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Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974

1974-04-13 Opening Remarks Page 6

6
Chicanos was established out of boxcars and by the track. This really changes the whole complexion in terms of viewing the Chicano immigration, the Mexican immigration up here not until the 1920's.
There were people coming up much before. How many of them came, why they came, where they went, what they did, I do not know. The questions are there for us to begin to look at. It will probably look at every Midwestern state, will find the same kind of things. Will finf that Chicanos were coming out here much earlier than that. Much earlier than many of these other foreingn immigrants from Europe that were coming into Iowa.
In 1915, the Chicano population in Iowa increased thirty times to 616. By 1925, it increased four more times to 2,597. From then on in the 30's, it probably reduced itself although I do not have the figures, and since the 40's the number increased. In the 50's, 60's until today over 20,000. So our history in the Midwest if we use the example of Iowa goes further back then has been seen in the past. Now, of course, many of us will say this was just a small number what contributions have they made. This is not the point. The point is our history in the Midwest goes much farther back than has ever been interpreted.
Of course, most of the heavy migrations came in the "nineteen teens" and "nineteen twenties" and stopped abruptly in the 1930's because of the depression. Again it began to rise in the 40's, 50's and 60's to one point two million according to the census and I think close to two million if we look at it closely today.
In the 1920's for example, all us know the railroads brought a lot of Chicanos up here, they did to Iowa. How much the percentage of workers in Iowa each railroad had I do not have the figures for that. In Illinois where Paul Taylor did a very important study in 1930 of Mexican immigration into Illinois, he found that the Rock Island railroad in the peak years of the 1920's was hiring over 75 percent of Raza people on their labor force. Seventy-five percent of all the workers in Illinois working, building, laying down the tracks, doing all that hard work for cheap wages and bad housing and discrimination and so forth, 75 percent of them were Chicanos. Most of the railroads in Illinois built were built by Chicano labor. The same thing I am sure once we begin to study the record will be seen in regards to the other states.
Many other industries did much of the recruiting of Chicanos also. The steel mills of Chicago in the 1920's over 15 percent of all the laborers in the three major steel mills in Chicanos. The meat packing industry the same pattern equals the steel mills. El vetabel we know that over 90 percent of the vetabeleros were Chicanos in the 1920's hasta ahora. We have found that as we do more studying into this we will

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6 Chicanos was established out of boxcars and by the track. This really changes the whole complexion in terms of viewing the Chicano immigration, the Mexican immigration up here not until the 1920's. There were people coming up much before. How many of them came, why they came, where they went, what they did, I do not know. The questions are there for us to begin to look at. It will probably look at every Midwestern state, will find the same kind of things. Will finf that Chicanos were coming out here much earlier than that. Much earlier than many of these other foreingn immigrants from Europe that were coming into Iowa. In 1915, the Chicano population in Iowa increased thirty times to 616. By 1925, it increased four more times to 2,597. From then on in the 30's, it probably reduced itself although I do not have the figures, and since the 40's the number increased. In the 50's, 60's until today over 20,000. So our history in the Midwest if we use the example of Iowa goes further back then has been seen in the past. Now, of course, many of us will say this was just a small number what contributions have they made. This is not the point. The point is our history in the Midwest goes much farther back than has ever been interpreted. Of course, most of the heavy migrations came in the "nineteen teens" and "nineteen twenties" and stopped abruptly in the 1930's because of the depression. Again it began to rise in the 40's, 50's and 60's to one point two million according to the census and I think close to two million if we look at it closely today. In the 1920's for example, all us know the railroads brought a lot of Chicanos up here, they did to Iowa. How much the percentage of workers in Iowa each railroad had I do not have the figures for that. In Illinois where Paul Taylor did a very important study in 1930 of Mexican immigration into Illinois, he found that the Rock Island railroad in the peak years of the 1920's was hiring over 75 percent of Raza people on their labor force. Seventy-five percent of all the workers in Illinois working, building, laying down the tracks, doing all that hard work for cheap wages and bad housing and discrimination and so forth, 75 percent of them were Chicanos. Most of the railroads in Illinois built were built by Chicano labor. The same thing I am sure once we begin to study the record will be seen in regards to the other states. Many other industries did much of the recruiting of Chicanos also. The steel mills of Chicago in the 1920's over 15 percent of all the laborers in the three major steel mills in Chicanos. The meat packing industry the same pattern equals the steel mills. El vetabel we know that over 90 percent of the vetabeleros were Chicanos in the 1920's hasta ahora. We have found that as we do more studying into this we will