Rethinking the urban and rural divide in Latino labor, recreation, and activism in West Michigan, 1940s–1970s

Abstract

During the 1940s–1970s, Latino labor experiences could not be confined to either urban and industrial or rural and agricultural settings. Unlike large metropolises, Grand Rapids, Michigan is a mid-sized, Midwest city wherein the urban center and industrial labor opportunities are located within thirty miles of agricultural areas. I argue that Latinos in West Michigan used both rural and urban areas for labor to meet their economic and social needs. Due to the gendered realities of labor from the 1940s to the 1970s, women played an instrumental role in planning and executing the movement of their families between spaces. In turn, this community’s activism was not limited to the boundaries of urban or rural space. This research shows how Latinos etched out an economic and social survival in places wherein they are not the majority or have a plethora of resources. As the Latino diaspora spreads into areas in the southern United States, we can look to how Latinos in Grand Rapids and the Midwest lived and worked to better understand the lived experiences of twenty-first century Latinos.

Keywords:

• Latino
• rural
• urban
• agricultural
• industry
• migrant workers
• activism
• women

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Sara Fingal, Frances Aparicio, Steven Stowe, Tamara Butler, Jessica Johnson, Yomaira Figueroa, and Vanessa Holden, and the anonymous reviewers for feedback and support in writing this article.

Notes

1. Lila Paiz Garcia, interview with author, Lansing, Michigan, 2015.

2. Robinson, A City within a City, xi. For an analysis on the role that religion played in the Dutch community’s life, see Zwart, “Constructing the Homeland.”

3. The disparities among Grand Rapids’ white and non-white population widened and resulted in rising tension in the area. For example, white families’ incomes were 65% higher than non-white families in the 1960s. Latinos, in particular, experienced a 69% drop out rate in the late 1960s. In addition, a three-day urban rebellion occurred in Grand Rapids in July of 1967. It is important to recognize that Latinos occupied an ambiguous position within the city’s bifurcated racial hierarchy among African Americans and whites. By the 1950s, during these years, European immigrants had claimed a stake to American whiteness while local whites had unequivocally cast the small population of Southern African American migrants in the city as ‘black.’ These rigid classifications did not work for Latinos. Darker Puerto Ricans, specifically, were often mistaken for African Americans until their English language skills were tested. Lighter Puerto Ricans and Mexicans may have tried to pass for white as a way to avoid discrimination) but again their use of Spanish marked them as conspicuously foreign and ultimately, not white nor black.

4. In much of the Midwest, various manufacturing industries attracted Mexican workers, but Grand Rapids did not have a singular pull. See Innis-Jimenez, Steel Bario; Arredondo Mexican Chicago; Fernández, Brown in the Windy City; and Vargas, Proletarians of the North for more information on Latinos and the industrial Midwest.

5. Mexicans and Puerto Ricans living and working together is itself a unique situation. Their interactions together as early as the 1940s and 1950s are very much limited to the Midwest. While this topic is of interest, that is not the focus of this article. See Delia Fernandez, “Becoming Latino” for more information on their interactions.

6. In the Midwest, comparable cities would include Lorrain, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; or East Chicago, Indiana, for example. Moreover, studying cities outside of the major seven metropolises in the United States illustrates how Latinos outside of those areas lived their lives. In correlation, much of the work done on Latinos in the U.S. focuses on New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other large cities. While many Latinos live in larger cities than that of Grand Rapids, there is much less research done on the over 200 cities with a population between 100,000 and 250,000. 66% of the Latino population lives outside of the major cities according to Brown and Lopez, “Mapping the Latino Population.”

7. For texts on Latinos in rural or agricultural work, see the following selected works: Barajas, Curious Unions; Cohen, Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects; Duany, “A Transnational Colonial Migration”; Ferriss, Sandoval, and Hembree, The Fight in the Fields; Findlay, We Are Left without a Father Here; Guerin-Gonzales, Mexican Workers and American Dreams; and Martin, Promise Unfulfilled. For texts on Latinos in urban areas or industrial work, see the following selected works: Fernandez, Brown in the Windy City; Garcia, A World of its Own; Garcilazo, Traqueros; Innis-Jiménez, Steel Barrio; Moralez, “Settling Out and Fitting In”; Thomas, Puerto Rican Citizen; Valdés, Barrios Norteños; Valle and Torres, Latino Metropolis; Vargas, Proletarians of the North; and Whalen, From Puerto Rico to Philadelphia.

