Final-Discriminationa and Davenport Mexicans

by

Brandon Van Winkle

Rhetoric

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Discrimination and Davenport Mexicans

In the early 1900’s when many Americans went off to WWI to fight the war, the Bettendorf Foundry recruited many Mexicans to come work at the foundry. The foundry was generous enough to build a small community for the Mexican workers to live in. It consisted of box cars, small cottages and unassembled apartments, all without running water or electricity. By the 1930’s the foundry had closed down due to high unemployment, the Mexicans in the small community known as Cook’s Point remained. For decades, the Mexicans faced many hardships including discrimination and poor education. Rev. William T. O’Connor’s attention was caught and he began efforts to help these Mexicans at Cook’s Point. A fourteen page economic survey was conducted by the St. Ambrose Industrial and Human Relations Club as part of the effort to show how the Cook’s Point residents lived. This economic survey was created by William T. O’Connor in order to bring light to the subject of how discrimination was socio-economically affecting the Mexican’s at Cook’s Point.

In the introduction of this document, Rev. William T. O’Connor is further explaining the socio-economic status of Davenport Mexicans. My documents primary focus is on how Davenport Mexicans were being discriminated against in housing and jobs. Rev. O’Connor was part of multiple organizations in the Quad Cities that focused on equality for Mexicans. (LULAC) the League of United Latin American Citizens and the League for Social Justice, both had like-minded ideas of what should happen in order to help the Mexican Americans that were being discriminated against but neither, for many years made any attempts to fix the issue. Rev. O’Connor had attended multiple dinners and forums where he gave light to his ideas that the Mexican’s at Cook’s Point deserved a new housing area in Davenport where they had equal housing accommodations such as running water and electricity. To further reinforce his idea that the Mexicans needed a new housing area, he conducted the Cook’s Point Economic Survey with the Industrial and Human Relations Club at St. Ambrose.

The 1960’s were a prevalent time for Civil Rights movements, not only for African Americans but for Mexicans as well. Rev. O’Connor gives light to the housing discrimination many Mexicans felt in Cook’s Point. In the overall survey, Rev. O’Connor uses the document to portray how the Cook’s Point residents really lived. After the surveyors were finished gathering their information it was more than obvious that the residents were living well below poverty, yet they still held a smile as they passed one another. The families in Cook’s Point understood the importance of education, it was made clear by the surveyor’s reports of the families housing many dictionaries, history books, and other various reading materials. Though the original residents couldn’t find the best life in Davenport, they knew they could give their children a chance. The prevalence of this is the story of Maria Terronez. When she was four years old her family was brought to Davenport so that her father could work at the Bettendorf Foundry. Maria Terronez could be described as the product of hard work, perseverance and a mind-set of helping those around you. Terronez worked as an activist for most of her life, she worked with just about every agency, league, and interest group. Of her many contributions to Mexican Americans to the community of the Quad Cities her most outstanding achievement would be her spokesman ship and representation of the Cook’s Point residents when they were being forcefully relocated in 1952.

The relocation of the Cook’s Point residents showed that the discrimination of the time really affected them in many ways other than socio-economically. According to O’Connor (1963) “the Mexicans in Davenport have been integrated into the fabric of our society” (p.14). With Success stories like Maria Terronez and the hardworking attitude portrayed in the Cook’s Point economic survey, success is sure to come to many of those in the Mexican American community. Though many of the Cook’s Point residents never got a raise or promotion, it is easy for one to see that the residents would’ve continued to work just as hard as they always had. One could easily concluded from the survey that; the Mexicans at Cook’s Point were being discriminated against in regards to workplace and job. The numbers showed that many had never been given a raise or promotion. However, many groups such as LULAC fired back, saying that there was serious job discrimination. Though these groups made strong argument, they were never successful at fully ending the workplace discrimination.

Concluding paragraph still needed

References (APA citations)

  • (labor collections) .n.d. Iowa.history.org/libraries/collections

http://www.iowahistory.org/libraries/collections/iowa-city-center/iowa_labor_collection/ILHOPindex/Quad%20Cities/O%27Connor.htm

http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/ref/collection/latinas/id/1658

http://collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?IWA0497

http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa/findingaids/html/TerronezMary.htm

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