DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Maria Cano Martinez newspaper clippings and interpreter position documentation, 1978-1997 | 1983-04-30 Iowa City Press-Citizen Article: ""Mexican community began here over 50 years ago"" by Irving Weber

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Maria Cano Martinez newspaper clippings and interpreter position documentation, 1978-1997

1983-04-30 Iowa City Press-Citizen Article: ""Mexican community began here over 50 years ago"" by Irving Weber

14A - Iowa City Press-Citizen - Saturday, April 30, 1983

Mexican community began here over 50 years ago

Irving Weber

It was a crisp, pre-dawn morning in 1927 when Magdaleno Cano, present day Iowa  Citian, helped his wife with their three-week-old baby, and two daughters, aged four and two, get off the Rock Island passenger train from Minneapolis at West Liberty. 
Cano was a migrant Mexican worker from Valle de Santiago, in the province of Guanajuato a city of some 20,000, 100 miles northwest of Mexico City. He has been working in the beet and onion fields in Minnesota. 
Work there had ended and word had reached him that there was a chance for employment in Chicago. The Cano family had taken the Minneapolis to St. Louis train as far as West Liberty and were transferring onto the Denver to Chicago train that made stops at Iowa City and West Liberty.
The morning air was cool and Cano took his family inside the empty depot where it was warm. He then stepped outside to view the situation. The platform was deserted - not a person in sight - not a sound. He looked up into the heaven and contemplated the stars. 
Cano, a deeply religious man with complete faith in God, kept peering up at the stars and then fervently said, " Here we are, God! What will you do with us now? We place our trust in you."
He stood there for a long time praying, and then in the distance heard a faint whistling. He walked toward the whistle, and then surprisingly he recognized it was a Mexican love song, "The Rielera," about a woman whose lover was a railroad man. It was a song all Mexicans know, and he was heartened at hearing it in this strange town. The whistler must be a Mexican, he thought. 
The whistler turned out to be a young man delivering milk. He approached him and inquired, " Are you Mexican?" The young man was and Cano visited him, and then asked if he could arrange for the boy's mother to fix breakfast for his family.
The young man, John Ponce, still living in West Liberty, replied " Let me ask her. We live close by, near the railroad tracks" John was back shortly and said," Yes she will be happy to do so." 
The Canos found the Ponces most friendly and anxious to help. They suggested that since Mrs Cano was only 19, and Magdaleno 20, and with a three-week-old baby that instead of going on to Chicago, Mrs. Cano and the three children stay with them, while Magdaleno sought work on one of the section crews with the Rock Island. 
He was able to get temporary work with a section crew at Keokuk for three months, and then in January he found employment on a section crew in Iowa City. The Cano family stayed on with the Ponces in West Liberty for some six months, during which time the Cano baby was baptized, with the Ponces being honored as the God parents. 
In the early spring the Rock Island provided the Canos with a box car for their first home in Iowa City. That day they took up permanent residence in Iowa City, never to leave. Other Mexican families working for the Rock Island also lived in box cars at the same location - just west of the south end of the Dodge Street viaduct over the railroad tracks. 
Living close to the tracks with the trains roaring past was hazardous for the small children, and in time the Rock Island moved them to some small garage-like structure closer to the viaduct in what is now a small park. 
These structures provided some better living conditions than the box cars and were much safer for the children. As recalled by Mary, not Mrs. Joe Sartinex, who was with her parents that night in West Liberty, it was most primitive living - no electricity, no running water, little space, one kerosene lamp, and one stove to provide heat. But they were happy for the security. 
The Rock Island sold all those little structures in a few years and they all were forced to find houses to rent, which was most difficult. The Canos moved into a house owned by Harry Abbott on Walnut Street, and they remember it as being like heaven with electricity, running water, and even a telephone. 
There were nine children in the Cano family - six girls, Elene, Mary, Josephine,Delores, Molly and Rosemary; three boys, Arthur,Robert and Vincent. Mr, and Mrs. Cano had received very little education in Mexico - Magdaleno three years and Mary, one year. They were anxious that their children all have better educational opportunities. All nine children graduated from St. Patricks's High School, five went to University of Iowa and three graduated. 