8. See Arredondo, Mexican Chicago; Fernandez, Brown in the Windy City; Rodriguez, Tejano Diaspora; Vargas, Proletarians of the North. Instead, Grand Rapids might be more akin to Milwaukee; a place where Latinos moved for labor and in turn their activism followed the same geographical patterns.

9. Garcia, A World of its Own and Soja, Postmodern Geographies. This framework also references work by canonical historians of the southwest. See, McWilliams, Factories in the Field and Guerin-Gonzales, “Conversing across Boundaries.” In studying major cities or rural areas, Latino historians have not been able to aptly address the nuances of Latino labor arrangements in areas where they needed to combine a variety of work for economic survival.

10. This work expands on the ways we know that women have creatively found ways to provide for their families. Latinas who meticulously planned out how many rows a family needed to harvest to make it through the winter are akin to African American women and Latina women who have found work in informal markets, see Harris, Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Runners; Lisa Fine, The Souls of Skyscrapers; Enstad, Ladies of Labor; Orleck, Storming Caesar’s Palace; and Vargas; Proletarians of the North.

11. McWilliams, Factories in the Field, 71.

12. Some of these oral histories are drawn from a project undertaken by several Grand Rapids’ area institutions including Calvin College, Grand Valley state University, and the Grand Rapids Public Library, among others. These oral histories are accessible via the Grand Rapids Public Library. I conducted other oral histories for this project and others. Those transcripts are in my possession.

13. I use Spanish-Speaking, Latin American, and Latino to refer to Mexicans and Puerto Ricans collectively, who referred to themselves by these terms over the scope of this study.

14. Juanita Rincones, interview with Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2000, Latinos in Western Michigan Collection (LMWC) 321, Grand Rapids Public Library (GRPL). Santos Rincones, interview with Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2000, LMWC, 321, GRPL. Irma Garcia Aguilar, interview with Laura Retherford and Christian Miller, Grand Rapids, Michigan 2001, 321, LMWC, GRPL. Isabel Navarro interview with Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1997, LMWC, 321, GRPL. Miguel Navarro, interview with Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1997, LMWC, 321, GRPL. Guadalupe Vargas, interview with Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1997, LMWC, 321, GRPL. Daniel Vásquez, interview with Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids, Michigan, undated, LMWC, 321, GRPL.

15. Garcilazo, 48.

16. Garcilazo, 51.

17. Garcilazo, 68.

18. Luciano Cerda, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedule, 1930.

19. Mapes, Sweet Tyranny, 66 and 123.

20. Pedro López arrest record, Arrest Book #1, Grand Rapids City Archives (GRCA).

21. Ibid.

22. For a detailed look at Mexicans in Detroit, see Vargas, Proletarians of the North.

23. Juanita Vásquez, interview with author, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2011.

24. Valdez, Barrios Norteños, 50.

25. See Vargas, Proletarians of the North.

26. For information on the furniture industry see Carron, Grand Rapids Furniture; For information on Grand Rapids during wartime see Harms and Viol, Grand Rapids Goes to War; and Jelks, African Americans in the Furniture City. For postwar histories on Grand Rapids see Olson and Lovell, Grand Rapids, a City Renewed; Robinson, A City Within a City. For histories on African Americans in Grand Rapids, see Jelks, African Americans in the Furniture City; Robinson, A City within a City. For a history of Latinos in Grand Rapids, see Fernandez, “Becoming Latino.”

Donaker et al., Grand Rapids and its People.

27. In Grand Rapids no such repatriation campaigns occurred. County and federal officials targeted Mexicans in the Southwestern United States particularly, but the Midwest also experienced forced and voluntary repatriation during the 1930s. In large and small cities alike, Mexicans left en masse. Reviewing records for the Detroit and Chicago consulates revealed that Mexicans living in Grand Rapids, Lansing, or Kalamazoo were not on lists for voluntary repatriation or forced deportation.

