The Discovery of Hispanic Child Labor in Agriculture in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas: A Life Geography Approach

Abstract

A life geography approach is used to analyze the production of social science knowledge regarding Mexican-origin child agricultural workers in south Texas during the early 1940s. The protagonist in this article, Amber Arthun Warburton, worked for the U.S. Children's Bureau during the early 1940s and authored one of many reports analyzing conditions of children in U.S. agriculture. She was the first social scientist to report on labor relations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, with particular attention to working and educational conditions of Mexican-origin children. Two aspects of Warburton's unpublished work—her analysis of child labor in terms of Marx's reserve army of labor and her description of living conditions through fieldwork—are examined here. The experience of Amber Warburton suggests how educated women, facing discrimination in academia, navigated personal and bureaucratic challenges while generating social knowledge, offering comparison to experiences of female geographers working outside academia.

生命地理学取径, 用来分析 1940 年代早期在德州南部来自墨西哥的儿童农业劳工的社会科学知识生产。本文的主角, 安博．亚森．沃伯顿 (Amber Arthum Warburton), 在 1940 年代早期为美国儿童局工作, 并且身为分析美国农业中的儿童境况的众多报告的作者之一。她是第一位报告德州里约格兰德谷低地劳动关係的社会科学家, 并特别关注来自墨西哥的儿童的工作及教育处境。本文检视沃伯顿未发表的作品中的两个面向——她根据马克思的劳动后备军概念所进行的儿童劳动分析, 以及她透过田野工作所描绘的生活境况。安博．沃伯顿的经验显示, 面临学术界歧视的受教育女性, 在生产社会知识时, 如何应对个人与官僚的挑战, 并提供了在学术界之外工作的女性地理学者的经验对照。

Se aplica un enfoque de geografía de la vida para analizar la producción de conocimiento de las ciencias sociales en relación con el origen mexicano de trabajadores agrícolas infantiles en el sur de Texas, a principios de los años 1940. La protagonista del artículo, Amber Arthun Warburton, trabajó en el Children's Bureau (Oficina para la Infancia) de los EE.UU. a comienzos de aquellos años y escribió un informe, entre muchos otros, en el que analizaba las condiciones de los niños en la agricultura americana. Ella fue la primera científica social en informar sobre relaciones laborales en la parte baja del Valle del Río Grande, en Texas, con atención particular a las condiciones laborales y educativas de niños de origen mexicano. Aquí se examinan dos aspectos del trabajo inédito de Warburton—su análisis del trabajo infantil en términos del ejército laboral de reserva de Marx y la descripción de las condiciones de vida conocidas por ella mediante trabajo de campo. La experiencia de Amber Warburton sugiere el modo como las mujeres educadas, al enfrentar discriminación en la academia, sortearon retos personales y burocráticos a tiempo que generaban conocimiento social, ofreciendo comparaciones con experiencias de geógrafas que laboran fuera de la academia.

Key Words:

• agriculture
• children
• gender
• labor
• life geography

关键词：:

• 农业
• 儿童
• 性别
• 劳动
• 生命地理学。

Palabras clave:

• agricultura
• niños
• género
• trabajo
• geografía de la vida

Acknowledgments

This article benefited from comments of Chris Brown, Greg Cushman, Jonathan Smith, Nicholas Crane, and anonymous reviewers. I also thank Elizabeth Dunn of Duke University for assistance with the Warburton collection.

Funding

A Stipendiary Fellowship and a Faculty Travel to Archives/Field Work from the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University supported much of the research reported in this article.

Notes

1. Amber Arthun letter to Economics Department, University of Ohio, 11 April 1927, Box 1, Folder 1, Amber Arthun Warburton Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University (hereafter AAW Papers).

2. Box 1, Folder 1, AAW Papers.

3. “Statement regarding training and experience of Amber Arthun,” ca. February 1929, Box 1, Folder 1, AAW Papers. The dissertation title was “History of the New York Women's Trade Union League: A study in the problem of organizing women.”

