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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Fall 1981

Beyond The Borderlands: Mexican Labor In The Central Plains, 1900-1930

Michael M. Smith Oklahoma State University

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Smith, Michael M., "Beyond The Borderlands: Mexican Labor In The Central Plains, 1900-1930" (1981). Great Plains Quarterly. 1871. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1871

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. BEYOND THE BORDERLANDS: MEXICAN LABOR IN THE CENTRAL PLAINS, 1900 .. 1930

MICHAEL M. SMITH

The northern and central plains states, lying compact area. The rising tide of Mexican migra­ well beyond the Spanish borderlands and tion to the northern and central plains states containing no great urban metropolises, have after the turn of the century, when conditions received scant attention in published studies of in both Mexico and the United States encour­ Mexican migration to and Mexican labor in the aged immigration, and the Great Depression, United States. Although this region did not which witnessed the ebb and finally the out­ attract Mexican immigrants in large numbers, ward flow of the vast majority of Mexicans compared to California, Arizona, New Mexico, from the region, have determined the chrono­ Texas, and Colorado and such cities as Chicago logical parameters of the study. This is a general or Detroit, there was a dramatic increase in spatial and occupational survey that does not the number of Mexican immigrants to the attempt to present a detailed account of social plains states between 1900 and 1930. These conditions or wage scales. persons filled a vital, yet generally ignored, role in the economic life of the region.1 CAUSES OF MEXICAN MIGRATION This study examines Mexican migration to Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, A variety of factors coalesced during the and North Dakota. Such a spatial limitation first three decades of the twentieth century to permits a survey of migration and labor beyond stimulate massive migration of Mexicans the borderlands and outside the large industrial across the border and subsequently into the centers while providing an opportunity to in­ central and northern plains. During the latter vestigate Mexican labor in a geographically years of the nineteenth century, the Mexican peasantry had faced an oppressive combination Michael M. Smith is an associate professor of of land-ownership concentration; debt peonage, history at Oklahoma State University. A spe­ demographic pressure, static wages, and a rising cialist in the history of New Spain and Mexico, cost of living. Faced with the chilling alter­ he is the author of The Mexicans in Oklahoma natives of flight or starvation, migration was (1980) and The "Real Expedici6n Maritlina de the only liberation for hundreds of poor la Vacuna" in New Spain and Guatemala (1974). campesinos who roamed Mexico in search of

239 240 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1981

employment. The inhabitants of the populous no threat to the "American way of life." Prior Central Plateau-including the states of J alisco, to the Great Depression, Mexican workers were Michoacan, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, and routinely exempted from the restrictions im­ Zacatecas-most sharply felt the effects of the posed upon others by the various immigration social and economic problems that beset acts. 3 Mexico, and they comprised the largest propor­ The presence of Mexicans in the plains states tion of Mexican immigrants to the plains was closely associated with the railroads, which region. Between 1900 and 1910, perhaps as provided the major arteries of migration from many as 500,000 Mexicans entered the United Mexico to the United States and were the States. Immigration increased even more major employers and distributors of Mexican rapidly between 1910 and 1930. The Mexican labor throughout the region. By 1904 railroad revolution and its attendant physical destruc­ lines bridged the desert between the Mexican tion, social upheaval, agricultural collapse, heartland and the Texas border towns of El and inflation produced widespread suffering Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo, and Brownsville. As and drove people from the land. Although immigrants crossed the Rio Grande, agents traditional studies have credited the revolu­ obligingly facilitated their contact with a tion with causing the massive exodus of Mexi­ variety of employers, who either sent their own cans to the United States in the twentieth recruiters to the border or utilized private century, more recent works have shown that agencies that were exclusively engaged in secur­ it merely intensified a movement that had been ing Mexican workers. El Paso, which had direct under way for over a decade.2 rail contact with the Central Plateau as well as Concomitant with the expanding supply of the mining centers across the border, was the highly mobile Mexican labor was the economic paramount recruiting center. The primary development of the American West and South­ railroads of Oklahoma and Kansas-the Atchin­ west. Railroad constI;uction and maintenance, son, Topeka, and Santa Fe (Santa Fe); the mining, and the enormous expansion of agricul­ Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific (Rock Is­ ture in this area of low population density land); the St. Louis and San Francisco (Frisco); created a mushrooming demand for workers. and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas (Katy)­ American laborers, whose wages and standard all had direct or indirect connections with El of living were rising rapidly at this time, dis­ Paso and Laredo and drew heavily upon the dained these opportunities when they could pool of cheap, unskilled labor there. In an find more attractive and more remunerative eight-month period between 1907 and 1908, employment elsewhere. While American work­ six El Paso companies supplied almost 16,500 ers refused to take these jobs in the West, tradi­ Mexicans to various railroad corporations. tional sources of foreign labor progressively By 1928 the Santa Fe alone employed a total diminished during the period. The Chinese of 14,300 Mexicans. With a turnover rate that Exclusion Act (1882) and the "Gentleman's once reached 300 percent annually, the Santa Agreement" with Japan (1907) effectively Fe required a constantly renewable supply of excluded orientals. The outbreak of World War workers. Thousands of Mexicans were shipped I and the Immigration Acts of 1917, 1921, and every year from El Paso to Kansas City, which 1924 curtailed the immigration of Europeans. became the major distribution center of Mexi­ As a result, railroad, mining, industrial, and cans in the Midwest. Thus, the web of railway agricultural interests grew increasingly depen­ lines facilitated the dispersion of Mexicans dent upon laborers from Mexico. Many employ­ throughout the plains states and fed labor to ers considered Mexicans as the ideal solution employers in the region.4 to their labor problems. The Mexicans' pattern A peculiar characteristic of Mexican work­ of working for brief periods in the United ers in the northern and central plains was the States and then returning home seemed to pose "leapfrog" nature of their migration. Reaching BEYOND THE BORDERLANDS 241