Language barrier
Mary Cano, now Mrs. Joe Martinez, remembers the traumatic experience of the language and culture barrier that she and other Mexican children experienced when they started at St Patrick's Catholic School. At that time neither she nor her parents could speak English, and she sat there in school, bewildered, lost, frightened, unable to understand anything the teacher or her classmates said.
She comments, " The teachers, all nuns and many from Ireland were wonderful, God Bless them, and they helped me and the other Mexican children as best as they could. But those first four years were a nightmare for me. I had a feeling I did not belong. But once I broke the language barrier things came easily. At the same time my father spent four years learning English at night school at what is now Central Junior High.

MEXICANS IN IOWA CITY 
Mary (Cano) Martinez, who has been active in the Mexican-American community in Iowa City, estimates there are well over 100 permanent Mexican-American residents (Chicanos) In Iowa city and some 200 Hispanics in the university. 

First Mexicans. 
Exactly when the first Mexicans settled in Iowa city is not recorded, but as early as 1921 there were five Mexican families working for the Rock Island and living in box cars. The five included the John Gutierrez family, the Joe Sanchez family, the Joe Vargas family, the Edward Lopez family and Portfiro Padrila, a single man. All five of the men worked for the Rock Island on one of the four section crews. 
Madgaleno Cano and family arrived in 1928. From time to time there would be as many as 15 Mexicans working on the section crews until the Depression. 
With the heavy layoffs during the Depression, many Mexicans returned to Mexico or Texas. Cano recalls the five original Mexicans working for the Rock Island had seniority, retained their jobs and had five days work each week. Cano thankfully recalls that each of the gave up one day of work each week to Cano, to enable him and his family weather the Depression. He comments that minority groups band together s one big family to help each other. There was no unemployment benefit then, and no social worker looking after them.

Good citizens
The Mexican-American people in Iowa City have had a language and cultural barrier that has unfortunately made it difficult for them to be fully understood by their fellow Iowa Citians. However, those Iowa Citians who have had an opportunity to know them, and do business with them, speak most highly of them.
Jack Grady, who operates the Kelly Heating Service, and who went to school at St Patrick's with many of the Mexicans and got to know them and their families, speaks highly of them " as quiet law-abiding citizens. honest, deeply religious and all devout members of St Patrick's Catholic Church."
Everett Means, who operated Means Grocery with his brother, Elza at 219 S. Dubuque St. , remembers that the Mexican people working on the section traded with them and ran charge accounts. Means recalls " They were most reliable and their word was as good as gold. We never lost a nickel on any of them."
Mrs. Lloyd Memler, who worked at the Means Store recalls the Mexican people would come to the store, order their needs, and have them delivered to their box car homes. They received their pay every two weeks and as soon as it arrived, they would come to the store and pay their bill.

Gutierrez family 
Mrs. John Gutierrez, 89, the oldest Mexican-American in Iowa City, remembers she was not worried when in 1917, she and her husband and two children Josephine and Mike, left their home in Mexico for the United States. They were happy for the opportunity to try their fortunes in the United States. The Canos had felt the same way no apprehension. 
When the Gutierrez weere married in their home town of Irapuato, Guanajuato in 1908, he was 16 and she 14. He had had one year of schooling, and she, like many of the girls, had had none. 
John Guieterrez Sr., who passed away in Iowa City in 1965, had originally worked in the fields in Mexico, but his first job in the United States was with the railroad in Laredo, Texas.
After a year in Laredo, glowing reports from Mrs. Gutierrez's two brothers in Iowa attracted the Gutierrez to this area. For a short time they worked for the Rock Island near Des Moines, then transferred to Davenport. In 1921 they moved to Iowa City, where they were to live the rest of their lives. 
Mr. and Mrs, Gutierrez recognizing the fact that they had been handicapped by not having education themselves, were anxious that their children secure good educations. 
Four other children were born to them, another boy and three daughters: John, Dorothy ( Mrs. Walton now living with her mother), Letha (deceased), and Alvina (Skipper, Mrs. Kenneth Irving). All of the children except Josephine graduated from high school. Josephine was 110 when they reached Iowa City and too old to start kindergarten. Mike and John were good athletes at St. Patrick's. Mike lost his life in World War II when his ship struck  mine in the Mediterranean. John likewise in service, was captured ans a prisoner of war in Germany. 
With careful management, watching their pennies and with the two boys able to do odd jobs and carry papers, the Gutierrez family was able to move from its original box car home and buy a home on the northwest corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Maiden Lane in 1932. They remained there until 1853 when they purchased their present home at 614 S. Dubuque St. where they have lived for 30 years. 

