The Dominguez Family’s Journey from Zacatecas to Kansas

Dedication: This story is dedicated to Donna S. Morales, a member of the Dominguez family.

The Story of the Dominguez Family

The Dominguez Family of Zacatecas in the Nineteenth Century became an American family in the Twentieth Century. Working in the silver and mercury mines of northwest Zacatecas, the family witnessed political instability when the French invaded Mexico in 1862. At the same time, the man who would eventually become the progenitor of the large Dominguez family in Kansas City was born: Aniceto Domiguez.

In the early part of Twentieth Century, with more political instability on the horizon, Aniceto Dominguez and his son Geronimo decided to embark on a journey to the north. The railroad networks of Mexico offered them an opportunity to move on and make a better life for themselves in another location. With a strong will to survive, Geronimo and Aniceto crossed the border into the United States at the El Paso Port of Entry on December 17, 1909, bringing their wives and five children with them.

The move to the United States opened up new opportunities for the Dominguez family. Most of the family would work for the Santa Fe Railroad, but the family took working vacations to the beet fields of Scottsbluff (Nebraska) to work for extra money. The Dominguez family — in spite of some opposition to and discrimination by some the locals — became important members of their community.

In essence, the Dominguez family became an American family and when World War II came, two sons of Geronimo would enlist to fight the Nazi menace. By the time the war had ended, one brother had died in action in Germany and another brother returned home after spending nearly eight months in a German POW camp. Today, the descendants of Aniceto Dominguez and Geronimo Dominguez are an American family.

French Invasion (1862)

On January 9, 1862, French troops landed at Veracruz.  Informed by Conservatives that French forces would be welcomed with open arms in Mexico City, Emperor Napoleon III of France decided to send even more forces into Mexico.  At the same time, President Benito Juárez warned the Mexican people that it was time to defend their native land. On April 19, 1862, 6,000 seasoned French troops under General Charles Laurencz began their march inland towards Mexico City.  On May 4, the French forces camped on a plateau close to the city of Puebla, approximately halfway between the Gulf Coast and Mexico City.  

Cinco de Mayo (May 5, 1862)

The next day, May 5, 1862, General Ignacio Zaragoza, commanding the Mexican forces, decided to attack the French army, hoping to cripple or slow their advance in order to give precious time to the Mexican army in the capital.  The Mexican soldiers, lacking battlefield experience and armed with outdated artillery and muskets, attacked with great determination and fervor.  In a four-hour battle, the Mexicans suffered only 250 casualties, while inflicting heavy losses on the French.  Losing nearly a thousand men, the French withdrew back to the Gulf Coast to await reinforcements from Europe.  Although they were stunned by the disaster at Puebla, the French began to prepare for a new offensive against Mexico City.  The Mexican people had won an important battle, but the war was far from finished. 

The Birth Aniceto Dominguez (April 1862)

Into the turmoil and uncertainty of these times was born the man who would become the patriarch and the founder of the Dominguez family in Kansas City.  At 8: a.m. on April 22, 1862, as the French moved their forces inland from Veracruz, a 22-year-old laborer named Marcelino Dominguez appeared before the Judge of the Civil Court in Sain Alto to report that his son, Aniceto Dominguez, had been born five days earlier in the Hacienda de Santa Monica.

According to the birth record in the Civil Registry office of the municipio of Sain Alto, Aniceto’s mother was 19-year-old Petra Salas, the wife of Marcelino Dominguez. The witnesses to his birth were Pomposo Ortiz and Norberto Garcia, two married people about 50 years of age from the Hacienda of Santa Monica. Aniceto Dominguez was born to a poor family of laborers who worked the silver and mercury mines near Sain Alto. 

The Future Life of Aniceto Dominguez

Forty-seven years after his birth, this poor Mexican citizen named Aniceto Dominguez would transform the destiny of his family by bringing his children and grandchildren across the Mexican border into the United States (1909).  Then, at the age of fifty-four, Aniceto Dominguez would spearhead his family’s migration from Texas to the railroad yards of Kansas City in 1918. In his life, Aniceto Dominguez would see great technological advances, including the invention of the telephone, the airplane, and the gas-driven automobile.  However, Aniceto would also live to see his adopted country take part in two terrible and devastating world wars.  In the Second World War, he watched as two of his American-born grandsons marched off to war to defend their native soil.  With both pride and sorrow, Aniceto watched as one grandson was killed in action and another was captured by the enemy.  By the time he died on October 9, 1946 at the age of 84 years, five months, and 24 days, Aniceto Dominguez had seven grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

The Municipio of Sain Alto

The City of Sain Alto – located 128 kilometers northwest of the city of Zacatecas – was established in 1554 by Francisco de Ibarra.  The Zacatecos Indians were the primary indigenous group living in the area of Sain Alto at the time of the Spanish contact, although Guachichiles and Tecuexes may also have lived in the area.  Spanish explorers first passed through the area in 1552, and in 1555, the silver mines at San Martín – a short distance northwest of Sombrerete – were founded. When Ibarra left Sain Alto for new horizons in 1554, he left Señor Fernando Sain in charge of the nearby Chacuaco mine and its surrounding area.  Because Señor Sain was tall and thin, the Indians called him “Sain Alto,” a name that was eventually given to the land he managed. 

The Location of Sain Alto Municipio Within the State of Zacatecas

The City of Sombrerete

For at least four centuries, Sain Alto existed in the shadow of her larger better-known neighbor, Sombrerete, which is about forty-five miles west of Sain Alto. Sombrerete was founded on June 6, 1555 by a group of Spaniards and Indians from the south. The town was named for a nearby hill, whose shape resembled that of a sombrero. The area surrounding both Sombrerete and Sain Alto was under constant attack by Chichimec warriors during these early years, but by 1590, the hostilities had ended.  By this time, Spanish settlers in Sain Alto had established cattle ranches and wheat farms, with Tlaxcalans, Zacatecos and Africans supplying most of the labor.[1]

When rich silver ores were discovered near Sombrerete in 1646, the ensuing mining boom brought a new surge of entrepreneurs and laborers into the general area.  During this period, Sain Alto became a Spanish presidio.  However, according to the late Professor Peter Gerhard, Sain Alto was later made into “an ore-processing and stock-raising center” and was considered a “predominantly Indian settlement” surrounded by many ranchos and haciendas.[2]  For most of the colonial period, Sain Alto served as a subordinate community to its larger neighbor, Sombrerete.  However, in 1824, Sain Alto was promoted to the status of municipio within the newly independent Mexican Republic.

San Sebastián Church

San Sebastián Church in Sain Alto was founded in 1790 and was named for the Christian martyr Saint Sebastian who was killed in Rome during the Third Century A.D.  Sebastian, whose feast day is celebrated on January 20, is considered the patron saint of archers and soldiers.  Each year from January 17th to the 20th, the parishioners of Sain Alto hold a traditional festival in which they perform the Danza de las Palmas (Dance of the Palms) to signify the first encounter of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma with Hernán Cortés. At the time of the 2000 census, the Sain Alto Municipio had a population of 20,775 individuals.[3] 

The French Intervention

In the months following the Battle of Puebla, Marcelino Dominguez and Petra Salas were preoccupied with their newborn infant, Aniceto.  However, as they dealt with their day-to-day responsibilities in their small community, the leaders of the Mexican Republic tried to anticipate the next move of the French invaders.  The French military authorities had greatly overestimated the support that they expected from the Mexican people.  Instead of rallying to the cause of the Europeans, the Mexican people were preparing to resist with all the means available to them.  But the French Emperor Napoleon III (1808-1873) had already invested too much in this foreign gamble and was not willing to withdraw his troops from eastern Mexico.  Instead, he dispatched another 30,000 French soldiers under the command of General Frederic Forey to Mexico. 

The Second Battle of Puebla (1863)

A year after the Battle of Puebla, the reinforced French forces resumed their march inland towards Mexico City.  Once again, the French marched on the city of Puebla – now renamed Puebla de Zaragoza to honor the recently deceased General Zaragoza. When the French laid siege to the city on March 21, 1863, they boasted a force of 26,000 soldiers, while the Mexican defenders had 22,000 men under arms.  For almost two months, the Mexican army held out against increasing French pressure.  On May 17, the siege of Puebla ended, and the victorious French forces occupied the city, more than a year after their humiliating defeat on Cinco de Mayo.[4]

Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico (1864)

With a pledge of French military support and at the formal invitation of a Mexican delegation, Maximilian of Hapsburg — the younger brother of the Habsburg emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph I — accepted the title of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico on April 10, 1864 following a bogus referendum in Mexico that purportedly showed the Mexican people backed him. When the French captured Mexico City in June 1864, they would install Maximilian to his new position.[5]

Maximilian's hold on power in Mexico was shaky from the beginning of his reign. He immediately began enacting liberal policies that lost him the support of his domestic conservative backers. At the same time, he had very little legitimacy in his new position as the United States — struggling with its own Civil War (1861-1865) — continued to recognize Mexican President Benito Juárez as the legal head of state. In addition, the U.S. saw the French invasion as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, enacted in 1823 as a response to European colonial interference in the affairs of the Americas.

President Juárez Abandons the Capital (1863)

President Juárez and the Mexican government were forced to abandon the capital and established a new government in San Luis Potosí.  However, in late 1863, as French forces captured Querétaro; Morelia (Michoacán); San Miguel Allende and León [Guanajuato]; and Lagos de Moreno [Jalisco], Juárez recognized that the French successes endangered his position in San Luis Potosí. On December 22, 1863, Juárez moved his government north to Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila.[6] 

In the meantime, Jesús González Ortega – the steadfast supporter of the Mexican cause in Zacatecas – was forced to abandon the city of Zacatecas in February 1864.  He moved first to Fresnillo and then to Sain Alto and Sombrerete as the French advance continued northward.  By the early summer, the French controlled large parts of Mexico.  However, Mexican rebels operated in many areas of Sinaloa, Sonora, Durango, Chihuahua, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas.  In the south, the rebel forces of General Porfirio Díaz occupied large parts of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Tabasco and Chiapas.[7]

The French Withdraw From Mexico (1867)

The French occupation of Mexico would continue until early 1867, during which time Juárez repeatedly moved the site of his government from Chihuahua to Zacatecas and back to San Luis Potosí.  By 1867, the French – preoccupied by events in Europe – decided to withdraw their troops and Emperor Maximilian was left without his primary means of support.  As the French troops marched back to the port of Veracruz, the Liberal Army gained momentum and captured Guadalajara, Oaxaca, Monterrey, and Tampico.  Once the French forces had evacuated Veracruz and returned to France, Emperor Maximilian – lacking any significant military support – was surrounded by Mexican troops and captured on May 15, 1867.  Soon after, he was executed.