the American border, natives of the Central in Mexico. The proximity of their homeland Plateau found that their compatriots from and the practice of railroad companies and northern Mexico had already taken the jobs in other employers to provide free or reduced-rate that area. Thus, they comprised the vast major­ transportation to the border encouraged tran­ ity of those who traveled beyond the border sience.8 Although conditions in Mexico and, directly to the plains states. Studies of Mexi­ later, the railroads' attempts to secure a less cans in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and North volatile labor force often induced them to bring Dakota confirm this phenomenon.S their families north and prolong their stay for Mexicans in the plains states differed mark­ many years, most Mexicans in the plains states edly from their European counterparts in their were visitors who rarely became settlers and generally transitory residence. Land ownership citizens. held an overpowering attraction for many European immigrants. They frequently estab­ DISTRIBUTION IN THE PLAINS STATES lished themselves in rural ethnic enclaves, bought farms, and became permanent residents The accompanying table and maps show and citizens.6 Mexicans, on the other hand, that significant numbers of Mexicans were because of the nature of their employment and present in the northern and central plains their own preferences, rarely became land­ states between 1910 and 1930. These figures owners.7 As migrant or temporary workers, must stand, however, as estimates rather than they came for the season and then returned to precise statistics. The published federal and the border or their homes in the interior. At state censuses did not always include Mexicans first most came as solos-bachelors or married as an enumerated group in all states and in all men traveling alone-who took back or sent years under examination when reporting money to support their families who remained inhabitants by county or in the smaller cities

MEXICANS IN THE GREAT PLAINS STATES: 1900-1940

1900 1910 1920 1930a 1940

Oklahoma 70b 2,645 6,884 7,354 1,425 Kansas 71 8,429 13,770 19,150 5,122 Nebraska 27 289 2,452 6,312 1,773 South Dakota 13 13 68 816 76 North Dakota 1 8 27 608 56

Total 182 11,384 23,201 34,240 8,452

Total in U.S. 103,393 221,915 486,418 1,258,317 377,433

aThe 1930 census fIgures reflect the "Mexican-stock" population. bTotal for Oklahoma Territory only. Indian Territory contained 68 Mexican-born. SOURCE: United States Census 242 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1981

o NO/O-2A8 o NO/O-24. 200 0 - ... 200 0 -­ ~ !iOD-7'. ~ !iOD-7'. !'i!!!I7!iO-'" ~700-'" .1ODD-2911 • 1DOD-2011

Source: u.s. c.n .... Source: u.s. c.., ....

FIG. 1. Distribution of Mexicans in Oklahoma, FIG. 2. Distribution of Mexicans in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska by County, 1910. Kansas, and Nebraska by County, 1920. and towns. In addi5ion, federal census data general patterns of their distribution between represent only those Mexicans counted at a 1900 and 1930. In 1900 federal enumerators particular place on a specific date at ten-year found only 182 Mexicans in the five-state intervals. Little significant data exist for the area. By 1910, however, the Mexican popula­ intervening years. The timing of the census was tion had risen to more than 11,000, with ap­ also unfortunate for establishing precise counts proximately 8,500 in Kansas and 2,600 in Okla­ of Mexicans in the region. Censuses for the key homa. The 1920 census recorded an even more years of 1910, 1920, and 1930 were taken in dramatic increase. Kansas reported nearly the months of April, January, and April, re­ 14,000 Mexican-born (the seventh-largest spectively. Mexicans typically would be visiting Mexican-born population in the United States), their homeland during the winter and early while Oklahoma counted almost 7,000 and spring. Undoubtedly many more Mexicans were Nebraska nearly 2,500. Although the first in the plains states during the summer, when shock waves of the Great Depression had al­ track maintenance was at its peak, and during ready rippled through the plains states by the the fall harvest seasons. It is generally believed beginning of 1930, the Mexican-stock popula­ that the federal census and the Kansas state tion surpassed 34,000 in the five-state region. census, the most valuable of its kind for the Well over half-19,150-resided in Kansas. region, represent considerable undercounts of In addition, there were more ,than 7,000 Mexicans.9 Finally, there is no way to assess Mexicans in Oklahoma, 6,300 in Nebraska, 800 accurately the number of Mexicans who were in in South Dakota, and 600 in North Dakota. these states illegally and evaded the census By 1940, however, only about 8,500 Mexican­ takers. born remained.10 Federal census data clearly indicate the sig­ Since Mexicans came into the northern and nificant increase of Mexicans in the region and central plains as migrant or temporary workers, BEYOND THE BORDERLANDS 243

