The Railroad as a Catalyst for Mexican Immigration (1877-1927)
Mexican Immigration to the United States
In the last 130 years, millions of Mexican nationals have crossed the southern border into the United States. But Mexico is a very large country and the Mexican men, women and children who migrated north came from many places in Mexico: Chihuahua, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Puebla, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Oaxaca, and Jalisco – to name only a few. And the destinations of these immigrants ranged from one end of the United States to another: Texas, California, Arizona, Kansas, Chicago, and Nebraska. The one crucial ingredient linking all these immigrants from every corner of Mexico was their use of the Mexican railway systems. The original purpose behind creating a wide-ranging railroad system in Mexico did not anticipate the level of emigration that would take place after 1900.
Díaz Begins the Construction (1877)
Photograph of Porfirio Díaz
In 1877, President Porfirio Díaz decided to initiate the construction of a modern rail network for Mexico. When Díaz took office in 1876, Mexico had a mere 663 kilometers (412 miles) of railway lines in service, but by the time he had resigned in 1911, the railroad network stretched 19,748 kilometers (12,103 miles).[1]
The Blueprint for the Development of a National Railway
In the early years of the Díaz administration, the Mexican government drew up the blueprint for the development of a national railway, something which no other president had done (most likely due to the frequent wars and political instability which haunted Mexico for decades). According to Michael Matthews, Associate Professor of History, “the railway seemed to offer all the solutions: it would invigorate the economy, promote foreign colonization, foster political stability and provide an effective means of communication across the country.”[2] Professor Matthews also notes that, as the railway boom continued into the 1880s and 1890s, “no other nineteenth century technology reshaped the public and private spheres and the relationship between city and countryside as did the steam-powered locomotive.”[3]
The Intentions of President Díaz
In her Doctorate Thesis for the University of California at San Diego, the film director Lorena M. Parlee explained that President Díaz hoped that a continued expansion of the railroad network "would allow the nation to develop its rich natural resources for export, which, in turn, would generate foreign exchange needed for internal investment and government revenue."[4]
Díaz and his supporters also believed that the railroads would provide “easy access to markets” and “would stimulate Mexico's internal commerce, agriculture, industry and mineral production.” In addition, however, Mexican officials also believed that the rail lines would allow “the central government to consolidate its political and economic power over the nation.”[5]
The Unexpected Outcome
Professor Matthews has pointed out that newspapers, travel journals, and other publications about the nascent railroad system primarily targeted Mexico’s middle and upper classes in the 1880s and 1890s.[6] However, although Diaz had hoped to attract foreign investment and assert greater control over the northern states of Mexico, his railroad-building program had “an unexpected outcome.” The new rail networks made it easier for poor Mexicans to travel long distances from home in search of work. Thus, the railways inadvertently began to draw thousands of Mexican workers steadily northward.[7]
Juan R. Garcia, in Mexicans in the Midwest, 1900-1932, also noted that “an unexpected outcome of this construction was that it drew thousands of Mexican workers steadily northward as the lines advanced toward the border.” Continuing, Mr. Garcia wrote “For many the railroad represented employment and an avenue of escape. By 1900, Mexico‘s principal railroads were completed and connected to the major American railways lines along the border. As Mexicans approached the border, many took advantage of the opportunity to cross it”[8]
U.S. Railroads Attract Mexican Workers to Texas
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed on May 6, 1882 (22 Stat. 58) by the 47th Congress, suspending Chinese laborers in the U.S. for ten years. This act and its later extensions did not affect Mexicans, nor did the 1907 “Gentlemen’s Agreement” by which Japan agreed not to permit emigration. Immigration personnel were more interested in stopping Europeans and Asians from entering the US, not Mexicans.
The railway trackage in the United States increased from 30,000 miles in 1860 to more than 193,000 miles in 1900.[9] This growth stimulated the need for more Mexicans to move to the U.S. to work on those railroads. By 1900, the Mexican-born residents of the United States numbered 103,393. Eighty percent of that number were living in Texas and Arizona, while only 8,086 were inhabitants of California.[10]
The Migration Northward of Mexican Railway Workers
According to the historian Barbara Driscoll de Alvarado, there were three phases of Mexican migration north through the railroad network. The first phase in the 1870s and 1880s was a movement of Mexican workers from the central plateau to the northern border region. These workers were employed on construction crews on railways that were being built in the northern regions of Mexico.[11]
The second phase – taking place in the 1880s, 1890s and early years of the new century, “was characterized by extensive recruitment by southwestern regional railroads, such as the Southern Pacific, of Mexican workers who generally had already migrated to the border.” The third phase – mostly taking place in the early 1900s – “was distinguished by Mexican workers reaching the Midwest and, to a lesser extent, eastern states, the result of step-migration.”[12] [Step migration is a type of migration that involves moving in stages or steps towards a final destination.]
