Overview

Perhaps no other industrial technology changed the course of Mexican history in the United States—and Mexico—than did the coming of the railroads. Tens of thousands of Mexicans worked for the railroads in the United States, especially in the Southwest and Midwest. Construction crews soon became railroad workers proper, along with maintenance crews later. Extensive Mexican American settlements appeared throughout the lower and upper Midwest as the result of the railroad. The substantial Mexican American populations in these regions today are largely attributable to 19th- and 20th-century railroad work. Only agricultural work surpassed railroad work in terms of employment of Mexicans. The full history of Mexican American railroad labor and settlement in the United States had not been told, however, until Jeffrey Marcos Garcílazo’s groundbreaking research in Traqueros. Garcílazo mined numerous archives and other sources to provide the first and only comprehensive history of Mexican railroad workers across the United States, with particular attention to the Midwest. He first explores the origins and process of Mexican labor recruitment and immigration and then describes the areas of work performed. He reconstructs the workers’ daily lives and explores not only what the workers did on the job but also what they did at home and how they accommodated and/or resisted Americanization. Boxcar communities, strike organizations, and “traquero culture” finally receive historical acknowledgment. Integral to his study is the importance of family settlement in shaping working class communities and consciousness throughout the Midwest.

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9781574414646

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<p> A meticulous researcher, Garcilazo has gathered a stunning array of archival materials on Mexican railroad workers. From his sources, he reconstructs episodes of daily life from lonely encampments to spontaneous strikes. His arguments on economic stratification, ethnic enclaves, family ties, and identity are solidly grounded in primary documents. Never overstepping the bounds of his evidence, Garcilazo situates traqueros within the larger context of American working class history and his keen insights have retained their currency over the passage of time. --from the foreword by Vicki L. Ruiz

Garcilazo found a fascinating story of labor migration, community formation, familial relations, and social history. . . . The writing is top notch. . . . In writing the first comprehensive treatment of the traqueros, Garcilazo has broken considerable new academic ground. -- Montana: The Magazine of Western History

Author Information

JEFFREY MARCOS GARCÍLAZO received his doctorate from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine, before his untimely death in 2001. VICKI L. RUIZ is professor of history and Chicano/Latino studies at the University of California, Irvine.

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