Houston Sikhs

FIRST GURDAWARA IN SOUTHERN USA HOUSTON

BACKGROUND

Houston is the fourth coast of the USA. The southern tip on the Gulf of Mexico. Most immigrants to USA came from Europe via New York, the East Coast on the Atlantic Ocean. The early Sikh wave of immigrants came to the West Coast on the Pacific Ocean about a century ago. The link from East Coast to West Coast was through the major mid West City of Chicago. Chicago is on the Great Lakes and is the third coast of America. Houston, the fourth coast in the south was still a “Frontier.� The modern wave of immigrants after the liberalization of immigration laws was in seventies and after. In the early seventies, Houston was still a laid back cowboy country town with very little population of immigrants. In early seventies, the boom in oil and gas and energy fields created lots of engineering jobs in Houston. Also establishment of Texas Medical Center, the worlds largest medical establishment started attracting doctors. That was the time when Sikh Engineers and doctors starting trickling down to Houston. In early seventies there were hardly a dozen Sikh families in Houston.