The Wage Differential Between Central and Northern Mexico
Professor Driscoll de Alvarado observed that “the growing difference between the wages of central and northern Mexico spurred migration. In 1900, the majority of workers in the interior of Mexico earned between U.S. $0.20 and $0.25 a day, while a common laborer in Ciudad Juárez earned U.S. $0.75. Inflation during the Porfiriato (Díaz regime) doubled prices while wages remained unchanged, so it is a small wonder that workers chose the uncertainties of migration north over the certainty of a disintegrating rural standard of living.”[13]
The historian Douglas Monroy writes: “The farther north one traveled the higher the wages. In Jalisco before the Revolution agricultural workers received 12 cents per day, with an allotment of maize. Fifteen cents was the maximum pay per day. Section hands on the Mexican National Railway earned 50 cents per day. The Mexican Central Railroad paid 75 to 80 cents per day in Chihuahua and a dollar per day at Ciudad Juarez on the border. In the north of Mexico, wages were roughly double what they were in the interior.”[14]
Mexican Laborers Cross the Border into the U.S.
As Mexicans approached the border, many took advantage of the opportunity to cross it. The Mexican government was repeatedly asked to recruit more laborers from the interior to replace those who were lured across the border by the promise of higher wages. In the United States, Mexican rail workers were paid $1.00 to $1.25, whereas in Mexico they received only half as much.”[15]
U.S. Demand for Mexican Labor Grows
During the 1880s, the demand for labor by U.S. railroad companies attracted Mexican workers to West Texas. As the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe lines snaked across the Southwest, railroad officials concluded that Mexican labor was closer and more convenient than Chinese labor because, unlike the latter, Mexicans could easily be sent home when they were no longer needed. By 1910, railroad agents had recruited more than 20,000 Mexicans.
The Mexican Conduits of North-South Travel
And so it was that the Mexican National and the Mexican Central Railroads were built and soon became and remained major north-south conduits of people and goods for almost the entire Twentieth Century. Both railroads facilitated the opening up of and delivery to important American markets in the north and a subsequent drop in transportation costs. The new markets encouraged a significant growth in commercial agriculture and ranching as well as a renewal of the mining boom that had maintained Mexico for so many centuries.
But, from the standpoint of the railroad companies, the most important products being brought north were Mexican laborers who would seek and receive employment from the railroad companies in both Mexico and the U.S. These Mexican laborers would represent the first wave of Mexican immigration that would continue for the better part of a century.
The Mexican Central Railway
The most important railroad built during these early years was the Mexican Central Railway (Ferrocarril Central Mexicano). From 1880 to 1884, an aggressive railroad-building program brought this railroad up the Central Valley of Mexico, providing a direct link between Mexico City and the northern border. By April 1884, this route consisted of 1,969 kilometers (1,224 miles) of rails that ran from Mexico City to the border towns of Paso del Norte, Chihuahua and El Paso, Texas.[16] The most important aspect of this railroad was that it stopped at numerous places in Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Michoacán and Guanajuato, facilitating the northward movement of people. In 1888, Paso del Norte was renamed Ciudad Juárez to honor the late President Benito Juárez.
When the Mexican Central reached Ciudad Juárez, it became a crucial link with many parts of the Mexico. Ciudad Juárez is 1,217 kilometers (756 miles) from Zacatecas, and a total of 1,552 kilometers (964 miles) from Guadalajara (in the state of Jalisco). The distance between Ciudad Juárez and the old colonial city of Guanajuato was 1,493 kilometers (928 miles). The city and state of Guanajuato - positioned along this important railway - would be major source of immigrants to the U.S. during the first decades of the Twentieth Century. For several decades, the Mexican Central Railway was controlled by the mighty Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (ATSF) Railroad, one of the gigantic American corporations that dominated access to the entire western U.S.A.[17]
In essence, the Mexican Central Railroad was considered the railway backbone of Mexico as it traversed the dorsal ridge of the plateau northward from Mexico City to the Rio Grande. Just as important was the fact that this railroad also branched off to the west and east, reaching both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean with feeders to important points. The following map shows the Mexican Central Railway and all its connections in 1903 as published in “Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States.”