Fifty thousand Mexicans lost their lives fighting the French forces.  But the experience, although tragic and costly, led to the beginning of a national self-esteem that began to grow perceptibly in the years to follow.  On July 15, 1867, Benito Juárez returned to Mexico City to resume his post as President of the Republic.  He would serve two more terms as President until July 19, 1872 when he died of a coronary seizure.  In the meantime, Sain Alto and the state of Zacatecas once more experienced peace.  For almost four decades, the Mexican Republic would be at peace with itself and the rest of the world. But when that peace ended, the Dominguez family would have to flee their homeland.

The Silver Industry

The Dominguez family of Sain Alto was a family of silver miners.  Marcelino Dominguez was a miner, and it is believed that his father Manual Dominguez – also a native of Santa Monica – had also been a miner in the early years of the Mexican Republic.  It was assumed that Aniceto would follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. After the French were expelled from Mexico in 1867, silver production in the Republic rose rapidly, stimulated by new silver deposit discoveries.  Throughout the 1870s, production increased at an annual growth rate of over two percent.  Under the regime of President Porfirio Díaz – who succeeded Benito Juárez – the silver industry continued to grow and play an important role in the spectacular economic growth of the Republic.  In 1877-1878, silver alone accounted for 60 percent of the value of all Mexican exports.[8]  

Professor Mark Wasserman writes that “Mining led the Porfirian boom.  Demand for silver and non-precious metals, such as copper and zinc, in Europe and the United States provided the markets.”  In the last decades of the Nineteenth Century, the installation of electric power and the introduction of cyanide into the refining process had greatly enhanced profitability in the mining industry.  Electricity would provide light, powered pumps, trams, and other crucial equipment.  These improvements were able to reduce costs so that old mines were reopened and worked once again.[9]

The Lives of the Silver Miners

Miners earned the highest wages in Mexico, but their work was very dangerous.  Some miners actually worked part-time in the mines but also maintained property that they cultivated.  Throughout the Porfiriato, however, the supervisory and highly skilled jobs went to foreigners.  In his work, Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico:  Men, Women, and War, Professor Wasserman, discussing the mining industry in Nineteenth Century Mexico, wrote:[10]

The work was enormously difficult.  In a typical silver mine, workers first dug a short tunnel into a hillside and then excavated straight down.  They climbed in and out of the shaft on eight- to ten-foot notched logs. They cut the shafts to follow the veins.  Drillers (barreteros) were the top of the underground hierarchy.  They earned the highest wages, as much as 3 pesos a day.  In the shaft drillers used steel-tipped iron rods to tear loose the ore.  Other less skilled workers then hauled 150- to 200-pound bull hide sacks up the log ladders to the surface and emptied the sacks in the dump.  If there was no stamp mill, workers crushed the ore and then put it into a trough, where water poured over it.  Workers hauled the water.  They then sacked the washed ore in 200-pound bags. The mine shipped the bags to the smelter.  Workers who hauled ore earned 18 to 20 centavos a day.

... The introduction of new machinery, such as pneumatic drills and electric-powered machinery, led to increased disease and accidents.  The change from drilling with a bar and sledge and blasting with black powder to pneumatic drill and dynamite, the use of hoists, and new drainage and ventilation equipment demanded a new kind of worker.  Experience, intelligence, and judgment were less important than obedience and diligence.  The demand for unskilled labor rose.  Unskilled labor (peons) came to comprise two-thirds to three-quarters of the workforce.  They were shovelers, rock breakers, ore sorters, car men, and helpers who had come from rural areas.  Skilled workers continued to drill the ore, install timber, and operate and maintain machinery...

The Average Life Expectancy of a Silver Miner: Thirty-Seven Years

Mining was a hazardous profession. It is believed that the average life expectancy of a silver miner in Nineteenth Century Mexico was about thirty-seven years.  It is thus very reasonable to assume that, if possible, a family might seek to improve its fortune by looking for greener pastures in other professions.  From 1877 to 1910, some 300,000 Mexicans – many of them displaced rural workers – settled in northern Mexico.  And, according to Professor Wasserman, “the north was for many transient workers only a stopover, for their preferred destination was the United States where employers offered double the pay.”[11]

Aniceto Dominguez and Martina Segovia Are Married

For the last four decades of the Nineteenth Century, the Dominguez family lived in the Hacienda de Santa Monica in the municipio of Sain Alto.  For generations, various members of the family had been engaged in the business of mining silver, gold, and mercury.   Aniceto had already worked the mines for several years when he got married at the age of twenty. Thanks to the Reform Law of July 23, 1859, enacted by the Liberal Party, Aniceto would be married twice, first in a civil ceremony, and secondly, in a church service.  The Reform Law had mandated the recording of civil marriages in each municipio of Mexico.  So it was that, on April 28, 1882, Aniceto Dominguez and Martina Segovia – both twenty years of age and natives of La Hacienda de Santa Monica, appeared before the civil magistrate, Francisco Leal, and declared that they were both celibates and desired to be joined in marriage.

As might be expected in the rural Mexico of this era, Aniceto’s wife came from a family that lived and worked on the same hacienda as his family.  Martina Segovia was the legitimate daughter of a sixty-year-old laborer Regino Segovia and his wife, Rafaela Alamos.  Exactly one month after their civil marriage, on May 28, 1882, Aniceto and Martina walked down the aisle of San Sebastián Church to take their marriage vows before God.   The parish priest, Father Jacinto Silva, had questioned both Aniceto and Martina to determine their readiness for marriage.  Certain that there existed no impediments to this marriage, Father Silva issued the marriage banns for Aniceto and Martina on three separate days, a requirement that had been mandated centuries earlier by the Holy Council of Trent (1545-1563).  The marriage document [Sain Alto Catholic Marriage Book #4, page 1] is attached below:

This document can be accessed at the following link: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS92-63T9-N?cat=562061&i=2280

The translation of the document to English tells us that:

In the Holy Parish Church of San Sebastian, Sain Alto, on the 28th day of the month of May of 1882, I, Father Jacinto Silva, priest in charge of this [parish], prior to the legal information after consideration of the Holy Council of Trent… the other legal due diligence has been carried out and no impediment [to marriage] has resulted... the marriage and the nuptial benediction according to the rite of Our Holy Mother Church, ANICETO DOMINGUEZ, 20 years of age, single, originally from and a resident of Santa Monica, legitimate son of Marcelino Dominguez and Petra Salas (deceased), with MARTINA SEGOVIA, 20 years of age, single, originally from and a resident of Santa Monica, legitimate daughter of Regino Segovia and Maria Rafaela Alamos…

Aniceto’s mother, Petra Salas had died more than a decade earlier in June 1871, and eight months later, his father Marcelino Dominguez was married to his second wife, 18-year-old María Luisa Salas, a native of San Juan Guadalupe in Durango.  Just one month after the marriage, Martina’s father, Regino Segovia, died at the age of 71 from pneumonia. His death was reported to the Sain Alto civil registrar, noting that Rafaela Alamos, his 50-year-old wife, Rafaela Alamos, was left as a widow. It was noted that Regino Segovia was the natural son [not legitimate] of Quirina Segovia [Sain Alto, Registro Civil, June 19, 1882, Number 209].

The Birth of Geronimo Dominguez (1884)

The newlyweds Aniceto and Martina settled into their married life as another generation of Santa Monica residents.  For two years, Aniceto labored in the mines while Martina took care of her household chores.  In time, their prayers for a healthy newborn child were answered and Martina became pregnant.  Finally, at nine in the morning on October 9, 1884, the twenty-two-year-old laborer, Aniceto Dominguez – accompanied by two friends, Tomas Herrera and Nicolas Martinez – showed up at the office of the civil registrar in Sain Alto to proudly display his infant child, Geronimo Dominguez, who had been born a few days earlier on September 30, 1884. With Tomas and Nicolas as his witnesses, Aniceto gave the registrar the relevant information about his child’s birth.  Since the witnesses also lived in La Hacienda de Santa Monica, they helped Aniceto fulfill his civic duty of informing the government about this new citizen of the Mexican Republic. The civil birth record is shown below.

The Death of Martina Segovia (1892)

After reporting the birth of his child and baptizing him in the church, Aniceto and Martina raised little Geronimo in the Hacienda of Santa Monica. They had other children after Geronimo, but Martina was not destined for a long life.  According to the following civil death record, “in Sain Alto, at 9 in the morning of the 26th of May of 1892, before me appeared Aniceto Dominguez, 30 years of age, married, laborer and resident of Santa Monica, and revealed that yesterday at 3 in the afternoon, his wife Maria Martina Cegovia, 29 years of age, died of dysentery in the said hacienda [Santa Monica] with son Jose Eulogio, 14 months of age.” With Martina’s death, Aniceto was left as a widower with several children to care for.

Marcelino Dominguez Gets a Second Wife (1898)

It is interesting that the Dominguez men seemed to outlive their wives — both in Zacatecas and later in the United States. Both Aniceto and his son Geronimo took on second wives after their first wives died. And Aniceto’s father, Marcelino (Marcelo) Dominguez, was apparently married three times.

On May 14, 1898, Marcelino (or Marcelo) Dominguez, the father of Aniceto, married his third wife. According to the Marriage Book of the Civil Register (Number 55), 53-year-old Marcelo Dominguez, the son of Manuel Dominguez and Maria Barbara Garcia (both deceased), was married to Maria Ursula Rodriguez. According to the document — a portion of which has been attached below — Marcelo’s second wife, Maria Luz Dominguez, had died two years earlier.

A Portion of the Marriage Record of Marcelo Dominguez (1898)

Geronimo Dominguez and Luisa Lujan Get Married (1903)

At the turn of the century when Geronimo Dominguez turned sixteen, the Dominguez family still lived in La Hacienda of Santa Monica.    It was around this time that the young Geronimo took an interest in Luisa Lujan, a teenaged girl who was also born and raised in Santa Monica.  It seems likely that both Geronimo and Luisa may have attended the small chapel at the hacienda.  It is equally likely that Geronimo and Luisa occasionally saw each other at religious festivals at San Sebastián church in Sain Alto.  

Finally, at ten in the morning on November 28, 1903, Geronimo Dominguez and Luisa Lujan appeared in the office of Salóme Velasquez, the Judge of the Sain Alto Civil Court, to express their desire to be married.  Geronimo was now 19 years old and his young bride, Luisa Lujan, was 17 years old.   They informed the Judge that they were both celibates and that they had been born in La Hacienda de Santa Monica and still resided there.  By this time, Geronimo had already become a miner.  In these early years, he developed a distinctive hacking cough that resulted from his mining activities and would plague him for the rest of his life.

Luisa was the daughter of Urbano Lujan and María Luisa Fraile [also spelled Fraire] and the granddaughter of Bonifacio Lujan and Simon Rodriguez.  The Lujan family’s roots stretched back several generations in La Hacienda de Santa Monica.  Like Geronimo, Luisa had been the first-born child of her parents.  The 35-year-old laborer Urbano Lujan and 29-year-old María Luisa Fraile had been married in Sain Alto on January 5, 1884, but both of them had been widowed from their previous marriages.   María, in fact, first married a Geronimo Lujan, who had the same surname that Urbano had.

