Latinos of Boulder County, Colorado, 1900-1980
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Latinos of Boulder County, Colorado, 1900-1980 Volume I: History and Contributions Marjorie K. McIntosh Latinos of Boulder County, Colorado, 1900-1980 Volume I: History and Contributions by Marjorie K. McIntosh Distinguished Professor of History Emerita University of Colorado at Boulder Written for: Boulder County Latino History Project With assistance from: Longmont Museum Endorsed by: Department of Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder Old John Publishing Palm Springs, California Copyright © 2016 Marjorie K. McIntosh All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. Marjorie K. McIntosh asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. McIntosh, Marjorie K. (Marjorie Keniston) Latinos of Boulder County, Colorado, 1900-1980 Volume I : History and Contributions / M.K. McIntosh. 332 pages. 229 cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-9863873-3-3 (hardcover) 978-0-9863873-2-6 (paperback) 1. Hispanic Americans–Colorado–Boulder County–History. 2. Colorado–History, Local–20th Century. 3. Boulder County (Colorado)–History. 2015961054 References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Old John Publishing is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. Contents Foreword by Prof. Arturo Aldama, Department of Ethnic vii Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder Author’s Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations and Notes xv Chapter 1. Setting the Stage 1 A. Describing people and communities in Boulder County 4 B. The intellectual context and primary sources 11 C. Some nineteenth-century background 19 Chapter 2. Early Hispanic Immigration to Boulder 27 County, 1900-1940 A. Immigration from Mexico 27 B. Arrivals from northern New Mexico: a complex heritage 35 C. Newcomers from southern Colorado 48 D. Quantitative evidence about immigration 49 Chapter 3. The Contributions of Hispanic Workers, 55 1900-1940 A. Agricultural work, especially with sugar beets 56 B. Coal mining 72 C. Other jobs for men 83 D. The work of women and children 88 Chapter 4. Conflict, Racism, and Violence, 1910-1940 97 A. Labor unions and strikes, 1910-1935 97 B. Racism and the Ku Klux Klan, 1910-1940 109 C. Repatriation and deportation of Mexicans, 1932-1936 127 Chapter 5. Work, Wars, and Confronting Racism, 1940-1965 135 A. Immigration and employment 135 B. Military service in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam 151 C. Challenging racism, increasing inclusion, searching 160 for identity iv Chapter 6. Being Chicano, Migrant Workers, and New Jobs, 175 1966-1980 A. Creating an inclusive Chicano identity 176 B. Reaching out to migrant workers 182 C. Empowerment through new opportunities for work 188 Chapter 7. Chicano Civil Rights Activism in the Later 205 1960s and 1970s A. Political activism by Boulder County residents 206 B. Chicano students at CU-Boulder, organizations, and 225 “Los Seis de Boulder” C. The shootings in Longmont and founding of El 237 Comité, 1980 Epilogue: Boulder County’s Latinas/os in the early 2010s 243 Appendices 1.1. Total Population Figures, Three Towns and 251 County, U.S. Census Data, 1900-2010 1.2. Minimum Number of Latino-Surnamed Adults, 252 Three Towns, 1900-1975 2.1. Birthplace of Latino Adults, Three Towns, U. S. 254 Census Data, 1900-1940 2.2. Latino-Surnamed Children in Annual School 256 Censuses, Longmont, 1905-1964 2.3. Latino-Surnamed Children in Annual School 258 Censuses, Lafayette and Boulder, 1915-1955 2.4. Birthplace of Parents of Latino-Surnamed Children 260 in School Censuses, Three Towns, 1925-1935 3.1. Birthplace of Latino-Surnamed Farm Workers 261 and Coal Miners, Longmont and Lafayette, U.S. Census Data, 1920-1940 3.2. Occupations, Three Towns, U. S. Census Data, 262 1900-1940 3.3. Summary, Occupational Analysis of Latino- 266 Surnamed Adults, Three Towns Combined, Polk’s City Directories, 1926-1975 v List of Illustrations, with Credits 269 List of Maps 273 Sources 275 A. Sources about Boulder County Latinas/os 276 B. Other books, articles, and on-line materials 295 Index 303 Cover: Eloisa, Paulina, and Dulcinea Martinez, daughters of a sugar beet worker, on a Sunday morning in Lafayette, 1929. Courtesy of Linda Arroyo-Holmstrom vii Foreword “It is better to die standing than to live on your knees” Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919) “No quiero tu lastima”1 : The Enduring Power of Stories I have been teaching and writing about the complex histories, mestiza/o cultures, and borderland identities of the Chicana and Chicano community since the 1990s. Even though we are victimized in many ways—by histories of manifest destiny, land grabs, daily and institutional race- and class-based discrimination, gendered violence, nativism and anti-immigrant laws and practices, erasure and demonization in the media—we hate to see ourselves as victims and do