El Paso: An Important Destination for the Railways
Across the border from Ciudad Juárez, El Paso has – for well over a century – been the most important port of entry for northbound migrants from Mexico. For a long time, the people of El Paso, Texas had hoped that the construction of a railroad to their town would bring about a new prosperity. But, in 1877, the nearest railhead was still more than five hundred miles away.[18]
Located in the westernmost part of Texas at the point where the Rio Grande River intersects with the Texas-New Mexico state line, El Paso represented a strategic point between the American railroad network and the central Mexican heartland. In May 1881, the Southern Pacific Railroad reached El Paso from Los Angeles. A month later, the Santa Fe Railroad arrived in El Paso from Santa Fe, New Mexico on June 11, 1881.
The Mexican Central Railroad Reaches El Paso
In 1882, the Mexican Central reached El Paso from Mexico City, with the first train crossing the border on August 2, 1882. When the Mexican Central Railroad linked up with the Santa Fe Railroad at El Paso, it gave Mexican laborers and other immigrants the ability to get to other population centers in the U.S. to find work.
El Paso Welcomes Mexican Railroad Workers
According to Professor Driscoll de Alvarado, “U.S. railroads and other employers viewed the arrival of experienced Mexican railroad workers in El Paso-Ciudad Juárez with favor, since they represented an ideal solution to their labor shortage. Stimulated partly by the arrival of the Southern Pacific from California in 1881, El Paso had been transformed into an important railroad center and supply depot for many southwestern industries.”[19]
In fact, by the 1890s, the recruiters from the El Paso hiring offices were seeking out workers in Ciudad Juárez to assign them to distant track sections. The Southern Pacific first hired Mexican immigrants in El Paso for their tracks in California in 1893. By 1900, 4,500 Mexican immigrants were usually on the payroll at any given time.[20]
According to Carey McWilliams, by 1906, the Southern Pacific was importing two or three carloads of Mexicans to California weekly. In fact, the area of Los Angeles now called Watts was originally called Tijuata and was established around 1905 as a colonia (settlement) of Mexican railroad workers.[21]
The Mexican National Railway
The second major rail route constructed from Mexico City to the northern border was the Mexican National Railway (Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México), which was established in 1873. Construction began on the railroad from Monterrey to Nuevo Laredo in 1881. Once completed, this railway ran from Mexico City through Saltillo and Monterrey to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. Across the border from Nuevo Laredo lay the Laredo Port of Entry in Webb County, Texas.
By 1883, a permanent bridge had linked Laredo with Nuevo Laredo across the Rio Grande. The National Railway soon located its machine shops across the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, where up to 200 mechanics were employed. By 1889, the last rail line gaps were filled, allowing a train to travel from Mexico City, through the Laredo gateway, across the United States and even into Canada. The distance from Nuevo Laredo to Zacatecas is about 691 kilometers (429 miles), to Guadalajara it is 1,007 kilometers (626 miles), and it is 1,187 kilometers (737 miles) from Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City. The following map shows the route of the Mexican Nation Railroad as of 1891 as it travels north to Nuevo Laredo, as depicted in “Poor’s Manual of the Railroads of the United States.”
The Power of Two Railroads
"By the turn of the century," explains Ms. Parlee, "the Central and the Nacional [railroads] controlled over half of all railroad track in Mexico and operated the only rail links between Mexico City and the northern border." However, "instead of bringing economic independence, the railroads facilitated the penetration of U.S. capital in other areas of the economy, making Mexico subject to U.S. financial control."[22]
Although, these two railroads "played a crucial role in the development of northern Mexico, stimulating a mining boom and a tremendous growth in commercial agriculture and ranching," Ms. Parlee notes that "the very railroads which the Díaz administration had so strongly promoted to consolidate national unity created strong, regional economic interest groups in northern Mexico, which eventually led to Días' downfall."[23] The problem of foreign ownership of railroads would be dealt with in the 1917 Mexican Constitution, written towards the end of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).
