Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021
Mexicans and Mexican Americans first began migrating to Minnesota in the late 1800s as seasonal field laborers. As the sugar-beet industry expanded in the state so too did the need for more labor. In 1927, a sugar-beet company representative estimated the total Minnesota Mexican migrant population to be at 5,000 and increasing in 1928 to 7,000, according to Cultural Crossroads: Migration and Community Transformation. Gradually, seasonal laborers began to settle in Minnesota.
The first Mexican settlements in Minnesota are reported to have resided principally in the state’s capital of St. Paul. At that time, many of the state’s railroad headquarters were centered in St. Paul and employed a great number of the earliest Mexican residents. By 1930 there were a reported 3,636 permanent residents of Mexican descent living in Minnesota, 70 percent of whom resided in St. Paul or adjacent Ramsey County, according to an article, “Toward a Better Land: Migration on the Minnesota Prairie.”
In Scott County and in Shakopee, Mexicans arrived here for seasonal farm work, and for work in places like Gedney Pickle Factory in Chaska.
Compared to other Midwestern states, whose migrants were mainly single men, Minnesota had a high concentration of women and child migrants due to the lack of enforced labor laws early in the state’s history. This changed the social fabric of the state. Mexican women contributed to the economy by working outside of the home and becoming positive role models for their children.
In the Shakopee Valley News, Maddie DeBilzan talked to a woman who lives in Shakopee in an article “Residents of Scott County are out of work, and it’s leaving some groups in the margins.”
Theresa Garcia is a single mother from Puebla, Mexico who spoke across a crackling phone in broken English, wondering aloud when she’d finally be able to report back to work as a housekeeper at a local hotel.
Garcia is undocumented, and DeBilzan changed her name for this article for fear of being identified. She had been out of a job for a month, with the rent bill coming up soon. With a 17-year-old son to feed and a sister in Jordan, also a single mother, who had three little girls to feed, Garcia was scared.
Her cleaning shifts at the hotel were barely able to make ends meet. With an $825 check she received every two weeks, she had to find a way to pay her $600 rent bill, plus food, car insurance, and a cell phone plan.
Now, those expenses still demand her money, but she didn’t have a paycheck to fall back on.
Garcia, who had lived in Shakopee for 21 years, couldn’t qualify for the unemployment benefits or the stimulus checks others in her position received for being furloughed or laid off, according to the article in the Shakopee Valley News. Ana Vergara, the president of Shakopee Diversity Alliance, was advocating to raise money for others in the community like Garcia, who couldn’t receive government assistance but still needed the help.
“Right now isn’t the time to exclude those people,” Vergara said.
A local group called Esperanza, of hope in Spanish, made a point to cover at least the food portion of the bill for any family that needed it. For example, in early April 2020, at New Creation Lutheran Church, 235 families received groceries. Of those families, 75 were Latino, 10 were Somali, and 150 were white. Other local groups and companies, such as the Scott, Carver and Dakota County Community Action Partnership, Heart Ministries, New Creation Lutheran Church, and several other local agencies have donated money, volunteers, or space for the cause.
Families like Garcia’s received essentials such as milk, bread, meat, spaghetti, cereal, and toilet paper to last her and her teenage son the next seven days.
Shakopee City Council Member Angelica Contreras, who also served on the board of the Shakopee Diversity Alliance, said the goal of the food distribution was to allow people to save money on groceries so they can pay their bills.
In Shakopee, about eight percent of people are Latino. Many Latinos work in hotels and restaurants. A high percentage of those people don’t have insurance or might not qualify for unemployment benefits if they are undocumented. “The cleaning industry is dominated by the Latino population. Cleaners are putting themselves at risk during COVID-19 here.”
The impact of COVID-19 caused millions of people like Garcia to lose work. “It’s scary because you don’t have money for insurance or the doctor,” said Garcia, whose son has health insurance, but who isn’t covered herself.
Bibliography
DeBilzan, Maddie. “Residents of Scott County are out of work, and it’s leaving some groups in the margins.” Shakopee Valley News, 10 April 2020.
“Toward a Better Land: Migration on the Minnesota Prairie.” Cultural Crossroads: Migration and Community Transformation. xroads.coplacdigital.org/morris/mnmigration/mexicansinminnesota/.