In 1895 The Yaqui Indians living in Sonora Mexico fled persecution by the Mexican government and settled in the outskirts of northwest Tucson.  The houses were made of crumbling adobe bricks, wattle and daub, or odds and ends of old sheet metal and wood from the city dumps. They were built in clusters surrounding a common yard with a cross in the middle of the yard.  The city of Tucson grew to surround the village and in 1980 the city decided to tear down the homes and build red brick houses following a lot by lot development plan with chain link fences separating each home. 
To this day the Yaquis continue to practice their customs and religious ceremonies blending nativism and catholicism. 

What distinguishes the life of a village is that it is also a living portrait of itself;  a communal portrait, in that everybody is portrayed and everybody portrays.  As with the carvings on the capitols on a Romanesque church, there is an identity of spirit between what is shown and how it is shown — as if the portrayed were also the carvers.     John Berger

​

​