movement into Nebraska as well. More than 600 Mexicans lived in the railway and meat­ packing center of Omaha, while thousands more. were employed by the Union Pacific and Burlington railroads and in the sugar­ beet-producing North Platte valley in western Nebraska. By 1920, growing concentrations of Mexicans resided in the region's impo~tant cities. Oklahoma City, Topeka (where the Santa Fe had its national headquarters), and Wichita each contained about 800 Mexicans. More than 2,000 lived in Kansas City. The census of 1930 reveals the full extent of the distribution of Mexican labor in the region. Tens of thousands worked in Oklahoma,

DND/D-... Kansas, and Nebraska. In addition, hundreds D 250-_ of Mexicans labored in the sugar beet fields ~ 500-'" in and around Belle Fourche in western South ~ '50-." .1DDO-.I1' Dakota and in the Red River valley of North Dakota, more than 1,500 miles beyond the border.ll FIG. 3. Distribution of Mexicans in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska by County, 1930. MEXICAN LABOR AND THE RAILROADS By far, the primary employers of Mexicans labor needs dictated their distribution in were the railroads. Mexicans began working the region. By 1910 the dispersion of Mexicans on railroads as early as the 1880s and 1890s in in Oklahoma and Kansas was already indica­ Oklahoma and by 1902 in Kansas. The vast tive of later patterns of distribution as well. majority of Mexican-born male residents inter­ Mexicans in Oklahoma lived primarily in the viewed in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska counties and towns along the state's four major have stated that they were railroad employees railroads-the Santa Fe, Rock Island, Frisco, at one time or another. Although construction and Katy. The coal-mining district in south­ of the major portions of the region's railways eastern Oklahoma and the cotton-producing had been completed prior to the heaviest migra­ southwestern quadrant of the state also con­ tion, Mexican workers ultimately developed tained significant numbers of Mexicans. The a virtual monopoly over track maintenance railroads-principally the Santa Fe and Rock operations. Railroads needed track labor from Island-were the primary employers of Mexi­ March to October, and most Mexicans came in­ cans in Kansas. The importance of the Santa tending to work only for the season. They Fe is illustrated by the fact that more than signed contracts for six- or nine-month periods 68 percent of the state's Mexican-born resided and received transportation back to the border in the 28 counties (of the state's 105) through if they fulf:tlled their agreement. Many Mexi­ which that company's lines passed. In addi­ cans returned annually to work for the same tion, Mexicans worked in meat-packing plants railroad and often in the same geographical in Kansas City, Wichita, and Topeka, in and area. 12 around the southwestern sugar beet center Mexicans initially filled positions on extra of Garden City, and in the salt mines of central gangs. Their principal jobs were ballasting, Kansas. The census of 1920 demonstrates the laying ties, and ordinary pick-and-shovel work. 244 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1981

