El Norte: Chicanas/os in the Midwest

The story of Mexicans in the Midwest introduces us to the concept of the Mexican Diaspora being constructed throughout middle “America.”

Historically in the Midwest, Mexicans were not the majority in any community they inhabited. There is much more diversity in terms of new immigrants, lots of European migration settlement, so the community and cultural production look very different than it does in the Southwest.

Mexican Cherry Pickers, Wisconsin, circa 1930s-source unknown

Labor agents played a primary role in the distribution of Mexicans throughout the Midwest.  The agents recruited ethnic Mexicans to work primarily in agriculture throughout the Midwest states primarily from Texas. Areas such as El Paso, Laredo, San Antonio, and Fort Worth were the staging grounds for the Midwest migration. Agriculture and cotton industry attracted Mexicans to move into Texas to work but the conditions were repressive. Texas was an extremely racially virulent place. Mexicans migrating from Texas to the Midwest region did so consciously to escape both repressive work conditions as well as racial violence.

Labor agents from Midwest urban industrial cities would go into Texas and recruit Mexican workers. Mexican workers would be willing to move to what they called El Norte. Many were curious about the jobs and knew that if the working conditions were not what they wanted they would break the contract and return to Texas to start the process all over again.

Mexican workers who did travel north to these urban opportunities would send word to others about the type of work available and opportunities that were given. This made the labor agents jobs easier because the word of mouth system helped legitimize their recruitment efforts. This system eventually changed the tide of the Southwest monopoly on Mexican workers. Mexican workers no longer only had one option, or a largely rural occupation option, but instead could have choices to move or migrate around to something different.

Early 20^th Century Migration

In this interwar period, post-1917 you see more and more Mexicans moving. By 1927, Mexicans in the Midwest totaled 63,700 and increased to 80,000 by the summer (including some agricultural farming opportunities). Migrant flows followed certain crops (sugar beets), industrial growth, or the railroads. It was a tough trek El Norte, not everyone was ready to live and work that type of distance from the Mexican border. The Southwest, while technically part of the US, had a strong Mexican cultural influence. Further away from the Border States meant also moving further away from the cultural comfort those communities offered.

Michigan Sugar Beet Workers, 1926 via history.fcgov.com

Michigan sugar beet harvest is one of the industries that initially lured Mexicans north. The migration was mostly families, although single male laborers did go as well. Families were seen as desirable because all parties could work, women and children, and often they were paid little or not at all. For the families, working as a unit sometimes provided the extra income that they needed to sustain. So while partially exploitative it was also in some ways welcomed. In the mid 1920s many went this migration through the railroad.

Growers were responsible for the families providing food, housing, and paying for transportation. Beet farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa, and Michigan were all quite similar in this respect. In 1922 Mexicans totaled 33 % of Michigan’s sugar beet workers but by 1927 they were almost 75%.  

There were standard exploitative practices in the Midwest as well: subpar housing, cheated out of wages, or overworked. However, the situation was still not as severe as what most of them had encountered in Texas.

The other thing to note about this Midwest migration pattern is that when Mexicans moved north, they increasingly created a permanent community. While community permanence was happening in the Southwest there was a culture of seasonal migrant work, which still exists. Meaning that ethnic Mexicans may have had a home base but because of the nature of agricultural work in the Southwest states, many had to travel or follow the crops to maintain employment.

In the Midwest however, there was a movement towards urban centers when the seasonal harvest is done. The migration then to the cities, metropolitan areas, meant different types of employment opportunities. Many ethnic Mexicans began working for urban industrial companies. For example in Chicago they worked for steel and meatpacking and in Detroit, the auto industry. They became comfortable with the city and permanence of this type of work so they wouldn’t necessarily return to farming-agriculture work. Through the 1920s we see this transition of Mexicans in the Midwest from agricultural workers toward urban factory workers. Factory work became more appealing because it was better pay and was not seasonal. This was most attractive for families because this type of work meant that they would be able to stay in one place year round making sufficient wages so the children would not have to work and would instead have the opportunity to go to school. It was a moment to seize upward social mobility.

Working Big Auto: Detroit, Michigan

"The Jewel of Detroit" Mural, Diego Rivera 1933 via Detroit Institute of Arts

Detroit’s auto industry in particular drew Mexicans to work. The auto industry didn’t need to recruit often people moved to Detroit for work. By 1920 there were approximately 3,000 Mexicans in Detroit. The auto industry became a beacon in the North, attracting both African Americans and Mexicans. But Detroit, known as Jim Crow of the North, was a dangerous and racially volatile space, which complicated both work opportunities and housing settlements for communities of color.

In Detroit Mexicans mainly lived in the southwest sector near Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Armenian communities. Studies of Detroit’s housing patterns reflect a city that held stringent segregation patterns. African Americans, new immigrant communities, and ethnic Mexicans were kept inside the urban sector while whites fled to the suburbs.

The city itself was not structurally able to house the population. Ethnic Mexicans were caught in this housing density often forced to inhabit hovels where multiple families were forced to live in one dwelling. In 1930 4,500-5,000 Mexicans lived in an area less than one square mile away from Inland steel plant creating a dense population. Despite the issues ethnic Mexicans faced in areas like Detroit, the opportunity to work in the urban factory setting still represented more agency than they found in agriculture work in the Southwest.