1871 to 1959, with a closure from 1872 to 1875. It was listed in the

1950 United States census The 1950 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 151,325,798, an increase of 14.5 percent over the 131,669,275 persons enumerated during the 1940 census. This was t ...

as an unincorporated place with a population of 2,830. In 1958, Decoto joined Alvarado to form Union City. The Decoto area's population has historically been largely Hispanic, mostly Mexican-American. Starting in the 1930s and especially during World War Two, Mexican families began moving to Decoto. Many were

braceros The Bracero Program (from the Spanish term ''bracero'' , meaning " manual laborer" or "one who works using his arms") was a temporary labor initiative between the United States and Mexico that allowed Mexican workers to be employed in the U.S. ...

that came to work during the labor shortages during the War years. Decoto's population still has a large Latino contingent but other ethnicities, led by various Asian groups, now constitute the majority. During the early 1970s, the

Chicano Movement The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento (Spanish for "the Movement"), was a civil rights movements, social and political movement in the United States that worked to embrace a Chicano, Chicano identity and worldview that combated ...

was in full swing and racial tensions were high in Decoto between the Latino community and police and the local Union City government. In April 1974, I Alberto Terrones was shot and killed during a robbery by Union City police. Riots erupted in Decoto. To calm tensions, Union City Police Chief William Cann came to speak at Our lady of Rosary Catholic Church in Decoto. He was shot by a sniper and died a few months later. Assassination in Decoto Timothy Swenson United Airlines Flight 615 crashed near Decoto on its approach to Oakland airport shortly before 4:30 AM

Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

on August 24, 1951. Today the growth of the adjacent Transit District is leading to rapid changes in demographics.

References

Neighborhoods in Union City, California Former populated places in California Populated places established in 1867 1958 disestablishments in California Former settlements in Alameda County, California 1867 establishments in California Populated places disestablished in 1958 {{AlamedaCountyCA-geo-stub