Most came as solos, since life on the extra gangs of keeping track workers and in recognition of was extremely nomadic. Laborers were con­ their positive performance. To encourage em­ stantly shuttled to locations requiring emergency ployees to bring their families and settle more or temporary work. They lived in dilapidated permanently, the Santa Fe built crude houses boxcars that were converted into crude shelters on railroad property and rented them for a low and parked along sidings. Even though railroad fee. Constructed of scrap pieces and cheap, wages in the plains states were higher than second-hand materials, these dwellings provided those for similar work along the border, many minimally adequate shelter.lS Not all workers, laborers broke their contract and drifted however, enjoyed even these rudimentary into other unskilled jobs in the region. The accommodations. Many continued to occupy unsteady nature of employment, the constant boxcars and tents pitched along the right-of­ moving about, and a desire to be nearer their way. The companies encouraged those who did families were the principal reasons for aban­ not live along the right-of-way to settle nearby. doning railroad work. They preferred that the labor force reside in a Extra gang employment frequently led to compact unit so that the entire crew of a sec­ securing a position on a section crew, that is, a tion could be summoned immediately in case maintenance group assigned to a specific por­ of an emergency.16 This residential pattern tion of the track line. In major railroad centers, established Mexican settlements "across the Mexicans also found employment in the shops, tracks" in almost all major centers in the plains roundhouses, and yards. They almost always states. filled the low-level ranks, seldom advancing to The Great Depression significantly affected positions as section foremen or to the skilled the employment of Mexicans by the railroads and more responsible jobs in the shops. The in the region. Pressured by federal officials, reasons most frequently given for excluding congressional committees, labor unions, and Mexicans from the better positions were their unemployed CItizens, railroad corporations lack of requisite skills and their inability to drastically reduced the number of their Mexi­ speak English. Many Mexican workers, how­ can employees or removed them from their ever, clearly perceived that prejudice in a racial­ payrolls entirely. A major exception to this ly conscious society also obstructed their pattern was the Santa Fe in Kansas, which advancement.13 Since few had year-round em­ maintained a large Mexican labor force through­ ployment, many Mexicans returned to the out the period.17 border after completing their contract. Others, however, saw little advantage in going home MEXICANS AND THE and sought alternative jobs until the railroads SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY needed them again. Many track employees worked the Texas and Oklahoma cotton har­ The sugar beet industry ranked second only vest, which began almost at the same time of to the railroads in the concentrated employ­ year that their contract period ended. Some ment of Mexican laborers in the northern and found work in mines and industries, on farms central plains states. The protection that the and ranches, or as municipal employees. Others Dingley tariff offered American sugar interests joined the great migrant agricultural pool and in 1897 stimulated the production of sugar followed the sugar beet, tomato, strawberry, beets throughout the United States. Farmers wheat, and corn harvests in the plains states or had raised some beets in the Arkansas valley beyond to Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, of southwestern Kansas and in the North Platte Minnesota, and elsewhere. 14 valley of western Nebraska as early as the By 1912, railroad companies were already 1880s and 1890s. The proven profitability of endeavoring to attract Mexicans on a more the crop led to the construction of the first permanent basis both because of the difficulty sugar beet mill in Garden City, Kansas, in BEYOND THE BORDERLANDS 245