28. Frank Arredondo, Polks’ Grand Rapids City Directory, 1930 and 1937, GRPL.

29. Guadalupe Vargas, interview with author, 1997, LMWC, 321, GRPL.

30. Juanita Rincones, interview with Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids, 2000, LMWC, 321, GRPL.

31. “Miller Welding Supply Company: Family owned company dives into robotics.” http://www.weldingandgasestoday.org/index.php/2008/03/miller-welding-supply-company/.

32. Daniel Vásquez, interview with Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Undated, LMWC, 321, GRPL; Mike Neimann, “The Latins’ Voice Grows Louder Here.”

33. I examined at 50 Spanish-surnamed families listed in the Polk’s Grand Rapids City directory and recorded their listed employment to calculate this data. Polk’s Grand Rapids City Directory, 1946–1954, GRPL.

34. Bos, “Journey to Grand Rapids: Oral Histories of Mexican American Senior Citizen Women in Grand Rapids,” 1998, LMWC, 321, GRPL.

35. Juan Báez, interview with author, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2011.

36. Eileen Findlay includes an in-depth analysis of the workers’ responses to the issues they faced on the fields. She explains their actions as a part of a larger process of bregando,(struggling or negotiating) with both the Puerto Rican government and their position as colonial subjects. See chapter 4 in We are Left Here without a Father.

37. Luis Muñoz Marin To Leocadio Aponte, September 19, 1950, File 743-Michigan-A-B-C, Box 2275, Tarea 96–20, Fondo de la Oficina del Gobeirno, (FOG), Archivo General de Puerto Rico (AGPR).

38. Sánchez Korrol, From Colonia to Community, 35.

39. Ibid.

40. Fernández, Brown in the Windy City, 49.

41. Annual Report, 1958–1959, 135. Box 2533, Folder 6. Office of the Government of Puerto Rico in the United States (OGPRUS).

42. Juan Báez, interview with author, Grand Rapids, 2011.

43. Louis A. Delgado to John Kearney, “Field Trip to Niles, Michigan, January 4, 1960” Department of Labor-Migration Division, Chicago Regional Office, Box 2402, Folder 861, OGPRUS.

44. Bob Reed, telephone interview by author, August 24, 2011.

45. Nicolas Escribano, Passenger Lists, Arrival: New York, New York, Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897–1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 8042; Line: 19; Page Number: 41.

46. Social Explorer Tables(SE), Census 1960 Tracts Only Set, Social Explorer & U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.socialexplorer.com/tables/C1960TractDS/R10958509.

47. U.S. Census Bureau, “Foreign Born Population Characteristics, 1940”. Prepared by Social Explorer.

This number did not take into account Mexican Americans and likely also did not count migrant workers who were in the city only for seasonal work.

48. “Pastoral Plan of the Diocese of Grand Rapids,” 1. Hispanic Apostolate, Grand Rapids City Archdiocese Archives (GRCAA).

49. See the following works for information on whiteness and racial formation: Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color; Gerstle, American Crucible; Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White.

50. I draw on Thomas Gugliemo’s work on Italians in Chicago for this framework. See Guglielmo, White on Arrival.

51. Francisco Sánchez, Polk’s Grand Rapids City Directory, 1958. GRPL; Lorenzo Ramirez, Polk’s Grand Rapids City Directory, 1956, GRPL.

52. Historian Eduardo Moralez has noted that women have played this integral role in their families throughout the Midwest. See Moralez, “Settling Out and Fitting In.” There are numerous histories on Latina’s contributions to their family economies. See Ruíz, From Out of the Shadows as a canonical example of this work. For a history of Mexican American and Latina women as central actors in migrations, see Ruíz and Chávez, eds., Memories and Migrations. For the history of how Mexican women migrants organized and shaped the Mexican community in Chicago before World War II, see Arredondo, Mexican Chicago.

53. Lila Garcia, interview with author, Lansing, Michigan, 2015.

54. Jose Flores, interview via the Community House Senior Histories program, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2016.

55. Ibid.

56. Maria Zambrana, interview with author, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2012.

57. This type of recreational exclusion was common practice across the country and throughout the twentieth century. Depending on the geographical context, Latinos may have been excluded from white-only recreational spaces leading them to create their own. See Alamillo, Making Lemonade out of Lemons, for an example in California. Latinos were excluded as part of the same processes that kept African Americans out of recreational spaces. See Wolcott, Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters.