Cinco de Mayo
The two parts of the story on the Mexican ethnic community in Iowa City is being run now because Mexican Americans will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo (May 5) with fiestas, dances, and cultural events as the day French domination of Mexico under Maximillan was overthrown (1967). The occasion will be observed in Iowa City next Saturday at the Chicano Indian American Center, 308 Melrose Ave. 
The second part of the story next Saturday will include interviews with the Henry Rios family and Joe Martines family. 

[caption] 
The Magdaleno Cano family gathered to celebrated Magdaleno and Mary's 60th wedding anniversary in June 1982: (seated from left) Arthur, Vincent, Mary, Magdaleno, and Robert; (standing) daughters Rosemary (Gorman), Elena (Murillo), Josephine (Arenas), Delores ( Neuzil), Molly (Rivera) and Mary ( Martinez)
[end  caption]

[caption]
The John Gutierrez family in the 1940s before Mike and John Jr., left for the service: (front) Mike, Mrs. Gutierrez, John, John Jr.; (back) Alvina ( Irving), Letha (Ruyvan), and Dorothy (Walton). Josephine the oldest daughter, was not in the picture. 

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION 
April 12, 1983
Hills, Iowa

Regular meeting of the City Council of Hills, Iowa

Mayor Culver presiding: 
Councilmen present: Bodishbaugh, Glass, Knebel, Michel, Parker
Ray Wiese of Cable Syndications Inc. discussed with the council a cable TV system for the city. Motion was made and carrier to put an addition to the fire station at a cost of $18,700, not including plumbing and wiring. 
Council discussed the need of a new fire siren and mayor will check into this further. 
Motion was made and carried to approve minutes of March 28.
Moved and carried to approve bills. 
Motion made and carried to adjourn. 
Larry Culver, Mayor 
ATTEST: Judith Gorthe, Clerk 

BILLS FOR MARCH 
River Products $ 34.94
Mildred Klein 60.00
Ronald Wolfe 943.94
Hills Bank & Trust 218.20

Saving...