1906. In 1908 the Great Western Sugar Com­ pany (the largest producer of beet sugar in the United States) began growing beets in Nebraska and built a factory at Scottsbluff in 1910. Later, farmers turned to raising beets on the northern plains in the Belle Fourche region of western South Dakota and in the Red River valley of North Dakota. By 1928, Nebraska had become the second-largest producer of sugar beets in the United States.18 Mexicans began to replace other immigrant laborers in the beet fields as early as 1910. When world War I caused a severe shortage of labor in the industry, the United States lifted all restrictions on the importation of Mexican agricultural workers. Between 1918 and 1920, about 20 percent of all the hand laborers came directly from Mexico. In the latter year, the Great Western Suga~ Company spent $360,000 to recruit workers all along the Rio Grande. The company shipped them north on special trains, paid their fare and meals, and then distributed them to farmers who needed Mexican boys working in the Kansas sugar beet field hands. In 1926 the Great Western spent fields, 1922. Courtesy of the Kansas State His­ another $250,000 to supply more than 14,000 torical Society, Topeka. workers.19 Sugar beet production required arduous and monotonous labor. Usually the head of a family contracted to work a specific number of acres reported that from 75 to 90 percent of the for a stipulated wage per acre. An experienced beet field hands in the north central states hand could tend about ten acres, while a very were Mexicans. Another observer stated the skillful one might handle as many as fifteen. following year that 5,000 Mexicans were work­ By 1927, the average wage per acre was from ing in Nebraska's North Platte valley. When $23 to $24. The six-month work cycle, which congressional committees in 1928 and 1929 ended in November or- December, was com­ conducted hearings to consider stopping the prised of three separate operations-blocking flow of migrant workers from Mexico, repre­ and thinning, hoeing and weeding, and pulling sentatives of the sugar beet interests testified and topping. Entire families worked in the that if they could not continue to use Mexi­ fields together, as women and children aided cans, their industry would be ruined.20 in the hoeing and pulling chores. Employment The following statistics reveal the close rela­ was not continuous over the entire season, tionship between the sugar beet industry and however, and the field hands' total work days Mexicans in Nebraska and the Dakotas. In 1920 averaged only about 50 percent of the whole the leading beet-producing counties of Ne­ cycle. Between operations, they had to seek braska contained 20 percent of the state's temporary jobs elsewhere. total Mexican population; by 1930 they held By the 1920s "beet workers" and "Mexi­ over 50 percent. In the latter year, the two cans" were nearly synonymous terms in many major beet-producing counties of South Dakota areas of the plains states. In 1927 one writer registered 77 percent of all Mexicans in the 246 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1981 state, and the four principal beet counties of in the city. Although many workers from the North Dakota reported over 80 percent of all warmer climes of Mexico disliked toiling in the Mexicans. 21 cold lockers, the work had some advantages. Because there were usually few job oppor­ Most Mexican employees were common labor­ tunities during the winter months in the beet ers, but many held semiskilled positions and regions, most workers returned to the border received better wages than their compatriots or to Mexico after the harvest. Although the in other industries. Packing houses usually Great Depression virtually stopped the flow of offered year-round employment and were Mexican workers to the United States, Mexi­ therefore much more attractive than the cans and Mexican Americans continued to railroads. A study of three Omaha plants dominate the beet labor force on the plains conducted in 1927 revealed the relatively per­ during the thirties. manent residency and steadiness of employ­ men t in the meat-processing industry. Mexican employees averaged between six and one-half MEAT PACKING, COAL MINING, to eight years of service with those three com- AND AGRICULTURE pames.. 23 The meat-packing industry in Kansas City, A significant number of Mexicans worked in Omaha, Oklahoma City, Wichita, and Topeka the coal mines of southeastern Oklahoma, also employed many Mexican laborers. Since principally in Pittsburg County. Mining, which these cities were important railroad centers, had begun in the 1870s, led to the extension of it is difficult to determine precisely the number a line of the Katy railroad through the area. of Mexicans who worked in the packing houses. By 1890 Mexicans who had been employed on Although Mexicans had found employment in construction crews began to abandon railroad Kansas City's packing plants in 1908, a con­ work for better-paying jobs in the mines. gressional immigration commISSIOn report Later, additional Mexicans migrated from coal noted only eleven Mexican-born in that indus­ fields in Texas and Colorado and the gold- and try in 1909. The same survey reported only silver-mining districts of central and northern three Mexican employees in the South Omaha Mexico. In 1910 the congressional immigration meat-packing district. The number of Mexican commission reported that several hundred laborers in the industry increased sharply Mexicans worked in the area and comprised during World War I. By 1921, approximately the fourth-largest ethnic group in the mines. two to three hundred Mexicans were employed Nearly 50 percent had been miners in Mexico. in the Armourdale district of Kansas City after Coal mining was the only industry employing they had served as strikebreakers during labor large numbers of workers in the area, and 100 disputes. Many of Wichita's "north colony" percent of employed Mexicans worked in the Mexicans found employment in that district's mines. They found employment for between stockyards and packing plants, but somewhat six and nine months a year, averaging about fewer were employed in Topeka. A large one hundred seventy days annually. Much of number of Oklahoma City's railroad workers the time lost was due to the suspension of lived in the southwestern "Packingtown" operations from April to June. During this neighborhood, and at times several hundred slack time, most Mexicans sought work on the former section laborers worked for the nearby railroads and then returned to the mines when Swift and Wilson companies.22 operations resumed. The majority were com­ In 1923 Omaha's Mexican population reached mon piece workers, because operators preferred nearly one thousand; approximately six hun­ Americans or English-speaking immigrants for dred resided in South Omaha, which contained the most skilled or responsible positions. the city's three largest packing plants. By 1927 Although Mexicans were not segregated, about twelve hundred fifty Mexicans lived they preferred the company of their own BEYOND THE BORDERLANDS 247

Display at the Mexican Independence Day celebration at Anadarko, Oklahoma, September 16, 1901. Father Hidalgo, who started the revolt against Spain, is in the center top photo­ graph. Courtesy of the Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma.

countrymen on the job and during leisure all sources of income, the average Mexican hours. The pick-mining system of labor that family earned about $470 a year in the mining prevailed in the mines required two-man teams district.24 to work in areas often located hundreds of feet Between 1920 and 1930 the Mexican popu­ from the entrance and isolated from other lation in the coal-mining area increased marked­ teams. All miners chose their partners from ly, with most still residing in Pittsburg Coun ty. within their own ethnic group, and therefore Average daily wages for Mexicans reached it was not only among Mexicans that fathers $3.60 in 1917 and as high as $7.50 in 1925. and sons, brothers, close relatives, and friends The decline of the coal industry in Oklahoma, worked together. however, had already begun by the latter year. Mexican miners earned an average of $375 The increasing use of gas and oil for fuel and a a year, but a few earned over $600. Almost severe strike between 1924 and 1927 hastened all Mexican families surveyed had to supple­ its demise. During the labor disputes, coal com­ ment the father's income in some way. About panies hired 1,200 Mexican strikebreakers and 20 percent of the households took in lodgers forced an open shop. By the early 1930s or boarders, and women frequently washed and declining wages and deteriorating safety condi­ ironed for the single men. No Mexican women, tions revived the union and caused more strikes. however, worked outside the home. Including Mexican workers joined the union and supported 248 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1981