58. Human Relation Commissions, Meeting Minutes, January 20, 1964, GRCA, HRC Files.

59. Employer Record Cards for Gilden Co, Green Acres Turf, H.J. Heinz Co, Holcombe Sod Farms, Dawn Fresh Mushroom, and Bill Mar Foods, Box 2402, Folder 861, OGPRUS.

60. “Mexicans Find New Homes,” February 2, 1956, 13.

61. Armando Araisa, January 24, 1949, Cedar Springs, Michigan; Vidal Guzman, October 18, 1952, Freemont, Michigan; Jose Vlademir Saldivar, June 23, 1953, Zeeland, Michigan; and Juanita Pena, April 12, 1954, Lakeview, Michigan; Birthdates and locations, Baptismal Records, St. Andrew’s Cathedral.

62. Carlos Mancha, St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Baptism Record, February 2, 1953.

63. Cesario Mancha, 380-28-2080; Issue State: Michigan; Issue Date: Before 1951 Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014.

64. Maria Ysasi, interview with author, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2012.

65. For more information on mutual aid societies in the Midwest see Arredondo, Mexican Chicago.

66. Guadalupe Vargas, interview with Gordon Olson, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1997, LMWC, GRPL.

67. Ibid.

68. Ibid.

69. Rosalia Espindola Fernández, interview with author, October 3, 2013.

70. Latin American Council, Monitor Report, October 2, 1971, LAC, GRCA.

71. Latino Population Statistics, City Commission, Harold Dekker, General Subject File, Latin Amer-Pub Mus, 1969–1985, box 4, GRCA.

72. It is important to note that the War on Poverty and its programs, including the Model Cities program, did not solve poverty. Historian, Eric Foner aptly declared that the federal government did not ‘consider guaranteeing an annual income for all Americans, creating jobs for the unemployed, promoting the spread of unionization, or making it more difficult for business to shift production to the low-wage south or overseas …’ in attempting to eradicate inequality. Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! In Grand Rapids, however, the activism that Latinos carried out made a difference in the lives for whom they advocated. This, therefore, is not a critique of the War on Poverty, but rather a pragmatic evaluation of the effects of the program.

73. Census Bureau, Table B-2, SMSA 1–22, Selected Characteristics of Persons and Families by Residence in Census Tracts with Poverty Rate 20% or More: 1970.

74. “Rural Poverty”.

75. Acuña, Occupied America; Ferriss, Sandoval, and Hembree. The Fight in the Fields; García, ed. The Chicano Movement.

76. Fuentes, “Problems of Migrant Workers in Michigan: Staff Report” Fuentes, Northwest Michigan Civil Rights Commission” March 1968, 4, Human Relations Commission (HRC), Grand Rapids City Archives (GRCA).

77. Fuentes, “Problems of Migrant Workers,” 1.

78. Daniel Vargas, “Giving the Poor a Voice in Their Own Destiny” Michigan Welfare League Conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan, November 16, 1965, Box 14, Folder 10, HRC, GRCA.

79. Daniel Vargas, “Governor’s Commission on Migrant Labor” Grand Rapids, Michigan June 3, 1964, Box 14, Folder 10, HRC, GRCA.

80. Barajas, Curious Unions; Rodriguez, Tejano Diaspora; and Rodriguez, Migrants for Export.

81. Fuentes, “Problems of Migrant Workers in Michigan,” 2.

82. Monthly narrative, Latin American Council, March 1972, MC, LAC, GRCA.

83. Latin American Council, Monitor Report, June 2, 1972, LAC, GRCA.

84. “Latin American council Endorsement of the United Farm Workers,” Board of Directors, September 17, 1973, LAC, GRCA.

85. In Milwaukee, United Migrants for Opportunity Services (UMOS) started helping migrants but expanded their services to include urban living Latinos. UMOS received funding from the Equal Opportunity Act, section IIIB, which was designated for migrant workers. Rodriguez’ work on UMOS only furthers the notion that Latinos were resourceful in expanding the definitions of the federal funding they received to address the concerns of mobile workers.

86. Few scholars examine this process in the Midwest. See Green, Del Valle a Willmar; Moralez, “Settling Out and Fitting In.”