14A - Iowa City Press-Citizen - Saturday, April 30, 1983 Mexican community began here over 50 years ago Irving Weber It was a crisp, pre-dawn morning in 1927 when Magdaleno Cano, present day Iowa Citian, helped his wife with their three-week-old baby, and two daughters, aged four and two, get off the Rock Island passenger train from Minneapolis at West Liberty. Cano was a migrant Mexican worker from Valle de Santiago, in the province of Guanajuato a city of some 20,000, 100 miles northwest of Mexico City. He has been working in the beet and onion fields in Minnesota. Work there had ended and word had reached him that there was a chance for employment in Chicago. The Cano family had taken the Minneapolis to St. Louis train as far as West Liberty and were transferring onto the Denver to Chicago train that made stops at Iowa City and West Liberty. The morning air was cool and Cano took his family inside the empty depot where it was warm. He then stepped outside to view the situation. The platform was deserted - not a person in sight - not a sound. He looked up into the heaven and contemplated the stars. Cano, a deeply religious man with complete faith in God, kept peering up at the stars and then fervently said, " Here we are, God! What will you do with us now? We place our trust in you." He stood there for a long time praying, and then in the distance heard a faint whistling. He walked toward the whistle, and then surprisingly he recognized it was a Mexican love song, "The Rielera," about a woman whose lover was a railroad man. It was a song all Mexicans know, and he was heartened at hearing it in this strange town. The whistler must be a Mexican, he thought. The whistler turned out to be a young man delivering milk. He approached him and inquired, " Are you Mexican?" The young man was and Cano visited him, and then asked if he could arrange for the boy's mother to fix breakfast for his family. The young man, John Ponce, still living in West Liberty, replied " Let me ask her. We live close by, near the railroad tracks" John was back shortly and said," Yes she will be happy to do so." The Canos found the Ponces most friendly and anxious to help. They suggested that since Mrs Cano was only 19, and Magdaleno 20, and with a three-week-old baby that instead of going on to Chicago, Mrs. Cano and the three children stay with them, while Magdaleno sought work on one of the section crews with the Rock Island. He was able to get temporary work with a section crew at Keokuk for three months, and then in January he found employment on a section crew in Iowa City. The Cano family stayed on with the Ponces in West Liberty for some six months, during which time the Cano baby was baptized, with the Ponces being honored as the God parents. In the early spring the Rock Island provided the Canos with a box car for their first home in Iowa City. That day they took up permanent residence in Iowa City, never to leave. Other Mexican families working for the Rock Island also lived in box cars at the same location - just west of the south end of the Dodge Street viaduct over the railroad tracks. Living close to the tracks with the trains roaring past was hazardous for the small children, and in time the Rock Island moved them to some small garage-like structure closer to the viaduct in what is now a small park. These structures provided some better living conditions than the box cars and were much safer for the children. As recalled by Mary, not Mrs. Joe Sartinex, who was with her parents that night in West Liberty, it was most primitive living - no electricity, no running water, little space, one kerosene lamp, and one stove to provide heat. But they were happy for the security. The Rock Island sold all those little structures in a few years and they all were forced to find houses to rent, which was most difficult. The Canos moved into a house owned by Harry Abbott on Walnut Street, and they remember it as being like heaven with electricity, running water, and even a telephone. There were nine children in the Cano family - six girls, Elene, Mary, Josephine,Delores, Molly and Rosemary; three boys, Arthur,Robert and Vincent. Mr, and Mrs. Cano had received very little education in Mexico - Magdaleno three years and Mary, one year. They were anxious that their children all have better educational opportunities. All nine children graduated from St. Patricks's High School, five went to University of Iowa and three graduated. Language barrier Mary Cano, now Mrs. Joe Martinez, remembers the traumatic experience of the language and culture barrier that she and other Mexican children experienced when they started at St Patrick's Catholic School. At that time neither she nor her parents could speak English, and she sat there in school, bewildered, lost, frightened, unable to understand anything the teacher or her classmates said. She comments, " The teachers, all nuns and many from Ireland were wonderful, God Bless them, and they helped me and the other Mexican children as best as they could. But those first four years were a nightmare for me. I had a feeling I did not belong. But once I broke the language barrier things came easily. At the same time my father spent four years learning English at night school at what is now Central Junior High. MEXICANS IN IOWA CITY Mary (Cano) Martinez, who has been active in the Mexican-American community in Iowa City, estimates there are well over 100 permanent Mexican-American residents (Chicanos) In Iowa city and some 200 Hispanics in the university. First Mexicans. Exactly when the first Mexicans settled in Iowa city is not recorded, but as early as 1921 there were five Mexican families working for the Rock Island and living in box cars. The five included the John Gutierrez family, the Joe Sanchez family, the Joe Vargas family, the Edward Lopez family and Portfiro Padrila, a single man. All five of the men worked for the Rock Island on one of the four section crews. Madgaleno