its demands, but when the full impact of the grain fields of northern Oklahoma and Kansas. Great Depression struck the area, most Mexi­ Some railroad contractors reported that they cans abandoned the mines, moved to Tulsa or lost nearly one-third of their labor force for Oklahoma City in search of other jobs, or that reason.27 Despite the massive shortage of simply left the state.25 labor for harvests during the War years and the Migrant Mexican workers undoubtedly played annual requests for tens of thousands of work­ an important role in the cotton and grain har­ ers in the wheat-producing states, documents vests in the central and northern plains. Unfor­ reveal little information concerning Mexican tunately, the paucity of information on the laborers during that time. subject makes it impossible to tabulate their The foregoing survey demonstrates that number or describe their role precisely. The Mexicans played an undeniably significant role rapid expansion of cotton acreage in southwest­ in the economic life of the plains states be­ ern Oklahoma after 1907 required a large tween 1900 and 1930. Thousands of Mexicans seasonal labor force and attracted Mexicans performed the work that most Americans and who had already joined the picking cycle in other immigrant groups disdained. They Texas. An observer reported in 1908 that Okla­ worked from the far southwestern corner of homa planters often sent farm managers or Oklahoma to the most distant counties in foremen to the border to recruit one hundred North Dakota. Several of the region's most im­ or more men and their families. They preferred, portant industries-particularly the railroads however, simply to hire their field hands away and sugar beet production-depended almost from the railroads by offering higher wages. exclusively upon laborers from Mexico. Yet, for In 1907 workers could earn from $.50 to $.75 the most part, scholars have ignored their per hundred pounds of cotton picked. By 1925 contributions. they were earning as much as $2.00 per hun­ dred. All members of the family participated OPPORTUNITIES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH in the pizca (as Mexicans called the cotton harvest) and, as a unit, could pick from two to To a large degree this lack of attention may three hundred pounds a day. Living conditions be explained by the relatively few Mexican during the picking season were primitive residents in the area compared to the border­ throughout the period under study. Large lands, where the massive numbers of Mexicans families, often with ten or more children, lived have made a lasting impact upon the physical, in tents, crude shacks, or canvas-covered carts. social, and linguistic culture. Mexicans, who They lacked adequate supplies of water and were often an "invisible element" in the past, even the most rudimentary sanitation facilities. remain a relatively "invisible minority" in the Still, Mexicans went to the fields annually. In northern and central plains today. Most people a recent study of Mexicans in Oklahoma, vir­ in the region are not only ignorant of their tually every long-time resident recounted his or contributions but unaware of their very pres­ her experiences during the harvest season and ence. remarked on the number of Mexicans who This spatial and occupational survey pro­ labored in the fields.26 vides a starting point for examining the role of It is difficult to analyze the extent to which Mexicans in a regional context. Corporation Mexican laborers participated in the harvest­ and union documents (still extremely difficult ing and thrashing operations in the great wheat to obtain or examine) and state, county, and belt that extends from north central Oklahoma local records should contain much valuable through North Dakota. Some Mexicans most data. Newspapers, family papers, photographs, certainly joined the annual stream of laborers and letters will give us a much better idea of through the plains. As early as 1908, many life in the plains for Mexican immigrants. The Mexicans left railroad gangs to work in the most revealing sources, and certainly the most BEYOND THE BORDERLANDS 249 eXCItmg from the researcher's point of view, Foreign Language Units of Kansas, Vol. I, are the immigrants themselves. Unfortunately, Historical Atlas and Statistics (Lawrence: scholars may have waited too long before University of Kansas Press, 1962) and his un­ initiating the oral history projects that have published and extremely valuable "Foreign been and are being conducted in Oklahoma, Language Units of Kansas," Vol. II (unpub­ lished typescript at the University of Kansas Kansas, and Nebraska. Most of the Mexican­ Library) are indispensible for the study of born residents in these states are in their Mexicans in that state. Although very helpful eighties, nineties, or older. Many more of the in providing the general outlines of the Mexican original settlers have died; let us hope that experience in the plains states, Paul S. Taylor's their history has not died with them. Mexican monumental ten-part Mexican Labor in the ethnic enclaves still exist in the major cities of United States (Berkeley: University of Cali­ Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. The Mexican fornia Press, 1928-1934) contains little specific immigrants' experiences have intimately linked information on the region. Other works on the them to the region'S past, and they should be subject generally ignore the northern and cen­ incorporated into the body of history that tral plains. all will share in the future. Mexicans and their 2. The most recent studies of the causes of Mexican migration include Lawrence A. Car­ descendants still preserve a living culture that doso's excellent Mexican Emigration to the greatly enriches the social fabric of life in the United States, 1897-1931: Socio-Economic northern and central plains states. Patterns (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1980) and Arthur F. Corwin (ed.), Immi­ grants-and Immigrants: Perspectives on Mexi­ NOTES can Migration to the United States (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978). Less valuable 1. At present, only two published works, is John Ramon Martfnez's Mexican Emigra­ both introductory surveys, have examined the tion to the United States, 1910-1930 (San Mexicans' role in the northern and central Francisco: Rand E Research Associates, 1971). plains states: Michael M. Smith, The Mexicans Still indispensible are Manuel Gamio's