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The Mexican Consulate: A Key Component in Establishing a Latino Community in Urban Utah

2024; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 92; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5406/26428652.92.1.07

2642-8652

Jorge Iber,

Latin American and Latino Studies

To properly honor the 110th anniversary of the Consulate of Mexico in Salt Lake City, it makes sense to acknowledge the reasons for the establishment of this office in Utah's capital, while also providing some examples of the issues Mexicans faced in twentieth-century Utah. Thus, this essay will discuss not only a little of the early history of the consulate, but it will also make use of an invaluable oral history collection, the recollections of Mexicans who arrived in the Beehive State to make a better life for themselves and their descendants.1To get a sense of why the Mexican government opened the consular office in what many would consider an out-of-the-way place, we must first briefly examine the economic reasons that led to Mexicans arriving in Utah in the first place. Those who are familiar with the history of the western and southwestern United States are aware of the pull that industries had for migrants in the region, specifically the railroads, agriculture, and mining. All of these sectors required cheap, unskilled labor for the work carried out in what were generously labeled "difficult" circumstances. In the years leading up to Utah's 1896 admission to the Union, its economic development was directly linked to a broader national commercial enterprise, and thus "no longer would the state depend, almost exclusively, upon small-scale agriculture and manufacturing located in Mormon towns."2 The capital city of Salt Lake City, specifically, was central because of its mining, financial, and rail connections.This development, along with the arrival of the Mexicans, did not occur overnight. In fact, the federal census reported only 40 Mexican citizens residing in Utah in 1900, a number that would increase to 1,666 in 1920. One of the first Mexican citizens on record was a man named Rafael Torres from Rancho Guerrero, Michoacán. At the end of the 1910s, Rafael Torres had worked in both agriculture (sugar beets) and railroads.3One event that had a dramatic impact on the growth of the Mexican population in Utah was the 1912 strike against the Utah Copper Company, near Bingham Canyon. In September of that year, approximately one thousand miners went on strike for higher wages. The company resorted to bringing in migrants, including Mexicans, to replace those workers. A review of the company's employee identification cards shows that prior to 1912, there were only six such employees at the Utah Copper Company.4 Between September 1912 and early 1913, the number skyrocketed to 330.As a result of the influx, the Mexican government began its efforts to help its citizens in the state of Utah. One individual who worked as honorary consul was a labor contractor named E. D. Hashimoto, who, although he did a certain amount of work for Mexican citizens, did not seem to think very highly of his position. By the late 1920s, when interviewed by Paul Schuster Taylor, Hashimoto stated that "Mexicans [are] content to remain laborers, [because they] are floaters and do not make a permanent place by acquiring property."5 Hashimoto began his duties as consul in 1916 and, despite his attitude, Mexicans continued to arrive; by 1927, Consul Carlos M. Gaxiola estimated that there were around three thousand Mexicans in Utah and Idaho, the majority of whom worked harvesting sugar beets.The Mexican consulate officially opened in 1912, with José Lozano being the first to serve as head consul. Given the circumstances in Mexico at the time, it is of no surprise that the office enlisted Hashimoto's services just a few years later. In fact, in October 1920, the Salt Lake City postmaster published an urgent appeal in the Salt Lake Tribune, asking for "a Mexican who can speak and write Spanish" to provide "information to recommend the appointment of a Mexican consul."6 Given the turmoil of the time, the Mexican population of Utah, very much to their credit, began on their own accord to establish a number of mutual aid organizations. Among these were the Asociación Mexicana de Protección (Mexican Protective Association), the Blue Cross, and another organization called Unión y Patría (Union and Homeland).While the occupational appeal for Mexicans in Utah parallels that of several other states in the West and Southwest, there is one aspect of this history that makes the Beehive State unique: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Along with those who came explicitly in search of work, there were others who arrived in Salt Lake City due to their religious beliefs. In the mid-1910s, the arrival of three sisters—Domitila, Agustina, and Dolores Rivera—all natives of Chimalhuacán and raised as Latter-day Saints, was a key event in the establishment of a Mexican Mormon presence in Utah. Soon after their arrival to the state, the sisters began missionary work among their brethren in Salt Lake City, as well as in Garland (a key sugar-beet farming area) and southern Idaho. Those they converted included Juan Ramón Martinez, Francisco Solano, and Margarito Bautista, who helped establish the first Latter-day Saint group in Salt Lake City in 1922. Later, internal divisions would break up the group, and Bautista would be excommunicated in 1924. Regardless, these efforts led to the establishment of the Mexican Branch, which continued to grow into a full-fledged neighborhood. Years later, the Catholic church also participated in helping Mexicans in Utah, particularly after 1920, with the establishment of the Our Lady of Guadalupe mission in the early years of that decade. The main figure at that institution was the