Cano and family arrived in 1928. From time to time there would be as many as 15 Mexicans working on the section crews until the Depression. With the heavy layoffs during the Depression, many Mexicans returned to Mexico or Texas. Cano recalls the five original Mexicans working for the Rock Island had seniority, retained their jobs and had five days work each week. Cano thankfully recalls that each of the gave up one day of work each week to Cano, to enable him and his family weather the Depression. He comments that minority groups band together s one big family to help each other. There was no unemployment benefit then, and no social worker looking after them. Good citizens The Mexican-American people in Iowa City have had a language and cultural barrier that has unfortunately made it difficult for them to be fully understood by their fellow Iowa Citians. However, those Iowa Citians who have had an opportunity to know them, and do business with them, speak most highly of them. Jack Grady, who operates the Kelly Heating Service, and who went to school at St Patrick's with many of the Mexicans and got to know them and their families, speaks highly of them " as quiet law-abiding citizens. honest, deeply religious and all devout members of St Patrick's Catholic Church." Everett Means, who operated Means Grocery with his brother, Elza at 219 S. Dubuque St. , remembers that the Mexican people working on the section traded with them and ran charge accounts. Means recalls " They were most reliable and their word was as good as gold. We never lost a nickel on any of them." Mrs. Lloyd Memler, who worked at the Means Store recalls the Mexican people would come to the store, order their needs, and have them delivered to their box car homes. They received their pay every two weeks and as soon as it arrived, they would come to the store and pay their bill. Gutierrez family Mrs. John Gutierrez, 89, the oldest Mexican-American in Iowa City, remembers she was not worried when in 1917, she and her husband and two children Josephine and Mike, left their home in Mexico for the United States. They were happy for the opportunity to try their fortunes in the United States. The Canos had felt the same way no apprehension. When the Gutierrez weere married in their home town of Irapuato, Guanajuato in 1908, he was 16 and she 14. He had had one year of schooling, and she, like many of the girls, had had none. John Guieterrez Sr., who passed away in Iowa City in 1965, had originally worked in the fields in Mexico, but his first job in the United States was with the railroad in Laredo, Texas. After a year in Laredo, glowing reports from Mrs. Gutierrez's two brothers in Iowa attracted the Gutierrez to this area. For a short time they worked for the Rock Island near Des Moines, then transferred to Davenport. In 1921 they moved to Iowa City, where they were to live the rest of their lives. Mr. and Mrs, Gutierrez recognizing the fact that they had been handicapped by not having education themselves, were anxious that their children secure good educations. Four other children were born to them, another boy and three daughters: John, Dorothy ( Mrs. Walton now living with her mother), Letha (deceased), and Alvina (Skipper, Mrs. Kenneth Irving). All of the children except Josephine graduated from high school. Josephine was 110 when they reached Iowa City and too old to start kindergarten. Mike and John were good athletes at St. Patrick's. Mike lost his life in World War II when his ship struck mine in the Mediterranean. John likewise in service, was captured ans a prisoner of war in Germany. With careful management, watching their pennies and with the two boys able to do odd jobs and carry papers, the Gutierrez family was able to move from its original box car home and buy a home on the northwest corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Maiden Lane in 1932. They remained there until 1853 when they purchased their present home at 614 S. Dubuque St. where they have lived for 30 years. Cinco de Mayo The two parts of the story on the Mexican ethnic community in Iowa City is being run now because Mexican Americans will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo (May 5) with fiestas, dances, and cultural events as the day French domination of Mexico under Maximillan was overthrown (1967). The occasion will be observed in Iowa City next Saturday at the Chicano Indian American Center, 308 Melrose Ave. The second part of the story next Saturday will include interviews with the Henry Rios family and Joe Martines family. [caption] The Magdaleno Cano family gathered to celebrated Magdaleno and Mary's 60th wedding anniversary in June 1982: (seated from left) Arthur, Vincent, Mary, Magdaleno, and Robert; (standing) daughters Rosemary (Gorman), Elena (Murillo), Josephine (Arenas), Delores ( Neuzil), Molly (Rivera) and Mary ( Martinez) [end caption] [caption] The John Gutierrez family in the 1940s before Mike and John Jr., left for the service: (front) Mike, Mrs. Gutierrez, John, John Jr.; (back) Alvina ( Irving), Letha (Ruyvan), and Dorothy (Walton). Josephine the oldest daughter, was not in the picture. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION April 12, 1983 Hills, Iowa Regular meeting of the City Council of Hills, Iowa Mayor Culver presiding: Councilmen present: Bodishbaugh, Glass, Knebel, Michel, Parker Ray Wiese of Cable Syndications Inc. discussed with the council a cable TV system for the city. Motion was made and carrier to put an addition to the fire station at a cost of $18,700, not including plumbing and wiring. Council discussed the need of a new fire siren and mayor will check into this further. Motion was made and carried to approve minutes of March 28. Moved and carried to approve bills. Motion made and carried to adjourn. Larry Culver, Mayor ATTEST: Judith Gorthe, Clerk BILLS FOR MARCH River Products $ 34.94 Mildred Klein 60.00 Ronald Wolfe 943.94 Hills Bank & Trust 218.20