OJ,tanti­ in Oklahoma (Norman: University of Oklahoma tative Estimate, Sources and Distribution of Press, 1980) and Ralph Grajeda's chapter on Mexican Immigration into the United States Nebraska's Mexican heritage, "Chicanos: The (Mexico, D.F.: Talleres GrHicos y "Diario Mestizo Heritage," in Broken Hoops and Plains Oficial," 1930); Mexican Immigration to the People (Lincoln: Nebraska Curriculum Devel­ United States: A Study of Human Adjust­ opment Center, 1976). There are a number of ment (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, excellent and informative graduate theses 1930); and The Mexican Immigrant: His Life examining Mexicans in Kansas. These include Story (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Marian Braun, "A Survey of American Mexi­ 1931). cans in Topeka, Kansas" (M.A. thesis, Emporia 3. Arthur F. Corwin and Lawrence A. State Teachers College, 1970); Hector Franco, Cardoso, "Vamos al Norte: Causes of Mass "The Mexican People in the State of Kansas" Mexican Migration to the United States," pp. (M.S. thesis, University of Wichita, 1950); 38-53, and Arthur F. Corwin, "A Story of Ad Judith Ann Laird, "Argentine, Kansas: The Hoc Exemptions: American Immigration Policy Evolution of a Mexican-American Community, toward Mexico," pp. 136-48, both in Corwin, 1905-1940" (Ph.D. diss., University of Kansas, Immigrants-and Immigrants. 1975); Socorro M. Ramlrez, "A Survey of the 4. Samuel Bryan, "Mexican Immigrants in Mexicans in Emporia, Kansas" (M.S. thesis, the United States," Survey 28 (September 7, Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia, 1912): 728; Rutter, "Mexican Americans in 1942); and Larry G. Rutter, "Mexican Ameri­ Kansas," pp. 46-47. cans in Kansas: A Survey and Social Mobility 5. See, particularly, Gamio, Quantitative Study, 1900-1970" (M.A. thesis, Kansas State Estimate, which provides much insight into University, 1972). J. Neale Carman's published the origins of Mexican migrants through an 250 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1981 analysis of money orders sent from the United Population (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1932), States to Mexico between 1920 and 1928; III: pt. 1, p. 27; U.S., Department of Com­ Smith, Mexicans in Oklahoma; Grajeda, "chi­ merce, Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census canos"; Carman, "Foreign Language Units of of the United States: 1940: Population (Wash­ Kansas"; and George T. Edson, "Mexicans in ington, D.C.: GPO, 1943), pp. 88-89. Here­ Our Northcentral States" (unpublished type­ after, all cited as U.S. Census. script in the Bancroft Library, University of 11. U.S. Census, 1910-1930. California, Berkeley, c. 1927), p. 170. 12. Carman, "Foreign Language Units of 6. Frederick C. Luebke, "Ethnic Group Kansas"; Smith, Mexicans in Oklahoma; Rutter, Settlement on the Great Plains," Western His­ "Mexican Americans in Kansas"; Laird, "Ar­ torical Quarterly 8 (October 1977): 405-30. gentine, Kansas"; Grajeda, "Chicanos"; Bryan, 7. There is some evidence, however, that "Mexican Immigrants," pp. 726-30; Clark, residents of the same town worked in the same Mexican Labor, p. 477. area of the plains region and often congregated 13. Interview with Gregorio Martinez, Okla­ in significant numbers in Mexican colonies in homa City, Okla., February 22, 1979; inter­ Kansas. There was a large group of Mexicans view with Miguel Gonzalez, Lawton, Okla., from Tangandcuaro, Michoacan, in Argentine, April 23, 1979. Kansas. Topeka contained numerous Mexicans 14. Smith, Mexicans in Oklahoma; Rutter, from Silao, Guanajuato. See Laird, "Argentine, "Mexican Americans in Kansas"; Laird, "Ar­ Kansas," pp. 87-88; and Bill Wright, "Heritage gentine, Kansas"; interview with Simeon of the Colony," Topeka Daily Capital, Decem­ Urende, Oklahoma City, Okla., February 27, ber 17-22,1961. 1979; interview with Gregorio Martinez; inter­ 8. Victor S. Clark's pioneering work, view with Miguel Gonzalez; interview with Mexican Labor in the United States, Bulletin AgustIn Romero, Broken Arrow, Okla., March of the Department of Labor no. 78 (Washing­ 24,1979. ton, D.C., 1908), ably describes this phenome­ 15. L. C. Lawton, "Erecting Mexican Labor­ non. ers' Houses," Santa Fe Employees Magazine 5 9. Gamio's Quantitative Estimate provides (September 1911): 75-76. some material on the plains states between the 16. Interview with Aurora RamIrez Helton, censuses of 1920 and 1930; Taylor's work con­ Tulsa, Okla., April 18, 1979. tains much valuable data for the intervening 17. Rutter, "Mexican Americans in Kansas," years, but little treats the area under consider­ pp. 92-93; see also the statement of E. E. ation here; Mark Reisler, By the Sweat of Their Mcinnes, general solicitor for the Santa Fe, in Brow: Mexican Immigrant Labor in the United U.S., Congress, House, Western Hemisphere States, 1900-1940 (Westport, Conn.: Green­ Immigration: Hearings before the Committee wood Press, 1976), p. 272; Laird, "Argentine, on Immigration and Naturalization, 71st Cong., Kansas," pp. 66-69. 2d sess., January 28, 1930, pp. 101-13. 10. U.S., Department of the Interior, Cen­ 18. Esther S. Anderson, The Sugar Beet sus Office, Twelfth Census of the United States Industry of Nebraska, University of Nebraska, Taken in the Year 1900: Population (Washing­ Conservation and Survey Division, Conservation ton, D.C.: U.S. Census Office, 1901), I: clxxiv; Department Bulletin no. 9 (Lincoln, 1935), U.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the pp. 19-33; Carman, "Foreign Language Units Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States of Kansas," pp. 426-42. Taken in the Year 1910: Population (Washing­ 19. Carman, "Foreign Language Units of ton, D.C.: GPO, 1913), III: 50-67, 466-79, Kansas," p. 427; Lawrence L. Waters, "Tran­ 674-93; U.S., Department of Commerce, sient Mexican Agricultural Labor," Southwest­ Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of ern Social Science Quarterly 22 (June 1941): the United States Taken in the Year 1920: 58; Harry Schwartz, Seasonal Farm Labor in Population (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1923), the United States (New York: Columbia Uni­ III: 358-59, 606, 722, 818-27; U.S., Depart­ versity Press, 1945), pp. 109-12; George O. ment of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Coalson, "Mexican Contract Labor in Ameri­ Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930: can Agriculture," Southwestern Social Science BEYOND THE BORDERLANDS 251