The Move to Paso de la Cruz (1903)

Shortly after their marriages in late 1903, both Geronimo and Aniceto appear to have moved their families to Rancho Paso de la Cruz in the southeastern portion of the Sain Alto municipio.  Because of the rancho’s proximity to the Hacienda de Río de Medina, both Geronimo and Aniceto’s families would begin to attend services in the small chapel in that hacienda. The following map shows a portion of the Sain Alto Municipio, with Santa Monica in the upper right corner (northeast) and Rio de Medina in the lower right corner (southeast).

The Eastern Section of the Sain Alto Municipio

Geronimo and Luisa would not have to wait very long before the birth of their first child.  At eight o’clock in the morning of April 2, 1905, Luisa would give birth to Pablo at home in Paso de la Cruz.  Six days later, on April 8, Geronimo and Luisa brought little Pablo to the chapel at Río de Medina.  Father Lucio Huerta greeted them warmly and performed the baptism, pouring Holy Oil and Sacred Chrism over the infant child.  Nicolas Medrano and Rosario Natera also attended the small service to take on the responsibility of godparents for little Pablo.  Father Huerta looked at the godparents and stressed that their parental and spiritual obligations should be taken very seriously.

The following chart shows the known ancestors of Pablo Dominguez who was born in 1905:

The Dominguez Ancestry (Five Generations)

Mexico Experiences Profound Changes

Little did Geronimo and Luisa realize that between 1905 and 1926, they would have a total of nine children: Pablo, Felicitas, Jesús María, Raul, Juliana, Pabla (Bessie), Ephifania, Erminio, Marshall and Louis.  All but the first two children would be born as American citizens in either Texas or Kansas.  Geronimo and his father Aniceto both realized that Mexico’s political and economic condition was in turmoil. It was clear to see that the entire nation of Mexico was experiencing profound changes that would soon cause severe repercussions to Mexican society. 

“For most Mexicans,” writes Professor Mark Wasserman, “the end of the century brought a new kind of misery with its origins in the burgeoning economy based on mineral and agricultural exports.  The chasm between wealth and poverty deepened, as the rich grew richer and the poor grew poorer.”  More and more people started to migrate to the northern mining camps or to railroad centers of the United States in search for employment.  As a result, “the process of alienation from the land and, to some extent, from traditional kinship support networks” began.[11]

It was during this period that Aniceto and Geronimo Dominguez decided it was time to go north. The rapid growth of Mexico’s railroad system had made the railroads into major north-south conduits of people and goods. They also offered poor Mexican laborers the opportunity to pick up their belongings and move to a new place. That’s exactly what the Dominguez family did when they took the railway to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Soon, they would cross that border into El Paso.

The Railroad from Sain Alto to Ciudad Juárez (Map by Jonathan Rodriguez).



The Dominguez Family Crosses the Border (1909)

On November 17, 1909, the entire Dominguez family — numbering nine people — crossed the border into El Paso, Texas. Five members of the party were children. Except for the two wives in the border-crossing party, the Dominguez family used the name Salas (which was maiden name of Aniceto’s mother). Everyone in the party except Aniceto stated that they were born in Mapimi, Durango (which was not true), but Aniceto stated he was born in Santa Monica, Zacatecas (which was true). The family included: 

1.    Aniceto Salas [Dominguez], 47 years of age, born in Santa Monica, Zacatecas

2.    Dorotea Serna, 23 years of age, the wife of Aniceto Salas

3.    Carlota Salas, 5 years of age, the daughter of Aniceto Salas

4.    Martina Salas, 3 years of age, the daughter of Aniceto Salas

5.    Melciades Salas, 11 years of age, the son of Aniceto Salas

6.    Pablo Salas, 4 years of age, the son of Geronimo Salas

7.    Felicitas Salas, 4 months of age, the daughter of Geronimo Salas

8.   Luisa Lujan, 22 years of age, the wife of Geronimo Salas

9.   Geronimo Salas [Dominguez], 24 years of age, the son of Aniceto Salas

The entire family was entering the United States en route to visit Geronimo’s brother and Aniceto’s son, Donaciano Salas. Because the family could not speak English, Jerome F. Cassiano acted for the interpreter for the entire family.

Aniceto Dominguez’s Border-Crossing Manifest

The border-crossing manifest for Aniceto Salas indicated that he was 5 foot, 9 inches and 47 years old. He paid his own passage and possessed $12.25 in money at the time.  He was given a clean bill of health by Dr. Tappan. It is possible that his surname was listed as “Salas” because Aniceto gave his full name as Aniceto Dominguez Salas and the American guards at the port of entry just used the second name, not realizing it was his maternal surname. The guards probably thought Dominguez was a middle name, not his surname. That record is shown below:

Geronimo Dominguez’s Border-Crossing Manifest

The border crossing for Geronimo Salas indicated that he was 5 foot, 8 inches and had lived in Mapimi, Durango, supposedly for 16 years. He too said that he was going to see his brother, Donaciano Salas.  It was also a family rumor that Geronimo had offended a hacienda chief and that was the reason for the family’s rapid departure from Zacatecas. In the document that foillows, it was noted that Geronimo’s passage was paid by his father (Aniceto):

Luisa Lujan’s Border-Crossing Manifest

Luisa Lujan, the wife of Geronimo Salas, was 22 years old and stood 5 feet, 5 inches tall. Like her husband, Luisa could not read or write and she indicated that she was en route to see her brother-in-law, Donaciano Dominguez.

The Texas Panhandle

As stated previously, the Dominguez family’s last home in Mexico was the city of Mapimí, located in the Laguna District of the state of Durango, some 64 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Gómez Palacio. Felicitas was born in Mapimí in August 1909 and – four months later – her parents, Geronimo and Luisa – carried her across the border at El Paso.

We do not know how long the two Dominguez families stayed in El Paso, but we know that it was probably not a very long time.  During this period, the railroad and agricultural industries of the Panhandle Region of Northern Texas were rapidly expanding.  The resulting economic boom required the importation of laborers into the region, and this was good news for the Dominguez family.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railorad — known widely as the Santa Fe Railroad – which already had routes connecting El Paso to Kansas City – had begun actively recruiting Mexican laborers to maintain their railways through the Panhandle. In fact, on December 9, 1947, the Emporia Gazette wrote about the early days on the railroad, stating that “The Santa Fe railway company began using Mexican labor on its tracks around the turn of the century when white men in this new land were too prosperous to be lured to 12 hours of back-breaking work a day for $1.35.”[12] The following map from 1895 shows the extensive railroad network of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, Midland Division Timetable 66 (January 1895) [Reproduced by the Colorado Railroad Museum, 1980]. Note that one railrway went up from Galveston to Kansas City, while another railway went from the Texas Panhandle to Kansas City. In the years to come, more railways would be built to Kansas City and these rails would soon bring the Dominguez family to their ultimate destination in Kansas City.

The Dimensions of the Texas Panhandle

Bordered by New Mexico on the west and Oklahoma on the north and east, the Texas Panhandle consists of approximately 26,000 square miles – roughly the size of West Virginia – and is actually larger than nine American states.  In all, the Panhandle is composed of twenty-six counties and sixty-two incorporated towns and represents the northern extension of Texas’ Great Plains region.[13]  The Panhandle Region – from its earliest settlement – has been on a fast track as a major producer of cattle.  This part of the state has also developed into a major producer of wheat and contains huge natural gas resources.  The Panhandle would – for several years – become the home of the Dominguez family.

The City of Amarillo

For more than a century, the City of Amarillo has been the cultural and economic center of the Texas Panhandle.  Amarillo is located on the boundary of Potter and Randall Counties and is the county seat of Potter County.  Amarillo is approximately 580 kilometers (360 miles) northwest of Dallas-Fort Worth, 459 kilometers (285 miles) east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and 427 kilometers (265 miles west) of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Originally settled in 1887, Amarillo was incorporated as a city in 1892.  The name Amarillo was taken from the Spanish language meaning "yellow," because of the color of the soil found in the channel of the Amarillo Creek.   Thanks to the Panhandle’s production of cattle, Amarillo remains one of the largest cattle-shipping markets in the country even today.  It was the coming of the railroad to the Panhandle that made Amarillo into a major transportation and distribution center even in the Nineteenth Century.

In 1886, the Southern Kansas Railway Company, an affiliate of the AT&SF Railroad Company, began construction of a line from Kiowa, Kansas, across Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to the Texas border. The thirty miles of the Southern Kansas Railway from the Oklahoma-Texas border to the City of Canadian was put into service in September 1887.[14]  A year later, the railroad arrived in town, making Amarillo the most important marketing center for ranchers in the Panhandle area.  By 1899, the Santa Fe Railroad had established a large division office in Amarillo and built an engine house, a machine shop and blacksmith shop.  By 1900, Amarillo already had a population of 1,442, which increased dramatically to 9,957 persons in 1910.[15]

The Dominguez Family in the 1910 Federal Census

The 1910 Federal Census found the Dominguez clan living in Canadian Texas, 193 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Amarillo. When the census taker arrived at the doorstep of Aniceto Dominguez on May 2, 1910, the Dominguez household in Enumeration District 138 of the Canadian Township of the State of Texas contained seven family members.  Aniceto Dominguez was incorrectly listed in the Federal Census as “Anesto Domingus” and was classified as a 48-year-old Mexican-born railway worker.  He stated that he had arrived in the U.S. in 1909 and had been married to his (second) wife for seven years. 

Aniceto’s wife, Dorotea [Serna] “Domingus” gave her age as 21.  The three children of Aniceto and Dorotea were listed as follows:  Carlota (5 years old), Martina (4 years old) and Milkios (1 year old).  It is important to note that the language barrier between an Anglo census taker and a Spanish-speaking family frequently led to misspellings of names or misunderstandings about names.

The 1910 American census showed a dramatic increase in the Mexican-born population of the United States. From 103,000 in 1900, the number of Mexican natives had more than doubled to 221,415 in 1910, and the Dominguez family represented a tiny portion of that number. 

Canadian, Texas

Canadian is the county seat of Hemphill County, Texas and is located eight to ten miles northwest of the center of the county.  Hemphill County –like most of the Panhandle Region – was originally populated by Apache Indians, who were pushed out in the late Eighteenth Century by the Kiowas and Comanches.  With the arrival of the railroad in 1887, Canadian quickly developed a reputation as the “Rodeo Town” after the annual Cowboys’ Reunion was first staged in the town in 1888.[16]  In 1907, Canadian became a railroad division point.  This activity was responsible for a large influx of laborers from other areas.[17] 

The Railroads Fill a Void by Hiring Mexicans

By this time, American railroad agencies were beginning to appreciate the value of Mexican laborers. The migration of Mexicans to the US prior to 1910 stemmed from both “push” and “pull” factors.  The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the 1907 Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan had led to the virtual exclusion of Chinese and Japanese laborers destined for railroad, construction, and agricultural industries.  The railroads were forced to fill the void left in their work forces by shifting to Mexican laborers.[18] At the time that the Dominguez family left Mexico in 1909, the average daily wage of the common farm laborer in Mexico did not exceed twenty-five cents a day in United States currency.  But railway workers in Mexico were making fifty to seventy-five cents a day in 1910.  Even more appealing was the fact that railway workers in the United States made $1.25 a day.

