Volume 3, No. 2 (Fall 1999) -- Mexican American Heritage Issue

Mexican American communities also existed in the Emporia, Kansas City and Topeka areas. In Topeka the Mexican colony was located around the Banner Street viaduct. The Santa Fe railroad had its principal headquarters in Topeka. Many Mexican workers did not bring their families with them and lived a nomadic and insecure life working on track gangs for the railroad. At first many worked a six or eight month contract, returning to their homes in Mexico before the winter season started in Kansas. Later, virtually all the Mexican laborers at Santa Fe in Topeka became employed in the shops and yards, not on track sections. This contributed to feeling of solidarity that allowed the immigrants to establish themselves as permanent residents.

Many similarities exist between the Mexican American immigrant experience in Garden City and Topeka. As described in a chapter by Lorena Lopez in Generations United published by the Kansas Humanities Council in 1994, many of the Mexican workers who came to Topeka were recruited by a number of “enganchistas” or agents. As soon as immigrants entered the border city of El Paso, agents could be found offering advanced board, lodging and transportation to a place where work was offered. Since these contractors competed with one another and received bonuses for the number of contracts they obtained, they would even cross the border into Mexico to publicize the jobs they offered. This method of procuring labor was in operation prior to the Mexican Revolution and continued in the 1920s.

Illegally entering the United States could lead to deportation but in view of the poverty that existed in Mexico and the opportunities offered north, many risked their lives by crossing the border illegally. Smugglers, known as “coyotes” to the Mexican workers, worked with the enganchistas in a strong coalition to provide jobs to the laborers. When Mexican labor was scarce, big commercial, industrial and agricultural enterprises paid the smugglers for each worker imported. When labor was plentiful, they maintained the smuggler on a salary basis.

In the Mexican colony in Topeka, the Guadalupe district was the largest and most prosperous, extending to the north and east from the Branner Street viaduct. The “bottoms” was bound on the east by the Branner Street viaduct and the Santa Fe shops.

Immigrants to Topeka came mostly from the Central Plateau of Mexico, from the village of Silao in Guanajuato. Many of the first Mexican immigrants in Topeka were unable to get decent living facilities because of their low economic status. The first eight families included about 40 people. No one would rent to them let alone sell to them, so they had to use the boxcar lumber houses provided by the railroad company. There were no modern facilities, yet there seemed to be few cases of illness.

Most Mexicans worked as “helpers” and unskilled workers. Only occasionally would a worker be able to rise above the position of hand laborer. It was not until the late 1930s that they were able to join labor unions. Mexican Americans soon learned that even though they would receive about the same wages, they were not given equal opportunities for advancement or promotion. Controversy emerged during the Great Depression when millions were unemployed and the “white man” replaced Mexcian track laborers by the hundreds. Even then, the railroad found Anglos hard to retain and the Santa Fe railroad kept many Mexican workers on. Today, descendants of Mexican immigrants hold positions with Santa Fe from engineer to safety supervisor.