The Mexican International Railroad: The Link to Eagle Pass
One of the most significant links would eventually reach the Eagle Pass Port of Entry in Maverick County, Texas. Across the border from Eagle Pass is Piedras Negras in the state of Coahuila. In 1883, the Mexican International Railroad (Ferrocarril Internacional Mexican) reached Piedras Negras. Incorporated in Connecticut in 1882 as an investment of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), the Mexican International opened its main line from Piedras Negras. This railroad connected with the Mexican Central Railway at Torreón in 1888. By 1892 it reached Durango. Later it was also extended to Monterrey, Nuevo León.[24] In 1910, the government-owned Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (National Railways of Mexico) took over this railroad.[25]
The Piedras Negras-Eagle Pass connection was an important conduit for travelers making their way from the states of San Luis Potosí, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and Central Mexico. In many ways, the Piedras Negras-Eagle Pass connection represented a more convenient departure point than El Paso for Mexican nationals going to Houston and other eastern Texas cities. The distance from Piedras Negras to Monterrey, Nuevo León is 413 kilometers (257 miles) and from Piedras Negras to the City of San Luis Potosí it is 950 kilometers (590 miles). Anyone making the journey from Piedras Negras to Zacatecas will probably travel about 874 kilometers (543 miles). The distance to Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco amounts to a journey of 1,190 kilometers (739 miles). Piedras Negras' crucial link to the Mexican capital represented a distance of 1302 kilometers (809 miles).
The following map shows the International Mexican Railroad as it was in 1903, showing the “Eagle Pass Route” and its numerous connections to several locations, including Torreón, Durango, and Mazatlán.[26]
The Railroad to Brownsville (Texas)
The Brownsville Port of Entry sits on the Rio Grande River a few miles west of the Gulf of Mexico and across from the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Brownsville, as the largest city in the lower Rio Grande Valley, is 438 kilometers (272 miles) from San Antonio, Texas and 566 kilometers (352 miles) from Houston, and 832 kilometers (517 miles) from Dallas.
The Ferrocarril Nacional Mexicano (Mexican National Railroad) reached Matamoros in 1883 and provided that city with an important link to the Mexican interior. In the Twentieth Century, this railroad would link up with the St. Louis, Brownsville, and Mexico Railroad, which proceeded northward into the interior of Texas. The City of Matamoros came to represent an important link for eastern Mexico with Texas. The distance between Matamoros and the capital of Tamaulipas, Ciudad Victoria, is 312 kilometers (194 miles). The distance between Matamoros and the port city of Veracruz is 916 kilometers (569 miles).
The Railroad to Douglas (Arizona)
The Douglas Port of Entry is located in southeastern Cochise County, Arizona, 351 kilometers (218 miles) west of El Paso, Texas and 189 kilometers (118 miles) southeast of Tucson. It is also 368 kilometers (229 miles) to Phoenix, Arizona. The sister city of Douglas is Agua Prieta in the state of Sonora. Agua Prieta came to represent an important link for American mining interests in the Sonora area. The Compañia del Ferrocarril de Nacozari, which was owned by the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad, reached Agua Prieta in 1901.[27]
The Railroads of Mexico in 1909
In 1909, “The Commercial and Financial Chronicle” published the following map which showed the national railways of Mexico.[28] The map clearly shows the railroad connections to the U.S. at Ciudad Juarez, Eagle Pass, Laredo, and Matamoros. However, at this time there was no national railway that connected to California or Arizona to the interior of Mexico.
Mexicans in the 1910 U.S. Census
The 1910 Federal 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. This figure would double again in 1920 to 486,408. The increase of Mexican natives living in the United States in 1910 could be attributed entirely to Mexico’s burgeoning railway system, as indicated in the following map of the Mexican railroads in 1910. This map shows the five primary Mexican railroads, as well as the connecting lines in the United States:[29]
The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)
The Revolution, commencing in 1910, brought on a period of great violence and upheaval, with the result that many Mexicans had to leave the places of their birth and childhood. The Mexican Revolution pushed many Mexican peasants off their land and caused them to flee to the U.S. It is believed that as many as a million people died (one in eight) during that decade.
