Emilie:
My grandfather actually came through El Paso in 1908
and lived in Canadian, Texas, worked for the Panhandle
Railroad. I have the census for Canadian, TX and at
that time there were about 50 to 60 Mexican families
just starting out in this small railroad town, they
moved north up through New Mexico and then into KS,
they also worked the beet fields in Nebraska during
the summer months, but always came back home to Kansas
City. However, my grandfather had brothers after
leaving Canadian, TX that also went West to CA., to
live. It's interesting to always find out but usually
when they came across it was with their neighbors they
had in Mexico that later became their neighbors in
Canadian, TX and so on, they kept their neighbors
close to them.
I would say their migration was about survival and
their jobs, wherever their jobs took them, they had to
pack up and follow and for my grandfather it was the
railroad. Emilie, try research immigration papers for
your family if you haven't already tried this; I got
my grandfather's information and it gave me his
whereabouts from the time he was in El Paso 1908 until
he died in 1968. This will give you more insight of
their migration pattern and why they moved around. It
answered many questions for me.
--- Emilie Garcia <auntyemfaustus@...> wrote:
> Carol,
>
> My story could have been very much like yours. You
> see, I was born in Brush, Colorado, in Morgan
> County, way up in the northeast corner by Kansas.
> When WWII started, my father got a job working in
> the shipyards in Richmond CA and sent my mother, my
> sister and I to my mother's relatives in southern NM
> near El Paso TX, then after the war he sent for us
> and we settled in what is now known as Silicon
> Valley. My father was brought to Colorado from
> Jerez in 1916 at the age of 13 by his father who I
> believe arrived earlier. In the census records, I
> find no other Spanish surnames. When my husband was
> helping me search census records before they were
> all online, he kept telling me, "No hay ni un frijol
> aqui! [I don't see a single beaner here!] Why did
> your folks end up there?". I often wonder why they
> ended up way up there; maybe you can tell me why
> some Mexicans ended up so far north then (we are all
> over now).
>
> My father surprised me one day when he told me he
> had been to Wyoming as a young man. We had been