The Railroads Through the Panhandle

Within a year or two, the Dominguez family resettled in Amarillo.  Geronimo continued working for the Santa Fe Railroad in the “run house” where train engines were repaired. After a couple of years, however, Geronimo was hurt in an accident.  Because of this injury, Geronimo had to give up railroad work, forcing the family to sell tamales for a living.  The making of the tamales was a family effort, and a neighborhood friend, Mariana, helped them in their new business.[19]

The Dominguez Family Adds New Family Members

During their stay in Amarillo, Geronimo and Luisa added more children to their family.  On January 1, 1912, Jesus Maria Dominguez was born.   He was baptized on March 8, 1912 at the Sacred Heart Church in Amarillo, with Guadalupe Hidalgo and Porfiria Hidalgo as his godparents. Two years later, Luisa gave birth to her fourth child (and second daughter), Juliana, who was born on January 29, 1914 in Amarillo.  The next child born after Juliana was Raul, who was followed on January 15, 1917 by Pabla Dominguez, who was called Bessie for most of her life.

Amarillo as a Production Center for the War Effort

Early in the Twentieth Century, the reputation of Amarillo as an important commercial center continued to grow.   And, as a result, much of the economy of the Panhandle area revolved around this city.  However, when the United States became involved in World War I in April 1917, Amarillo also became a production center for the war effort.  The Dominguez family and most Americans watched the progress of the warfare as French, British and American forces battled the German troops in the trenches north and east of Paris.

Soon, the terror of chemical warfare became widely publicized in the press.  Rumors were spread with great frequency as Americans began to realize that the dangerous chemicals being used in the European front were being produced at locations within the U.S.   From the earliest years of the Twentieth Century, Texas – with its rich resources of natural gas – became the chosen location for several chemical industries.  Amarillo – with its strategic location along railroad routes – became an important producer of chemicals.[20]

Sickness in Amarillo

It was during this period that the Dominguez family sensed a serious problem in Amarillo.  According to Jessie Dominguez (one of the children of Geronimo and Luisa), in 1917, many people in Amarillo became sick, supposedly from mustard gas.  The Dominguez family believed that experiments in biological warfare were taking place in the area around Amarillo and that these dangerous tests were responsible for the widespread illness that affected everyone in the area.  Considering that gas warfare was legal in these days, this theory seems to be a valid one. During this time, the youngest child of the family, Raul, became very ill and died when the doctors prescribed the wrong medicine for him. 

Preparing to Move to Kansas

Pabla Dominguez (later known as Bessie) was the fifth child born in the family of Geronimo and Luisa Lujan Dominguez in January 1918.   At this time, World War I was being waged overseas and American troops were marching off in ever increasing numbers to fight the Axis Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire).  With so many American men marching off to war, the need for migrant Mexican labor became more pronounced than ever.  The war had brought immigration from Europe almost to a standstill, and American laws continued to discourage the influx of most Asian laborers.

With the production of wartime materials at a peak, businesses in many parts of the United States turned to the Mexican migrant to fill their needs.  The Dominguez family soon found out about new opportunities for employment in Kansas City.  Aniceto Dominguez, the head of the family, was now approaching the age of sixty and could no longer maintain the rigorous workload of a railroad laborer.  His son Geronimo – because of his previous work injury and his chronic cough – also needed to find a different source of income.

The Move to Kansas

Early in 1918, Aniceto Dominguez moved his family to the West Bottoms Barrio in Ward I of Kansas City to start working for the Ice Plant in the Argentine district of Kansas City.  Soon after Geronimo followed with his wife and family.  When the Dominguez family made their way to “The Bread Basket of America” (as Kansas was called in those days), they were part of a growing migration to the Heartland of America.

The state of Kansas has a rectangular shape (except for its northeastern corner that borders the Missouri River).  Kansas became the thirty-fourth American state in 1861 and – as the western boundaries of the nation shifted to the Pacific coast – moved to a central position within the United States.  In spite of its all-American image, Kansas – like many other American states – is derived from a Native American word.   The word Kansas was donated to the English language by the Kansas, or Kaw, Indians, who once roamed the prairies of this region.  In their language, Kansa meant “People of the South Wind.”

Kansas City

Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) is an industrial city located in the northeast corner of the state of Kansas along the Kansas-Missouri border.  With twelve railroads entering its environment from all directions, Kansas City continues to boast a large manufacturing sector.  It was the railroad that first brought so much attention to Kansas City.  The 1880s were a decade of rapid construction of rails throughout the state, with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad connecting Kansas City directly to El Paso way back in 1884. The following map from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company Midland Division Timetable 66 (January 1895) [Reproduced by the Colorado Railroad Museum 1980] shows the extensive network of rails in Kansas by 1895. It should be noted that Kansas City in the far east of the map was receiving rail traffic from numerous points in the west and south.

The Network of Railroads to Kansas City in 1895

Mexicans Arrive in Kansas (1905-1910)

According to the author and editor, Cynthia Mines, who wrote Riding the Rails: The Mexican Immigrants (Kansas, 1980), “The railroad brought to Kansas a new age in transportation“ and an “exposure to a different culture and people, an ethnic experience not welcomed by everyone in the small Kansas towns early in the century.”[21]   The 1900 Federal Census had tallied a mere seventy-one Mexican-born individuals as residents of the state of Kansas. But, within three years, the payroll books of the Santa Fe railroad showed hundreds of Mexican men employed on its Kansas lines and by 1910 the census showed 8,400 foreign-born Mexicans in the state.[22] The Santa Fe Railroad, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, and the Brownsville-Kansas City Railway line – constructed in 1904 – became the principal conduits for the migration of Mexican labor early in the century.  As early as 1903, the Santa Fe Railroad, headquartered in Topeka, had begun hiring Mexicans, although it was not until 1907 that the company actively recruited Mexicans from Texas. Many Kansas cities recorded their first significant influx of Mexicans between 1905 and 1910.[23]

Mexican Railroad Workers

Initially most Mexican laborers were hired as section crews, who worked from May to October and then returned to Mexico.  By 1910, fifty-five percent of all track laborers in Kansas City were Mexicans, a figure that increased to 85% in 1915 and to more than 91% in 1927.[24]  Eventually, the Santa Fe Railroad became the largest employer of Mexican labor in Kansas.  According to figures released by a national railroad official to the U.S. Senate Committee on Immigration, the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific railroads employed almost 20,000 Mexican track laborers in 1928.[25] 

According to the 1910 census, most of the 8,429 foreign-born Mexicans living in Kansas were employed by the railroad.  In this year, only Texas, California, Arizona, and New Mexico had more Mexican immigrants than Kansas.  Dr. Valerie Marie Mendoza, in her PhD dissertation, The Creation of a Mexican Immigrant Community in Kansas City, 1890-1930, writes that that “Mexican laborers began to arrive in Kansas around 1908, and subsequently came in such large numbers that the 1920 federal census listed Kansas as containing the fifth largest Mexican population of any state in the U.S.”[26] 

The years 1911 to 1914 represented a climax to the violence of the Mexican Revolution, which the Dominguez family had avoided by leaving Mexico in 1909.  But many Mexicans were following in their footsteps. The historian Valerie Mendoza reports that “Mexicans from the agricultural states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Michoacán in west central Mexico began arriving in large numbers in Kansas City around 1910 (with perhaps as many as 7,000 arriving that year alone) due to the chaos and economic upheaval caused by the Mexican Revolution.” Many families were “desperate to survive” and saw “temporary migration to the U.S.” as an option.[27]

Argentine: A Burgeoning Mexican Community in the Heartland

Founded as a railroad and smelting center in 1882, Argentine, Kansas, maintained a separate political existence until Kansas City annexed it in 1910. Argentine, geographically isolated from the rest of Kansas City, remained a distinct area for many years.  Located on the winding Kansas River, Argentine occupies the southern river bank, hemmed in between the river on the north and the sharply rising river bluffs to the south.  These bluffs cut Argentine off from the rest of KCK. 

It is believed that the first Mexican settlement in Kansas City was constructed in 1905 when a “barrio” cropped up in the flood-prone Argentine District, which was made up mostly of abandoned boxcars – provided by the Santa Fe Railroad – and a scattering of small boarding houses.[28] Of the first 300 Mexicans living in Argentine, two hundred worked for the railroad, while 12% percent were women and another 12% were children.[29] The following map from the Kids Encyclopedia Facts shows the position of Turner and Argentine in 1899. Both communities were located south of the Kansas River, which separated them from the bulk of Kansas City. Historically, the Santa Fe Railway ran through both Argentine and Turner (where the Dominguez families lived).

The 1899 Map of Kansas City

Map Source: Wy1899, “1899 Map from History of Kansas by Noble Prentis” Online: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wy1899.gif (Public Domain).

The development of the Argentine area was discussed in detail in Judith Fincher Laird’s dissertation, Argentine, Kansas: The Evolution of a Mexican-American Community, 1905-1940. This report, submitted in 1975 to the Department of History at the University of Kansas, examined and analyzed the development of the Mexican American barrio in Argentine in the pre-1940 period.

West Bottoms Barrio

A second major Mexican settlement developed in the “West Bottoms Barrio” – the old warehouse and stockyard area just below the Downtown Kansas City bluffs.  This settlement soon began to attract migrant populations.  At the turn of the century, some 200 acres of slaughterhouses and packinghouses dotted the West Bottoms area. In her work, Dr. Mendoza refers to the West Bottoms as “the working man’s neighborhood population by the city’s few foreign-born residents (mostly of East European origin) and Anglo laborers, all of whom worked at the railroad tracks, packing houses, and other industries in the neighborhood.  The West Bottoms was an extremely transient section of town, whose temporary residents, including Mexicans, were accommodated by boarding houses and residence hotels.”[30] As mentioned earlier, Aniceto Dominguez moved his family to the West Bottoms Barrio in early 1918.

Mexican Difficulties in Kansas City

Dr. Mendoza observed Kansas City was “an extremely homogeneous” urban area whose foreign-born population was “no greater than nine percent” (most of which was European).  As a result, “Mexicans, for their part, had to learn to navigate this new and strange environment on their own.  They learned about American and Kansas City prejudices by trial and error. They looked different, they talked funny, they dressed oddly, and they ate unrecognizable foods.  Because of the color of their skin and their foreign status, Mexicans found that certain establishments (bars, restaurants, rooming houses, stores, etc.) did not welcome them. Mexicans, therefore, quickly discovered where they were and were not allowed.”[31]

The Meat Packing Industry in Kansas City

According to the The Kansan on November 24, 1985, the pioneer packing plant in KCK was established in 1868. Soon, more plants arrived and the meat packing industry in Kansas City became one of the best in the country “because of the close proximity of the large cattle raising regions and hog markets” and because of the City’s “rapid growth as a railroad center.” An article in The Kansan of Oct. 15, 1924 reported, "Kansas City has become the second [largest] meat packing center in the world. It is the only city in which all the large packing companies have established plants."

