Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
File
Title
Migrant workers
Date(s)
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Grinnell Stories blog by Dan Kaiser
PRIMARY TOPIC
Migrant Workers
OTHER SUBJECTS or BRIEF SUMMARY
World War II, Mexican Americans, Menominee Tribe
Post title: When 300 Mexicans Came to Grinnell...
Date published: January 29, 2017
Link to blog post: https://grinnellstories.blogspot.com/2017/01/when-300-mexicans-came-to-grinnell.html
Drake Library Archive Digital File Name: Grinnell Stories/2017-01-29 When 300 Mexicans came to Grinnell
Summary: During World War II, the decreased number of Grinnell men put pressure on the local labor supply to find workers. So, in 1944, the DeKalb seed corn plant arranged for 300 Mexican men to come to Grinnell to detassel corn, and in 1943, Claude Ahrens recruited workers from the Menominee tribe of northeastern Wisconsin for the same work. Kaiser also describes the relationship between these workers and the larger Grinnell community along with two Mexican men--Manuel Rodriquez Ramos and Melchior Hernandez--who died while in Iowa.
Ahrens, Claude W.
Bracero Program
Central Park, Grinnell, IA, USA
Clapp, Harold
DeKalb Area Agricultural Heritage Association
Hartzell, Josephine
Hernandez, Melchior
Jones, Virgil
Menominee Tribe
Moffett, Betty
Ramos, Manuel Rodriquez
Vetter, Valerie