not seek to be pitied or patronized. Like other racially oppressed communities, and survivors of violence, we consider pity offensive. We rather seek empathy, compassion, and open-mindedness from those who want to hear about and feel the stories of survival, struggle, and joy that mark our lives as individuals, families, and communities. Like all groups in the United States, we want to create better lives for ourselves and for future generations. We defy and in fact are the diametric opposite to the enduring, a-factual, ahistorical stereotype of the lazy Mexican. Our underpaid and overexploited labor has been and still is essential to the economic and cultural growth of the nation. Colorado, like other states in the Southwest, has attempted to erase, displace, segregate, co-opt, and “white wash” the demography and historical presence of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Chicanas/os. That effort was helped by the U.S. The two volumes in this set present stories of struggle and the Census, which classified Mexicans as “white” until the 1940s. 1 This translates as “I don’t want your pity” and is from a song by “Los Tigres del Norte,” an ensemble based in San Jose, California. viii implacable force of dignity in the Chicana and Chicano community in Boulder County. The singular and collective power of the voices of individuals and families heard in these volumes is profound, complex, and long lasting. The books and their illustrations, drawn from a large archive of interviews, family biographies, photographs, and other source materials (most of them available on the website of the Boulder County Latino History Project) give the reader the privilege to hear, see, and learn about Chicana/o families as they struggle to maintain their cultural identity, language, religion, food, respect for elders, and belief in the power of familia. The study gives us the background to the current- day demonization of immigrants from south of the U.S./Mexico border that is central to the fabric of U.S. political life (insuring that politicians, states). We learn that the creation of the eponymous “illegal alien” and mayors, and governors will get elected and stay elected in office in some practices of deportation for those who appear Mexican were already visiblethe practices in Boulder of racial County profiling, in the assumptions 1920s and of 1930s. illegality, To andgo beyondthreats andthe anecdotal nature of individual statements, the author has used hundreds of newspaper articles and compiled rare quantitative material extracted from previously unused sources. Studies of Chicana/o history in states like California, Arizona, and own local cultures and economic patterns. Yet there are moments, laws, policies,Texas explore and market a range forces of issues that thataffect are all specificpeoples toof eachMexican state ancestry and its in the U.S. and shape how the community responds to and adapts to these events and forces. As the Boulder County Latino History Project started the tremendous work of documenting the histories of Latinos in this area, bringing communities together and creating a space for people—especially women—to discuss their stories, their struggles, their ancestors, and to preserve photographic, archival, and other sources, I was curious to see what is shared or unique about a Chicano community on the northern edge of the borderlands. As you read this captivating study, you will encounter themes that resonate from descriptions of other parts of the Southwest. Families displaced by the violence of the especially sugar beets, and mines of Colorado (like other states in the SouthwestMexican revolution and even were Chicago). “pulled” Mexican up to immigrantfill labor demands families inwhose the fields,labor was essential to the economic growth of the state moved into ethnically mixed but partially segregated neighborhoods in Boulder, Lafayette, and ix Longmont. We watch how how local families survived the violence of the by organizing strikes, encouraging their children to do well in high school, goKu toKlux college, Klan andin the become 1920s-1930s leaders; and we seethe howway womenthey started and their to “fight comadres back” supported each other and maintained the health and religious vitality of the community. The book also shows how Chicanas/os in Boulder County, like other parts of the Southwest and Chicago, had to learn to suppress their internalizing forces of shaming because of skin color, language, culture, andculture religion and languagethat differed to fit from in and the survivewhite dominant in an Anglo society. world, As sometimes the saying by the well-loved Emiliano Zapata, who fought to regain the lands and livelihoods of the majority of Mexicans in the 1910 Mexican revolution, states, “It is better to die standing than to live on your knees.” You will be bowled over by the eloquence, truth, and enduring power of dignidad of the voices in this study.