Mexicans in the Meat Packing Industry

Starting about 1914, many Mexicans made their way to Kansas City to work in the packing industry.  With the increased product demand and labor shortage caused by World War I, Kansas City’s significant packing house industry hired an increasing number of Mexican employees.  Most of the jobs offered to Mexican immigrants were unskilled and low paying.  Dr. Mendoza writes that these jobs “included everything from salter to beef skinner to sheep killer to working in the freezer.  Those who worked as laborers in the killing department most likely cleaned blood from the floor.”[32]  However, Dr. Mendoza observed that “As with the railroad industry, work in the packing houses was highly labor intensive and seasonal.  Mexicans were not guaranteed year-round work with the slack season occurring during the summer months.  Packing companies, therefore, hired most Mexican laborers on a short-term basis.” [33]

By 1921, the packing industry in Kansas City employed between 200 and 300 Mexicans.[34] When Aniceto Dominguez first arrived in Kansas in 1918, he started working for the Ice Plant in Argentine. His son Geronimo Dominguez had also moved his family to Kansas City and began working for the Armour Packing Company.

Geronimo Dominguez Registers for the Draft (2018)

Our first record of Geronimo Dominguez as a resident of Kansas City comes from his Draft Registration Card.  When he registered for the draft on September 12, 1918, Geronimo gave 78 North First Street, Kansas City, Kansas as his permanent home address. He described himself as a laborer for Armour Packing Company and said that “Louisa Dominguez’ was his “nearest relative” (his wife).  He stated that he was born in 1881 and 37 years of age, but was actually three years younger (born in 1884). The registration also describes as Geronimo as having a slender build, black eyes, and black hair.  The registrar signing the card, Lillie Babbith, also observed that he was tall. Soon after, Geronimo went to work for the Swift and Company packing house in Kansas City. His draft registration has been attached below.

The Dominguez Family in the 1920 Census

By the time of the 1920 federal census, the political instability in Mexico and the labor shortage created by World War I swelled the number of Mexicans living in Kansas to 13,770. Among the Mexican immigrant population, Aniceto Dominguez was listed in the census as the 64-year-old head of household at 61 North First Street in Precinct 2, Enumeration District 153, Kansas City, Wyandotte County.  By this time, Aniceto’s wife, Dorotea, had died, apparently after the birth of their son, Manuel Dominguez, on January 25, 1917.  By this time, Aniceto headed a household of five.  His four children were tallied as follows:  Carlota (daughter, 16 years old, born in Mexico); Melgara (son, 11 years old, born in Mexico); Rosie (daughter, 8 years old, born in Texas); and Ned (son, 6 years old, born in Kansas).  Aniceto stated that he worked as a laborer in a packing house. The household as tallied in the census is shown below.

Aniceto’s son, 38-year-old Geronimo Dominguez, lived close by at 78 North First Street and headed a household of seven family members and two boarders.   Geronimo was listed as a laborer in a packing house. By this time, Luisa was 32 years old.  The children listed in the household were Paul (son, 14 years old), Feliz (daughter, 9 years old), Jesus (son, 7 years old), Pabla (daughter, 5 years old), and Albera (son, 2 years and one month in age).  The first two children gave Mexico as their place of birth, while the last three were listed as natives of Texas. It is likely that five-year-old Pabla was actually Juliana. Frequently, Anglo census-takers misunderstood the people they interviewed when they spoke a foreign tongue so there were some mistakes in the census.

Mexican Origins in Kansas City

According to estimates provided by Judith Fincher Laird, 17.86 percent of the Mexican laborers in Kansas City during the 1920s gave Zacatecas as their state of origin.[35]  In contrast, Manuel Gamio, writing in Mexican Immigration to the United States, stated that in 1926 immigrants from Zacatecas made up only 4.8% of the total Mexican immigrant population in the United States.[36]  Ms. Laird writes that the largest number of Mexican immigrants to Kansas were from Guanajuato (31.25%) and Michoacán (25.89%).  After Zacatecas, the other states contributing immigrants to Kansas were Jalisco (9.82%), Durango (3.57%), Aguascalientes (2.68%), and Coahuila (2.68%).[37] The Morales family that intermarried with the Dominguez family were from Aguascalentes.

Political Instability In Mexico Continues

Political instability continued to grip Mexico for the entire decade from 1910 to 1920 and it carried into the 1920s. As a result, Mexican immigrants in Kansas were becoming less and less inclined to return home. This, coupled with the labor shortage created by World War I and the restrictions on European immigration that were in effect, swelled the number of Mexicans in Kansas to 13,770 in 1920 and then to 19,042 by 1930.  In some areas, the railroad officials actually started to encourage the Mexican men to send for their families so that they would settle permanently and form a more stable work labor force. As a result, real communities started to take shape. In some areas, Mexicans established their own parishes and organized fiestas and other celebrations centering around their churches and cultural events.[38]

A Difficult Life

During the 1920s, Luisa Lujan de Dominguez had given birth to more children, starting with the delivery of a little infant girl, Ephifania (Effie) Dominguez, born on April 7, 1920 in Kansas.  Two years later, on May 19, 1922, a little boy named Erminio would follow.  And after another two years, Marshall Dominguez, born on July 3, 1924, would be welcomed into the family circle.  But, with each pregnancy, Luisa grew weaker and weaker. 

Luisa’s last child was Louis Dominguez, who was born on July 20, 1926.  By this time, Luisa’s general poor health and poor nutrition had led to serious complications.  Although little Louie survived the birthing process, his mother experienced serious postpartum hemorrhage following childbirth.  The doctor who had cared for her wrote that “general poor health” was a contributory cause of death when he filled out the death certificate, which has been reproduced below.[39] 

The Death Certificate of Luisa Lujan Dominguez (1926)

Luisa died at the age of 39 years, leaving her grieving and ailing husband Geronimo with nine children who ranged in age from 21 years (Pablo) to 10 days (Louis). The somber mood of the wake the next day has been captured on film.  In a photograph taken that day, Geronimo stands on the left.  His half-sister Carlota (Aniceto’s daughter) stands beside Geronimo.  Next to Carlota stood Felicitas, holding the infant child, Louie. Julia stands at the right side of the photograph, flanked by a small portion of Erminio.[40]

The Dominguez Family At the Funeral of Luisa Lujan Dominguez (1926)

Once Luisa had been buried in Maple Hill Cemetery, Geronimo returned home with his children.  With the death of Luisa, the lives of Geronimo and his large family became very difficult.  It quickly became evident that Geronimo’s employment could not entirely feed all the mouths at his kitchen table.  Because Geronimo was partially disabled, he would need to put his older children into the work force.  Because Paul and Jessie and the girls were required to attend school, Geronimo could make not make them work all the year around yet.  For the answer to his prayers, Geronimo looked to the beet fields of Nebraska.

Los Betabeleros

Back, in 1897 the U.S. Congress had imposed a large tariff on the importation of foreign sugar, thus encouraging the development of the U.S. sugar beet industry. As a result, by 1906, the amount of sugar beet acreage being farmed in the United States more than tripled from the 135,000 acres that had been planted in 1900.  By 1920 that acreage had increased to 872,000, with the Great Plains region (which includes the North Platte Valley in Wyoming and western Nebraska) producing 64 percent of the total U.S. crop grown.  From 1923 to 1932 Nebraska ranked second in the U.S., behind Colorado, in annual sugar beet acreage (74,000 acres), and first in the nation in yield per acre (12.7 tons).[41]

In 1905 there were only 250 acres of sugar beets in the entire North Platte Valley. In 1906 the Great Western Sugar Company started raising beets in that part of the state, and in just two years the increase in acreage warranted the building of a factory. It was at then that the Ames, Nebraska, factory was moved to Scottsbluff and enlarged. After that, Scotts Bluff County became the top sugar beet- producing county in Nebraska.[42]

During the last century, the City of Scottsbluff, Nebraska – located in Scotts Bluff County along the North Platt River in western Nebraska – was an important trading center for the North Ridge Platt River Irrigation Project.  Scottsbluff lies only twenty miles from the border of Wyoming and represents the largest city in the so-called Western Nebraska Panhandle Region.  As early as 1914, some Mexican laborers started to arrive in the Scottsbluff area and went to work in the sugar beet fields. 

Many of the betabeleros (sugar beet workers) came originally to the North Platte Valley as railroad hands, then, for a variety of reasons, changed jobs as more and more fieldwork became available. Few of these workers came to Nebraska directly from Mexico. The majority came from Kansas, others from Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona. Kansas – with its burgeoning Mexican wartime community – became an important conduit for the moving of Mexican laborers to Nebraska.  

After 1916, many of the betabeleros were aggressively recruited for labor in the beet fields by the Great Western Sugar Company. By 1920, the Great Western Sugar Company had recruited and transported 13,000 workers into its Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska sugar beet territory. In 1926 the Great Western Sugar Company provided transportation for 14,500 persons, employed fifty-five labor agents, and sent out advertising materials consisting of thousands of booklets, cardboard posters, and calendars-all in the Spanish language. Advertisements were run in fifteen newspapers located in various states.[43] In Scottsbluff, a community developed near the Great Western Sugar refinery on land formerly owned by the factory and later sold to individual families. To this day, that area remains the Mexican American barrio in that city, bordered on the north by East Overland Drive, and on the south by South Beltline Road between Fifth and Fifteenth Avenues.[44]

Labor bosses in Nebraska started to recruit Mexican laborers from the Kansas City area to get some badly needed seasonal work done. When Geronimo and Aniceto learned that the beet growers in Nebraska and Colorado would employ women and children in the fieldwork, they saw a great opportunity and an answer to their prayers for financial stability.  With a great need for workers of all ages to thin, hoe and harvest the sugar beets, all members of the family, including young children, were put to work during the thinning and weeding season. The town of Mitchell, which is located several miles west of Scottsbluff, became a second home for the Dominguez family as many of them worked there for a few months of the year.[45]

The Mexican Press in Kansas City

In the 1920s and 1930s, a new generation of Dominguez sons started working for the Santa Fe Railroad as they came of age. With so many Spanish-speaking employees, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co. even published a Spanish dictionary of track-laying terms to be used by Anglo foremen with their Mexican workers. However, during the 1920s, the Mexican press in Kansas City became very vocal in its opinions about the treatment of Mexican nationals in the area.  The Hispanic Press in Kansas started to complain about the Santa Fe Railroads policy towards Mexican workers. El Cosmopolitia of Kansas City started to point out that workers earned only $1.25 to $1.50 per day for their ten-to-twelve-hour workday with the Santa Fe.  For this reason, El Cosmopolita openly encouraged Kansas City Mexicans to work for the Union Pacific or Burlington Railroads instead of the Santa Fe.[46]

The words of the Hispanic press became an important vocal force that the railroads had to contend with.  During the late 1920s, the Mexican immigrants represented 15.68% of all immigrants to the U.S.[47] By this point, six major railroads were employing between 32,000 and 42,000 Mexican track workers, depending on the season.  These laborers comprised 75% of the total track force.[48]  Through the efforts of the Mexican-American Press, some grievances were made against offending employers.