priest, Father James E. Collins, who arrived in 1930. Additionally, and as a result of the expulsion of several orders from Mexico during the Cristero Rebellion, several sisters from the order of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration arrived in the late 1920s and served the community for about a dozen years.The state's Mexican community suffered greatly during the 1930s with the arrival of the Great Depression. While the institutions they established and those of the LDS and Catholic churches did help to mitigate the harsh economic conditions of the decade, it was disastrous for the population. After reaching a high of about 4,000 Mexicans in the state, according to the 1930 census, the next national population count revealed a dramatic 73 percent drop in their number, with only 1,069 registered in 1940. The situation became so drastic that the consulate "issued statements claiming that some of their charges would starve to death if they did not receive immediate assistance."7 Even so, there were some important developments during this terrible period. For example, these years marked the genesis of the Mexican Civic Center, the community's most important local organization up to the 1960s. It would serve as the venue for community celebrations, sports programs, and a myriad of other offerings over the years.Just as the 1930s resulted in a dramatic decline in the number of Mexicans in Utah, World War II also brought about a substantial change in the Spanish-speaking population of the state. As the armed conflict broke out, a large number of laborers went north to work in the fields and fill the vacancies in the western United States. While Utah did not attract a large number of these laborers, the reactivation of the economy sparked the return of native workers (New Mexicans, predominantly) with Spanish surnames to the Salt Lake City area, as well as other parts of the state. There were, for example, jobs available at the Remington Small Arms Plant in the capital, as well as at the United States Steel Geneva Works in nearby Utah County. In addition, the Utah Copper Company, Kennecott Copper, and the American Smelting and Refining Company had also expanded and needed more workers.Opportunities also became available to Mexican women, who began working outside the home in greater numbers. While many took jobs in more "traditional" areas, such as food processing, there were several who, like Rose Ortiz, born in Colorado, worked in the railroad yard to support her four children while her husband was in the army.While there were some tensions between the workers from New Mexico and the Mexicans, the arrival of another Spanish-speaking group, the Puerto Ricans, in Bingham Canyon and other areas, led to a certain uneasy alliance between the two former groups. Some Mexicans, for example, made derogatory comments about the boricuas (Puerto Ricans) because of the way they spoke Spanish. The Mexicans also had some negative things to say about the New Mexicans. Something that caused much consternation was that the Spanish speakers from north of the border used the term "Mexicans" among themselves, but if a foreigner (that is, a native Mexican) called them by that name, they considered it to be "fighting words."In general, the World War II years were fairly good to the people of Utah with Spanish surnames, particularly after the economic slowdown of the Great Depression. There was a lot of work available for the men and women of the community, and that led to a certain economic revitalization among the population. While there was a certain level of appreciation for the assistance of the Mexicans and "Mexican Americans" during the war, it did not mean that discriminatory practices and sentiments against these groups came to an end following the conflict. A particularly striking example involved a returning veteran who sought to purchase a home in the Avenues neighborhood, located just above the University of Utah. The veteran, Epifanio González, stood out for his bravery during his service in Italy, but that didn't seem to matter to the real estate agents. During an interview, he noted that the rejection was particularly painful because, "How would you feel if . . . you fought your heart out in the war, and now you say, 'Now I am an American. I'm just as good as anybody.' And then, all of a sudden, you're just a second-rate citizen[?]"8 As the community progressed into the 1950s and 1960s, a new type of battle came to Utah, one for greater civil rights, which would help the state advance in a more fair and equitable direction.In the years between the end of the war and the beginning of the Chicano movement, moderate progress was made with respect to Utah's Spanish-speaking population. By 1950, the number of Mexicans in the state had increased slightly to about 1,400; however, the community expanded with the arrival of some New Mexicans, as well as others from Colorado and Texas. The group also included the parents of approximately 3,900 "native or foreign or mixed" children. Thus, the main concern was to ensure these young people had the opportunity to obtain the education that many of those in the previous generation had lacked.9However, there was a concerted effort to transform the hopes generated by World War II into reality. Those with Spanish surnames had contributed to the war effort against racist enemies, and there was an implicit promise to these soldiers that they would be rewarded upon their return to the United States. In Utah, one of the main organizations focused on these efforts was the American GI Forum (AGIF), which had branches in Ogden and Salt Lake City. This veterans' organization was founded in Corpus Christi, Texas, shortly after the war, and, among other causes, it fought for the better treatment of veterans upon their return. For example, the AGIF sought to improve educational outcomes