Quarterly 32 (December 1952): 228-29; U.S., 8 (May-June 1924): 289; Edson, "Mexicans in Congress, House, Seasonal Agricultural Labor­ Our Northcentral States," pp. 8, 178-79; ers from Mexico: Hearing before the Commit­ interviews with Simeon Urende and Gregorio tee on Immigration and Naturalization, 69th MartInez. Cong., 1st sess., 1926, pp. 27-31. 24. For a general overview, see Smith, 20. Waters, "Transient Mexican Agricultural Mexicans in Oklahoma, pp. 41-47; U.S., Con­ Labor," pp. 57-58; Anderson, Sugar Beet gress, Senate, Reports of the Immigration Industry of Nebraska, pp. 52-54; Edson, Commission, Vol. VII, Immigrants in Indus­ "Mexicans in Our Northcentral States," pp. tries, pt. 1, Bituminous Coal Mining, 61st 161-76; Jay S. Stowell, "The Danger of Un­ Cong., 3d sess., 1911, pp. 16-126; interview restricted Mexican Immigration," Current His­ with Agustin Romero; interview with Heginio tory 28 (August 1928): 763-66; U.S., Congress, Casillas, Tulsa, Okla., March 27, 1979. House, Seasonal Agricultural Laborers from 25. Frederick L. Ryan, The Rehabilitation Mexico, pp. 102-206; U.S., Congress, House, of Oklahoma Coal Mining Communities (Nor­ Immigration from Countries of the Western man: University of Oklahoma Press, 1935), Hemisphere: Hearings with the Committee on pp. 61-76, 89; interviews with Agustin Romero Immigration and Naturalization, 70th Cong., and Heginio Casillas. 1st sess., 1928, pp. 427-522. 26. Clark, Mexican Labor, pp. 467, 471, 21. U.S. Census, 1910-1920. 476, 482; Charles E. Webb, "Distribution of 22. Rutter, "Mexican Americans in Kansas," Cotton Production in Oklahoma, 1907-1962" pp. 65-67; Carman, "Foreign Language Units (M.A. thesis, Oklahoma State University, of Kansas," pp. 892-94, 940; interviews with 1963), pp. 9-11; interviews with Simeon Simeon Urende and Gregorio Martinez. Urende, Gregorio Martinez, Miguel Gonzalez, 23. T. Earl Sullenger, "The Mexican Popula­ and Agustin Romero. tion of Omaha," Journal of Applied Sociology 27. Clark, Mexican Labor, p. 483.