4. Box 5, Folder 5, AAW Papers.

5. Speeches were 10 November 1929 and 7 March 1930, respectively, Box 8, Folder 3, AAW Papers. In addition to notes for speeches, this part of Amber Warburton's archive contains student work from Spelman.

6. Box 2, Folder 1, AAW Papers.

7. Box 1, Folder 2, AAW Papers.

8. Photographs are from Box 20, Folder 2, AAW Papers.

9. “Number of injured not expected to recover,” San Antonio Express 15 March 1940.

10. “Statement of Beatrice McConnell, Director, Industrial Division, Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor on Child Labor in Agriculture, submitted to a Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. Senate, Pursuant to S. Res. 266, May 27, 1940,” Box 16, Folder 2, AAW Papers. See also U.S. Senate (1940). The Children's Bureau sent an investigator, but McConnell's testimony does not indicate the investigator's name. Warburton's surviving papers do not suggest that she was the investigator.

11. “Farm labor problems in Texas,” ca. May 1940, Box 18, Folder 7, AAW Papers.

12. Box 2, Folder 1, AAW Papers.

13. Box 1, Folder 4, AAW Papers.

14. Memo from Miss Lenroot re: Young workers in agriculture, 1 March 1943, Box 16, Folder 1, AAW Papers.

15. Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette, Jr., chaired the Subcommittee Investigating Violations of Free Speech and the Rights of Labor of the Committee of Education and Labor of the U.S. Senate, which functioned from 1936 to 1941. La Follette lost to Joseph McCarthy in the 1946 Republican primary.

16. “Fair Labor Standards for Children,” Folder No. 6 (U.S. Department of Labor, Children's Bureau, 1940), Box 17, Folder 1, AAW Papers.

17. “The work of the children,” 19 October 1942, Box 18, Folder 12, AAW Papers.

18. “Conclusions,” Box 18, Folder 12, AAW Papers.

19. “Alternative introduction,” p. 4, 19 March 1942, Box 18, Folder 12, AAW Papers.

20. “List of reasons for non-enrollment,” 9–11 June 1941, Box 20, Folder 1, AAW Papers.

21. Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with Mr. John H. Gregory, City Superintendent of McAllen Schools, McAllen, Texas, 16 January 1941, Box 18, Folder 9, AAW Papers.

22. Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with Mr. R. C. Guzman, teacher in the East Donna Latin American school, 18 January 1941, Box 18, Folder 9, AAW Papers (“He named El Gatto on the Val Verde road”).

23. Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with A. B. Sanders, Superintendent of Donna schools and also President of the Valley Teachers' Association, 31 January 1941, Box 18, Folder 9, AAW Papers.

24. Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with Mr. H. M. Browning, Principal of the East Donna School, 4 February 1941, Box 18, Folder 9, AAW Papers.

25. Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with Mr. Robinson, Principal of the Latin-American school in Elsa, 29 January 1941, Box 18, Folder 9, AAW Papers (“living between mile 14 and mile 16 on the Vahlsing farm”).

26. Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with Mr. Joe Harvey Wilson, Superintendent of schools in the Elsa-Edcouch Consolidated School District, 27 January 1941, Box 18, Folder 9, AAW Papers.

27. Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with Miss Saucedo, public health nurse assigned to the Elsa-Edcouch District, 28 January 1941, Box 18, Folder 9, AAW Papers (“1 mile E and 1 mile N of Edcouch”).

28. Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with a foreman of Vahlsing farms at “Young Chicago,” 29 January 1941, Box 18, Folder 10, AAW Papers.

29. Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with Mr. Allen, Principal of the Latin-American school in Edcouch, 29 January 1941; Interview of Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Warburton with A. B. Sanders, Superintendent of Donna schools and also President of the Valley Teachers' Association, 31 January 1941, Box 18, Folder 9, AAW Papers.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christian Brannstrom

CHRISTIAN BRANNSTROM is Professor in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University, 810 O&M Building, MS 3147, College Station, TX 77843. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include the agricultural settlement of south Texas.