by raising money for scholarships and provide opportunities to move up the financial ladder through promoting the occupational training that was part of the GI Bill. There were also several active mutual associations in the north of Utah during these years, as well as the continued efforts of the Mexican Civic Center, the Guadalupe Parish (which was granted that status in 1948), and the Mexican Branch. All of these organizations promoted cultural and personal improvement programs not only to improve outcomes but also to strengthen the importance of this community in Utah society at large. One last significant shift in the efforts to bring about social change came with the arrival of Father Jerald Merrill to Guadalupe in 1961, following the death of Father Collins in 1957. Merrill headed up numerous efforts to improve the community during the Chicano movement.In December 1967, Merrill and approximately 150 members of the community met at the parish and expressed their concerns about how to further improve the position of those with Spanish surnames in the state of Utah. This meeting led to the creation of the Spanish-speaking Organization for Community, Integrity, and Opportunity (SOCIO), which officially began operations in March the following year. SOCIO was the main catalyst for most of the social, economic, and educational initiatives promoted by the community in the 1960s and 1970s. At the beginning of that decade, the 1960 census recorded 6,850 Spanish speakers who had been born abroad and were now residing in Utah, most of whom were from Mexico. However, this number did not include the workers from New Mexico or Colorado nor those who had moved from Texas to the Beehive State. When the next census employed a different categorization for Spanish speakers, the number jumped to more than forty-three thousand, of which nearly nine out of ten lived in Weber, Salt Lake, and Utah counties, the urban cores of the state.Although economic and educational progress had been made in the 1950s and up to the 1960s, the community now demanded to be even more directly included in the life of their home state. Due to the constraints of this essay, it is not possible to go into a detailed point-by-point analysis of SOCIO's activities, though it must be understood that the scope of the group was far-reaching. SOCIO launched efforts focused on professional employment at the management level, technical training, completion of high school, small business operations, and a savings and credit union, among other initiatives. Its reach was such that it even began working directly with the state government, which ultimately led to the establishment of an agency designed to address the particular needs of minority populations. The current iteration of this office is the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs. To conclude this essay, just two of its efforts will be highlighted: the creation of La Morena Café and the efforts to increase the number of Spanish-surnamed students at the University of Utah.With respect to the former, Archie Archuleta, a prominent figure in the Chicano struggle, was also involved in La Morena Café (founded in 1967) and argued that this simple restaurant was "a catalyst. From there, the Latino civil rights movement began."10 Among the efforts launched and partially financed by the café were the English as a Second Language (ESL) programs that helped fund the Guadalupe School, the Migrant Council of Utah, and others. The original café continued to operate and provide excellent food, financial assistance, and inspiration for the community until 1986. In 1995, María and Manuel Ramírez reopened the café, but it closed its doors once again in 2001.SOCIO also partnered with the University of Utah and with individual professors to attract more students of Hispanic origin to the institution. The first actions along these lines included their work with Dr. Clark Knowlton, director of the university's Center for the Study of Social Problems. The initial goal was to develop a program to attract 150 minority students to the campus. The proposed budget for the project was $350,000. This was followed by a grant from the Ford Foundation for another $41,000. Among the students to benefit from these efforts was Andrew Valdez.Andrew Valdez graduated from West High School in 1970. He was a boy from the West Side who helped his mother make it to the end of the month by cleaning shoes and selling newspapers in downtown Salt Lake City. As he approached graduation, his counselor at West High told him that his best option was to "join the army." Fortunately, Valdez received the assistance he needed to be able to attend state college, and he eventually graduated from law school in 1977. In 1993, he was appointed to Utah's Third District Juvenile Court, becoming the first Latino judge in the history of the state.11When SOCIO ceased operations in 1986, much had changed in the state of Utah with respect to its Spanish-surnamed population. While full equality had not been attained, economic and social progress had certainly been made as a result of the efforts that began in the late 1960s. There has been such a level of improvement that one historian stated, "When Mexican Americans began to enter the American mainstream through the apertures created by the Movement, they abandoned the Chicano Movement organizations that remained separatist in orientation. In the end, many Mexican Americans wanted 'in' to the American mainstream."12 Despite the changes that lay ahead, the 1990s brought new challenges for the incorporation of Latinos into the life of Utah. During this and the following decades, more people came to the Beehive State from Mexico and other Latin American countries, not all of whom were documented. The question that remains for future analysis is: How would the people of Utah deal with this changing situation?