The Dominguez Family in the 1930 Census

For all these years, the Dominguez family kept one foot in the door of Kansas City. When the census-taker arrived on April 22nd at the doorstep of 68-year-old Aniceto Dominguez at Probst Road, he provided the civil servant with the information he asked for.  Aniceto’s name was spelled as “Anisito Dominguez” and he lived in Turner Village of the Shawnee Township of Kansas City.[49]

Under the sections for “Home Data,” Aniceto was described as being the owner of his own home, which he valued at $1,000.  Nine family members lived in Aniceto’s residence.  Jeronimo (Geronimo) Dominguez, listed as the son of a head of household, gave his age as 46 years old.   Geronimo’s eldest son living at home, Jesse, was also listed as the “grandson” to the head of household (Aniceto) and gave his age as 18.  Geronimo’s children were listed as grandchildren of the head of household.

Eight-year-old Erminio (spelled “Ermono”) was also tallied as a grandson to the head of the household.  He was followed by still another grandson whose name was spelled Chale.  This child was probably Marshall, who was six years old at that time.  Marshall was followed by Louis, the last grandson, whose age was given as 4 years and seven months of age.  The last member of the household was 12-year-old Ned Dominguez, the son of Aniceto and his second wife, Dorotea, who was Geronimo’s half-brother.  Ned had been born in Amarillo about the same time that Jesse Dominguez – his cousin – was born.

Both Aniceto and Geronimo stated that they had immigrated to the United States of America in 1909 and that they were able to read and write, but could not speak the English language.  While Aniceto was listed as having no occupation, Geronimo had given his occupation as “Section Hand” for the “Santa Fe RR” to which he had apparently found temporary employment in spite of his back problems.  By this time, Geronimo’s second-oldest son, Jesse, at the age 18, was also a “section hand” for the “Santa Fe Railroad.” The listing of the Dominguez Family in the 1930 Census has been reproduced below.

Becoming American

The Nineteen Thirties were the decade in which the Dominguez became more fully American. There was no turning back now because most of the children had been born in America and had learned to read and speak English at school.  Although many of the Dominguez children would leave school at an early age to labor in the beet fields, their identity as American citizens became well understood and a matter of pride. Although they spoke Spanish at home with their loved ones, the Dominguez family, in effect, lived and operated as an American family, working the railroads, attending church, and taking care of financial responsibilities.   However, all this meant nothing to those people who saw the Dominguez family as strangers in a new land. 

Segregation and Racial Bias Against Mexicans

By 1930, the Mexican and Mexican-American population of Kansas represented the seventh largest Mexican ancestral group in the entire U.S.  They also comprised the second largest immigrant population in the state after Germans.[50]  However, in spite of their increasing numbers, the author Cynthia Mines tells us that the “Mexican settlers were set apart linguistically, economically, religiously, and culturally from the mostly white, Protestant, middle class Kansans with which they were surrounded.  They tended to stay within their colonies, some eventually building their own schools and churches, and ventured out only to buy necessities.”[51]

Mexicans, according to Ms. Mines, “had a higher ethnic visibility, because of their darker skin complexion, and they were not as easily assimilated into society as were the Germans, the largest immigrant group to Kansas.”[52]   Professor Robert Oppenheimer of the University of Kansas has described in some detail the segregation of and discrimination against Mexican Americans in Kansas:[53]

Overt racial bias was common.  Throughout Kansas, Mexicans remained segregated, and Anglos viewed Mexicans with suspicion even when they left the confines of the barrios for the day....  Until the 1950s, in virtually every Kansas town and city, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans remained segregated in movie theaters and were often restricted from some sections of city parks, churches, and other public facilities.  Windows of some businesses contained signs stating “No Mexicans allowed,” and Mexicans could not obtain haircuts in local barbershops. 

Unfortunately, the segregation in Kansas included many churches.  Although most Mexicans who arrived in Kansas were devout Catholics, they found some of the worst prejudice directed against them by their fellow Catholics.  As a rule, Mexican-American boys were not permitted to serve as Catholic altar boys.[54]  Ms. Mines lamented the fact that “Mexican Americans were not allowed to attend some masses and rather than be banished to the back of the church at services they did attend, many chose to worship in their own homes.”[55] 

In Search of God

Mission work by Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians in the Mexican Barrios began in the early 1920s and had considerable success.  Dr. Mendoza observed that eventually there were “no less than thirteen Protestant organizations engaged in ‘Spanish-speaking work” in the State of Kansas. Early on, “the Methodists established a mission in the Argentine barrio in order to improve conditions there during the 1921 recession.  It proved to be an important social service agency among Mexicans for three decades.”  Dr. Mendoza explains that “the Methodist Mission provided food, clothing, medical services, and monies and conducted educational, recreational, and religious activities.  More importantly for women, it operated a daycare center and offered courses in sewing, cooking, and homemaking.”[56]

Ms. Mines, in discussing the Protestant proselytizing efforts, writes “Some Mexican immigrants may have become Protestants because they had been helped in some material way by Protestant organizations – almost out of gratitude.  Others, perhaps, were disillusioned as to the moral character of the Catholic priesthood, and they expected to find in the Protestant clergy pure, moral, unselfish men.”[57] 

Because Geronimo Dominguez had become very sickly from his years of working in silver mines, he had a terrible cough.  When a locomotive door actually fell on him in Amarillo, his back injury had also further weakened him.  But Geronimo was a man of great faith and sought the help of God and God’s ministers.  According to his son Jesse, Geronimo met with a Methodist evangelist.  The evangelist sold him a ticket that permitted him to go to a healing service.[58] 

At this faith-healing service, Geronimo apparently felt much better and began to take a very enthusiastic interest in studying the bible.  He healed enough from his earlier injuries that he was able to take on some carpentry work to help support his family.   Because of his “reincarnation from bad health,” Geronimo felt that this minister had important healing powers and continued bringing family members to attend the Baptist services with him.[59]

For his part, Geronimo’s father, Aniceto Dominguez, started to attend Methodist services.  He remained a member of that church for the rest of his life. When Aniceto died in 1946, his services were held at the Methodist Mexican Mission.  But most of the Dominguez children would become members of the Baptist Church. 

The Great Depression

When the Great Depression hit at the beginning of the 1930s, many Mexican-American communities suffered the degradation of repatriation and deportation; even some American-born individuals were caught and deported. For many Mexican laborers around the country, the racial prejudice against them became intolerable and some of them decided to return to their native states, sometimes scarred and disillusioned by their experiences. But others had family members that had never been to Mexico.

The Deportation of Mexican Americans

As a result of the massive and indiscriminate raids conducted by U.S. immigration authorities throughout the United States in the early 1930s, more than 400,000 persons — and possibly as many as one million — were deported back to Mexico.  During the peak year of 1931, 138,519 Mexicans were forcefully repatriated.[60]

From 1929 to 1936, federal records state that only 82,000 Mexicans were deported through official removal proceedings, but many experts believe as many as 2 million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were forced to leave the United States and go back to Mexico during this time frame. It is estimated that up to 60% of the individuals who were forced to leave the United States in the surprise, clandestine raids were US citizens or legal permanent residents. 

The Deportations in Kansas

In Kansas, the state and local government encouraged the railroads to fire Mexican workers and deport them, even if they had lived in Kansas for decades.  But, the Santa Fe Railroad – to their credit – recognized the value of the Mexican laborers even in hard times and made great efforts to keep its work crews.  In spite of this, it is believed that the Kansas City Hispanic population shrank to about 2,500 during this decade.  Some Mexicans did, in fact, return to Mexico to seek employment in a republic that was now at peace with itself.

The Lack of Upward Mobility

Upward mobility came slowly for the Mexican Americans who stayed in Kansas.  Their communities remained separated from mainstream society because of the discrimination against them in housing, jobs and education, plus their desire to preserve their own culture.  Many uneducated Mexicans and Mexican Americans lacked the training  and language skills need to advance beyond low paying positions and stayed mired in the low wages of manual labor jobs. 

As with the Dominguez family, many teenage Mexican-American men had to leave school to help support their families.  And, in a break with tradition, women often found work outside the home to supplement their incomes.  Some Mexican children walking home from school had rocks thrown at them by their Anglo classmates. As a result, some children in the Dominguez family quit school at an early age.

One member of the Mexican-American community, Esperanza Rangel (later known as Mrs. Esperanza Amayo) was a neighbor of the Dominguez family and remembered the family well. Later, Esperanza became an outspoken member of the Kansas City Mexican-American community, a contributor to local newspapers, and an activist for recognition of Mexican-American accomplishments. Esperanza was just a little younger than Louie Dominguez, the baby of the Dominguez family.  For the Kansas City Star, she recalled some of her fond memories of these days:[61]

It seems like only yesterday that we were children, my friends Isabel, Louie and I.  In daily ritual we ran across cow pastures and climbed over barbed wire fences on our way to Turner Grade School.  Our life was happy and carefree in the ‘30s and early ‘40s.  Louie was our next-door neighbor on the hill where we lived.  Sometimes he would pump water from the well for me.  I sensed an awakening attraction, yet meaningful words would be left unspoken, disallowed by time and circumstance.

In some interviews, Esperanza had vivid memories of her experiences in Turner during the 1930s and 1940s.  She remembers Geronimo Dominguez – whom she and the other children in the neighborhood respectfully called “Doñ” – as a very strict parent.  She also remembers the Dominguez family’s frequent trips to the beet fields of Nebraska and Colorado.  She recalls that she and other neighborhood children would see that Geronimo’s big green truck filled with people returning from Nebraska and everyone would shout, “Here come the Dominguez’s.”  She refers to these outings as “special occasions,” because some of their neighbors would also go to work in the fields with them. 

Esperanza also remembers the Dominguez family as a very good-looking family.  As young Louie grew into adolescence, he developed a square jaw and very handsome features with a gorgeous smile.  Louie’s older brother Erminio (Minnie) was a tall good looking, well-built person but was very quiet. Esperanza also had memories of the second youngest in the family.  Marshall Dominguez was very slender and lighter skinned than the others, but like his brothers, he was very handsome.

The Punishment for Speaking Spanish in a Kansas School

In the 1930s, the teachers at the schools in the Kansas City area were very adamant about the use of the Spanish language in school.  They told the parents of their students not to speak Spanish at home.  To do so might interfere with their English-language education.  Young Marshall Dominguez had apparently spoken Spanish at school a few times which angered the teacher.  It has been said that a certain teacher had physically abused him several times because of this transgression.  This woman singled out Marshall for ill treatment to make an example of him.

