Mexican nationals immigrate to America (jan 1, 1910 – jan 1, 1920)

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1910-1920 Mexican nationals immigrate to America: During the Early 1900s, many Mexican nationals began to leave their homeland, disrupted by the Mexican Revolution, in pursuit of a better life. They migrated North, following jobs working in railroads, meat-packing plants, & farm labor. Many settled in the Armourdale & Argentine communities of Kansas City, Kansas. Some families lived in railroad boxcars with their families, until better accommodation could be found.

Mexican railroad companies provided the migration mechanism by hiring agricultural workers who were unaccustomed to receiving cash. Along the northern portion of these routes, resident labor was so scarce that workers were brought from the south, thus carrying the central-Mexican villager a thousand miles from his home and within a few miles of the U.S. border. The American agent, charged by the U.S. railroad companies with the task of hiring large numbers of laborers and armed with gold as payment, had little difficulty attracting Mexicans across the not-very-formidable dividing line separating the two countries.

The employment agents (enganchistas) met northbound trains from Mexico at El Paso and offered the largely penniless immigrants various and competing inducements of board, lodging and transportation to a place of work. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and the Rock Island railroad lines both used agents to supply laborers. In an eight-month period, (1907-08), agents supplied about 16,500 Mexicans to various railroad companies. Many were sent directly from the border to Kansas City. SourcE: https://www.khlaac.ks.gov/about-us/history/history-of-kansas-hispanic-community

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