To this day, the Dominguez family believes that several terrible blows to his kidneys led to his premature death from kidney failure. Later, when some of Marshall’s nieces and nephews went to that school and had the same teacher, they were very wary of her. On March 27, 1939, at the age of 14 years, 8 months and 23 days, Marshall Dominguez died from acute general nephritis at Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. His obituary in the Kansas City Times (May 29, 1939, page 12) is shown below.

The Obituary of Marshall Dominguez (May 29, 1939)

The Dominguez Family in the 1940 Census

At the time of the 1940 federal census, the Dominguez family had been in the United States for 31 years and in Kansas for about 22 years. The fifty-five-year-old widower Geronimo Dominguez was the head of household in Turner, Wyandotte County, Kansas. Living with him were his younger children (two boys and one girl): Erminio (17 years old), Louis (13 years old) and Effie (20 years old), all natives of Kansas. His father, Aniceto Dominguez was listed as the 78-year-old father of the head of household (Geronimo). When asked where they were living in 1935, they stated “Scottsbluff, Nebraska.”

Aniceto and Geronimo Dominguez in the 1940 Federal Census

In the years before the 1940 census, several of the Dominguez children had been married. On the same census sheet, living close to Geronimo, was the famiy of his daughter, Julia Dominguez. Twenty-six-year-old Julia was married to 31-year-old Eleno Salazar and they had four children ranging in age from 9 years to 11 months. Geronimo’s oldest daughter, Felicitas Dominguez, met her future husband, Celestino Morales, who had come from Aguascalientes to Texas and then on to Kansas. They were married around 1932. In the 1940 census, 32-year-old Celestino Morales and his 30-year-old wife, Felicitas, lived in Wyandotte County and had three children ranging in age from 7 years to one year.

In April 1938, Bessie Dominguez, the younger sister of Felicitas, was married to Daniel Morales. In the 1940 census, Daniel was a 26-year-old native of Texas who was married to 22-year-old Bessie. They had a 10-month-old daughter at the time (Julia). Their brother Jesus Domingez had been married on March 14, 1935 in Gering, Nebraska, to Maria (Mary) Chavez. Many of the Dominguez family would meet their spouses in the beet fields in Nebraska.

The Death of a Patriarch (Geronimo)

On April 13, 1943, age the age of 59, Geronimo Dominguez died from pulmonary tuberculosis. In his last years, his physical condition had deteriorated and the hacking cough that he had developed in the silver mines of Zacatecas had worsened. Geronimo, having survived his wife by 17 years, was survived by four sons and four daughters, his brother Ned Dominguez, his half-sister, Carlota Dominguez, and his father, Aniceto Dominguez. Geronimo's services were held at the Mexican Baptist Church. The record of his funeral from the Maple Hill Cemetery has been reproduced below:

Geronimo’s obituary has been reproduced below. Geronimo’s death left only one patriarch of the family: his father Aniceto, whose name was left out of the obituary but who was the main architect of the family’s move to the United States from Zacatecas.

A Patriotic Family

A prevailing theme in the Dominguez family’s story is their service: rendered to relatives, to community, to church, and to their country.  The decade of the 1940s and the onset of World War II would sorely test their resolve. Over time, the Dominguez family became a very patriotic family and, like many other American families, they were willing to make great sacrifices for the country they lived in.

Pearl Habor (December 1941)

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the American naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, forcing America into war. Within days, the United States was at war with Germany, Italy, and Japan, a formidable alliance known collectively as “The Axis Powers.”  On September 2, 1942, Erminio Dominguez, at the age of 20, enlisted in the Third Ranger Battalion. He was sent overseas, where he took part in the Italian campaigns of 1943 and 1944.

The Rangers Meet With Disaster (1944)
However, in early 1944, the Rangers met with disaster near the Italian resort of Anzio. The Germans surrounded Erminio’s unit and the men of the Third Rangers were forced to fight for their lives. Outnumbered, the Rangers fought bravely and inflicted many casualties. However, eventually they ran short of ammunition and were forced to fight hand-to-hand with the enemy. 
Erminio's unit took heavy casualties and soon after, the Third Rangers had to be disbanded. At that time, Erminio was assigned to the 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, which had joined General Mark Clark's Fifth Army in April 1944. The 117th soon took its place along the Italian front, some 100 miles south of Rome. Two months later, on June 5, 1944, Erminio Dominguez and the 117th Division entered Rome in triumph. Meanwhile, back home in Kansas, the baby of the family, Louie Dominguez, celebrated his eighteenth birthday on July 30, 1944. Louie had watched the progress of the American armies with great interest. He admired and emulated his older brother, Erminio. To his friends and family members, Louie talked incessantly about his longing to become a soldier and serve his county like his older brother Erminio. 

Louis Dominguez Enlists (1944)

Finally, on August 15, 1944, Louie followed his dream and enlisted in the Army. Louie joined the Seventy-Fifth Infantry Division and prepared to leave for foreign shores. It is fortunate that Louie had a childhood friend, Esperanza Amayo, a Kansas City resident who — as mentioned earlier — has contributed articles about the experiences, tribulations, and contributions of the Mexican-American community to Kansas.
In describing her youthful memories of Louie, Esperanza Amayo wrote that “our life was happy and carefree in the '30s and early '40s.” But now, he was taking an important step in his life, one that could end badly. Commenting on the day that Louie left for overseas service, Esperanza wrote: "Louie looked fine in his Army uniform the day he walked across the dirt road, never again to return. He went to war radiating youthful and patriotic eagerness. How sad - he died soon after in the carnaged wastelands of Germany."


Erminio Dominguez is Captured by the Germans (1944)

Soon after, a new development shocked the Dominguez family. Word reached Kansas City that Erminio Dominguez had been captured by the Germans in early September 1944. As part of the invasion of Southern France in August 1944, the 117th had moved steadily to the north through French territory, meeting with fierce resistance from German forces. In the first days of September, the 117th seized the city of Montrevel with the hope of holding it until reinforcements could arrive. However, in a daylong battle, the German 11th Panzer Division launched a fierce counterattack that overran Montrevel. Erminio Dominguez and his fellow soldiers of the 117th were captured and immediately transported as POWs to Germany. Within days, Erminio was interned at Stalag 7A in Moosburg, Bavaria for the duration of the war.

Louie Dominguez Takes Part in the Invasion of Germany (1945)

Louie Dominguez became incensed at the capture of Erminio and promised that he would help liberate his brother from German captivity. In January 1945, Louie and the 75th Infantry Division joined the American forces in France. Because the 75th Infantry Division was one of the last units to join the American forces in Europe, it was nicknamed the "Diaper Division." But the 75th made up for lost time, spending 94 consecutive days in contact with the enemy. 
As the American forces moved closer to the German homeland, the enemy's resistance grew more determined. In an attempt to halt the Allied advance on their native soil, German forces counterattacked more frequently and with increasing intensity. Finally, on March 31, 1945, the 75th Division stood on the border between Holland and Germany. At a small border town called Marl, on the German side of the border, they approached a hill on which the Germans were entrenched. Louie's Captain surveyed the situation and came to the conclusion that, in order to take this elevated stronghold, he would have to send an advance unit forward to locate the enemy's exact position. 

Louie Dominguez Dies For His Country (March 1945)

When the Captain asked for volunteers, Louie quickly stepped forward. Soon after, Louie and several other soldiers of the 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division, advanced up the hill towards the German positions. Suddenly enemy fire targeted the American soldiers and several of them fell to the ground. On this day, five weeks before the surrender of Nazi Germany, 18-year-old Louie Dominguez died for his country. Louie was buried at the military cemetery in Margarten, Netherlands, and was awarded the Purple Heart for his ultimate sacrifice. In the middle of April, the news about Louie reached Kansas City. On April 25, 1945, the Kansas City Times published an article that announced the death of Louis Dominguez and the capture of his brother. That article has been reproduced below and is a stark reminder of the price of freedom that one family paid in World War II.

The Announcement of the Death of Louis Dominguez and the Capture of Erminio Dominguez (April 25, 1945)

Esperanza Amayo Ponders The Loss of Her Childhood Friend

Louie’s family and his friends were devastated. Esperanza Amayo, in her anguish, struggled to understand the loss of her childhood friend and pondered over the meaning of it all. Many years later, reflecting on Erminio and Louie's service to their country, she wrote: "Statistics say that Mexican Americans died completely disproportionate to our numbers... They told me that Louie died in the name of peace and liberty." But Esperanza observed that Mexican-American servicemen returning home from World War II "did not earn one ounce of respect for their war duties. Instead of a confetti and ticker-tape welcome, these conquering heroes were blatantly denied the liberties and ordinary human rights guaranteed to Anglos."
Over the years, however, Esperanza saw a change in attitudes and a new appreciation of the contributions of Mexican Americans. Half a century after the end of World War II, Esperanza noted that Mexican-American veterans "can stand tall and proud of their contributions in war and peace." Writing for the Kansas City Star, she stated that Mexican Americans "were free to struggle and rise above our adversities. And now in this era of racial justice I finally know that indeed my friend did die for me. His memory will live with me always."

The Imprisonment of Erminio Dominguez

From early September 1944 to April 29, 1945 - a total of eight months - Erminio Dominguez was an inmate of the Moosburg prisoner of war camp. In the final days of April, as the end of the war drew near, the American POWs in Moosburg anxiously waited for their day of liberation. With the use of clandestine radio equipment, Erminio and the other prisoners were able to learn that the Third Army of General George S. Patton was racing through Bavaria en route to Munich. The Americans knew that their liberation would soon be at hand. The German soldiers guarding the prisoners became anxious as the Americans, realizing that they may be called upon by Adolph Hitler, the German dictator, to take retaliatory action against the POWs. On April 28, both the inmates and the guards could hear artillery fire coming from the west and southwest. As the artillery fire grew closer, an amazing event took place.

On April 29, outside the prison gates, the prisoners could see Germans fighting each other. It was later learned that Hitler had issued an order to kill all the prisoners in the camp, but the German Wehrmacht (Army) had refused to take this action. When the Gestapo tried to take possession of Moosburg, the Wehrmacht fought back and prevented the massacre of prisoners of war.

Patton Liberates Moosburg POW Camp

Shortly after noon on the 29th, Combat Team A of the 14th American Armored Division appeared near the camp entrance and the American flag was raised over Moosburg. Erminio and his fellow American soldiers cheered wildly as their liberation took place. But the greatest thrill was yet to come. An hour later, General George S. Patton arrived in a jeep. General Patton gave a rousing speech to the liberated prisoners and then concluded that "we will whip the bastards all the way to Berlin." As it turns out, Moosburg was the last of the POW camps to be liberated. Nine days later, on May 8, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces.

Erminio Dominguez Becomes a Free Man 

With these events, Erminio Dominguez became a free man. Erminio Dominguez was one of 90,000 American POWs who gained freedom with the occupation and surrender of Nazi Germany. He soon returned to the United States where he received his honorary discharge on October 5, 1945 at Fort Riley, Kansas. The brave veteran of the French and Italian campaigns received a warm welcome from the Dominguez family in Kansas City. However, Erminio was shattered to learn that his youngest brother, Louie, had been killed in action on March 31, 1945, after having made his way across the Rhine River onto German territory.

When Erminio found out that his younger brother Louie had died in combat, his sense of loss was overwhelming. Erminio's treatment at the hands of the Germans had been terrible. He once told his brother Jesse that the Germans had treated the POWs at Moosburg like animals, sometimes throwing food to the American soldiers as if they were dogs. Although Erminio received four bronze stars, the Purple Heart, the service ribbon and a good conduct medal for his extraordinary service to his country, he never spoke of his experiences in World War II to anyone ever again.

The Dominguez Family Honors Their Two Brothers

Proud to have served his country, Erminio became a member of the Kansas City VFW. Two years after being released from German captivity, Erminio Dominguez was married to Carmen, a half-sister of Daniel Morales and Celestino Morales (his brothers-in-law). For the rest of his life, he worked as a forklift operator for the Santa Fe Railroad. On June 8, 1996, Erminio Dominguez died, leaving behind two children.
Today, the Dominguez family still honors Louie Dominguez, who died on a hill in Germany 79 years ago. He sacrficed his life for the freedom of all Americans. Erminio Dominguez and Louie Dominguez served as roll models for all of their nephews and nieces. Five years after the end of World War II, Julie Dominguez’s son, Eleno Salazar, Jr., served in the Korean War. In the years to follow, many other family members followed in the family's proud patriotic tradition by serving in the armed forces of the United States.

The Death of the Patriarch Aniceto Dominguez

Geronimo Dominguez had died in 1943 as World War II raged on. By this time, one grandson had already gone off to war (Erminio). Geronimo’s father, Aniceto Dominguez, lived to see the end of World War II when Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945. Aniceto lived one more year and died at the age of 84 years, 5 months, and 24 days on October 9, 1946 at Bethany Hospital. Like his son Geronimo, Aniceto also died from pulmonary tuberculosis. In addition to his children, Aniceto left behind seven grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. His services were held at the Methodist Mexican Mission, followed by burial at Maple Hill Cemetery. The record of his funeral from the Maple Hill Cemetery has been reproduced below, followed by his obituary.

The Record of Funeral for Aniceto Dominguez (1946)

The Obituary of Anizeto Dominguez (1946)

The Life of Aniceto Dominguez (1862-1946)

By the time Anizeto (Aniceto) Dominguez died at the age of 84, he had seen a great deal over the course of his life. He had come from a small rural hacienda called Santa Monica in Zacatecas. Today Santa Monica is known as the town of José María Morelos, and has 1,198 inhabitants within the Sain Alto Municipio. In his lifetime, Aniceto would see the invention of the gas-powered automobile, the telephone, the radio, and the airplane. In 1909, he was the architect of his family’s move to the United States. After a nine-year-stay in the Texas Panhandle, he would move his family farther north to Kansas City, where nearly all the male members of his family became employees of the AT&SF railroad.

As Mexicans living among strangers, Aniceto and his family were not always greeted politely by their fellow Kansans, but over time, they established themselves as respectable citizens in the community and in their churches. Aniceto would witness two of his grandsons (Geronimo’s sons) as they went off to war. One would be captured by the Germans and spent almost a year in a POW camp in Bavaria. The other one would die on German soil as he moved with the American forces to destroy Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. A month after Louie Dominguez died, Adolf Hitler died by suicide in his Berlin bunker. Over time, the Dominguez family became a proud American family living in the heartland of the United States.

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 Footnotes

[1] Peter Gerhard, The Northern Frontier of New Spain (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 131.

[2] Ibid., p. 132.

[3] INEGI, Resultados Definitivos del XII Censo General de Población y Vivienda.

[4] Ivie E. Cadenhead, Cadenhead, Jesús González Ortega and Mexican National Politics – Texas Christian University Monographs in History and Culture, No. 9 (Fort Worth: the Texas Christian University Press, 1972), pp. 70-75.

[5] Ibid., p. 85.

[6] Ibid., pp. 85-87.

[7] Mark Wasserman, Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico:  Men, Women, and War (Albuquerque:  The University of New Mexico Press, 2000), pp.  72, 174.

[8] Ibid, pp. 174-175.

[9] Ibid, pp. 194-196.

[10] Ibid, pp. 196-197.

[11] Wasserman, op. cit., pp. 183-184.

[12] John McCormally, “La Colonia: The Story of Emporia’s Little Mexico,”  The Emporia Daily Gazette, Dec. 9, 1947, p. 8.

[13] Amarillo Convention and Visitors Council, 2001.

[14] George C. Werner, “Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed October 27, 2024, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/panhandle-and-santa-fe-railway. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

[15] H. Allen Anderson, “Amarillo, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/amarillo-tx [Accessed October 27, 2024].

[16] For information relating to Canadian, Texas the authors recommend the following works: F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], The Canadian, Texas, Story (Nazareth, Texas, 1975) and F. Stanley [Stanley F. L. Crocchiola], Rodeo Town (Canadian, Texas) (Denver: World, 1953).

[17 CANADIAN, TX." The Handbook of Texas Online: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/canadian-tx [Accessed November 5, 2024].

[18] Judith Fincher Laird, Argentine, Kansas:  The Evolution of a Mexican-American Community, 1905-1940 (Univeristy of Kansas, Ph. D., 1975), pp. 26-27.

[19] Louie Gonzalez, The Dominguez – Chavez Family History (Kansas City, 2000), p. 5.

[20] M. A. M. Anari and Jared E. Hazelton, The Chemical Industry of Texas (College Station: Center for Business and Economic Analysis, Texas A&M University, 1992).

[21]  Mines, Cynthia.  Riding the Rails to Kansas:  The Mexican Immigrants (Kansas, 1980), Preface.

[21] Ibid., p. 2. .

[22] Larry Rutter, Mexican Americans in Kansas, Master’s Thesis (Kansas State University, 1972), p. 46.

[23]  Juan R. Garcia, Mexicans in the Midwest, 1900-1932 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996), pp. 6-7, 117; Judith Fincher Laird, Argentine, Kansas: The Evolution of a Mexican-American Community, 1905-1940 (Doctorate Dissertation, University of Kansas, 1975), p. 117; John Martínez, Mexican Emigration to the U.S. (San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1971), p. 4.

[24] Larry Rutter, op. cit., p. 74. 

[25] Valerie Marie Mendoza, The Creation of a Mexican Immigrant Community in Kansas City, 1890-1930  (PhD Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1997), pp. viii – ix; Cynthia Mines, op. cit., p. 2.

[26] Valerie Mendoza, “The Pendergast Years: Kansas City’s Mexican Community and the Guadalupe Center” (Kansas City Library). Online: https://pendergastkc.org/articles/kansas-citys-mexican-community-and-guadalupe-center [Accessed 10/27/2024].

[27] Valerie M. Mendoza, “They Came to Kansas: Searching for a Better Life,” 25 Kansas Quarterly 97-106 (1994), Note 74; Lin Fredericksen, "Fiesta, Kansas Style, A Moment in Time” Kansas State Historical Society (September 2001).

[28] Valerie M. Mendoza, “They Came to Kansas: Searching for a Better Life,” 25 Kansas Quarterly 97-106 (1994), Note 75; Lin Fredericksen, "Fiesta, Kansas Style, A Moment in Time” Kansas State Historical Society (September 2001).

[29] Ibid., pp. 50-51; 1920 Kansas City Directory and Business Catalog (Kansas City: Gale City Directory Company, 1920); Lyle W. Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968).

[30] Valerie Marie Mendoza, The Creation of a Mexican Immigrant Community in Kansas City, 1890-1930, pp. viii – ix.

[31] Ibid., pp. 78-79.

[32] Ibid.

[33]  Valerie Marie Mendoza, op. cit., p. 79.

[34]  Judith Fincher Laird, op. cit., p. 39.

[35]  Judith Fincher Laird, op. cit., p. 88.

[36]  Manual Gamio, Mexican Immigration to the United States: A Study of Human Migration and Adjustment (Chicago:  The University of Chicago Press, 1930), p. 13.

[37]  Judith Fincher Laird, op. cit., p. 88.

[38] Larry Rutter, op. cit., pp. 45, 74; Cynthia Mines, op. cit., p. 2.

[39] Certificate of Death, Wyandotte County, Kansas, Registered No. 21442.

[40] Louie Gonzalez, The Dominguez-Chavez Family History, p. 26.

[41] Esther S. Anderson, The Sugar Beet Industry of Nebraska (Lincoln: Bulletin 9, Conservation Department of the Conservation and Survey Division, University of Nebraska, April, 1935), pp. 25-27.

[42] Ibid., pp. 21-22, 25; Dr. Ralph F. Grajeda, “Mexicans in Nebraska,” (Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1998).

[43] Paul S. Taylor, Mexican Labor in the United States, Vol. I  (New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, 1970), pp. 103, 105.

[44] Dr. Ralph F. Grajeda, op. cit.

[45] Louie Gonzalez, The Dominguez – Chavez Family History, p. 42.

[46] Valerie Marie Mendoza, The Creation of a Mexican Immigrant Community in Kansas City, 1890-1930, p. 72;  El Cosmopolita, April 8, 1916; April 22, 1916; Ted McDaniel (ed.), Our Land: A History of Lyon County Kansas (Emporia: Emporia State Press, 1976), p. 162.

[47]  Judith Fincher Laird, op. cit., p. 66.

[48] Mark Reisler, By the Sweat of Their Brown:  Mexican Immigrant Labor in the United States, 1900-1940 (Westport, Conn.:  Greenwood Press, 1976), p. 96.

[49] The actual census schedules can be seen on National Archives Roll Number T626-726, State of Nebraska, 1930, Page 12B, Enumeration District  73.

[50] Robert Oppenheimer, “Acculturation  or Assimilation:  Mexican Immigrants in Kansas, 1900 to World War II,”  The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVI, No. 1 (January 1985), p. 431.

[51] Cynthia Mines, op. cit., p. 2.

[52] Ibid., p. 6.

[53] Robert Oppenheimer, op. cit., pp. 431-432.

[54]  Interview with Esperanza Rangel Amayo, December 2002.

[55]  Cynthia Mines, op. cit., p. 91.

[56] Valerie Marie Mendoza, The Creation of a Mexican Immigrant Community in Kansas City, 1890-1930  (PhD Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1997), pp. 131-132.

[57]  Cynthia Mines, op. cit., pp. 122-123.

[58] Louie Gonzales, The Dominguez – Chavez Family History, p. 42.

[59]  Ibid.

[60] Abraham Hoffman, Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression: Repatriation Pressures, 1929-1939 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1974), 174-75.

[61] Kansas City Times, June 3, 1984.

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