Immigration to the U.S. During the Mexican Revolution
A large-scale displacement of people resulted as thousands fled from the countryside into the larger cities of Mexico. Many others – at least a million – fled north into the United States. Whether you were a supporter of the revolution or not, the United States for many was a stable and safe alternative to staying in Mexico during this period of conflict and unrest. According to official documents, an estimated 890,371 legal Mexicans immigrants came to the United States between July 1910 and July 1920. They included legal immigrants, temporary workers, and refugees. But many others crossed the border unofficially.
Before the Immigration Act of 1917, almost no restrictions were in effect against Mexicans or Canadians, who could cross at will and go anywhere they wished. After 1917, however, both Canadians and Mexicans paid a head tax of eight dollars to immigrate into the United States. They also had to pass a literacy test. After this restriction, illegal entries from these countries increased significantly.
The Immigration Act of 1917 did make a provision for temporary labor. This allowed laborers to obtain temporary permits because they were inadmissible as immigrants. The waiver program allowed continued recruitment of Mexican agricultural and railroad maintenance workers. Between May 1917 and June 1920, some 51,000 Mexicans entered the United States under these exemptions. At the same time, it was estimated that as many as 100,000 also entered the country illegally.[30]
The Railroad to Nogales
According to John R. Signor and John A. Kirchner, in The Southern Pacific of Mexico and the West Coast Route (1987), “The Southern Pacific of Mexico and its predecessors were perhaps the single biggest factor in the development of the Mexican West Coast, a region isolated for centuries from the mainstream of Mexican commerce by the rugged Sierra Madre.”[31] As early as 1874, “it was generally agreed that if Sonora was ever to rise above its savage and inhospitable condition, a railroad was needed.” [32]
Nogales is the principal city and county seat of Santa Cruz County, the smallest and southernmost of Arizona's counties. The first American railroad arrived in Nogales in 1882. The sister city of Nogales, Arizona is Nogales, Sonora, which also received its first rail link from the south in 1882. In that year, the Compañia Limitada del Ferrocarril de Sonora, owned by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, reached the Mexican Nogales. Initially, Nogales was not an important link to Mexico proper because it had no direct access to Mexico City or to Guadalajara (Mexico's second largest city).
The Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico was a railroad subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad in Mexico, operating from Nogales, Sonora, to Mazatlán, Sinaloa. The Sonora Railway was constructed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway between 1879 and 1882. In 1898 the Santa Fe leased the Sonora Railway to the Southern Pacific in return for the latter railroad's line from Needles to Mojave, California. This arrangement continued until December 1911, when the Southern Pacific purchased both the Sonora Railway and the New Mexico and Arizona. The following June, the Sonora Railway became part of the Southern Pacific Railroad in Mexico."
The Announcement of a New Route to Guadalajara and Mexico City (April 1927)
On April 12, 1927, The Fort Worth Record-Telegram reported that the Southern Pacific Company had announced that the first train to be operated over the Southern Pacific of Mexico’s 1,101-mile-line between Nogales (Arizona) and Mexico City, would move south from Nogales two days later. Regular service was expected to start April 16th with southbound trains leaving Nogales three days a week for Guadalajara. In Guadalajara, the trains would connect with the Mexican National Railway trains operating to Mexico City.
A New Passage for Jalisco Immigrants
In April 1927, with the completion of the Southern Pacific of Mexico Railroad linking Guadalajara with Nogales, Arizona, the dynamics of the northward migration changed significantly. Up until 1927, existing railway lines had forced most immigrants from Guadalajara and the populous state of Jalisco to enter the U.S. by way of El Paso. Now, however, an immediate influx of immigrants from Jalisco were able to make their way north to work in California and Arizona via Nogales.[33] When conducting research on Mexican ancestors who arrived in the U.S. between 1900 and 1927, many people whose families came to California or Arizona find that their ancestors came across the border at El Paso (unless they were from Baja California, Sonora, and Sinaloa). The numerous immigrants who came to the U.S. from Jalisco or Michoacán likely entered through the El Paso Port of Entry before 1927 (or another Texas Port of Entry) because there was no west coast railroad to take them directly to their destination.
The distance between Nogales and Guadalajara is 1,697 kilometers (1,055 miles). The following map shows “The West Coast Route” of Southern Pacific Railroad Company of Mexico running from Guadalajara to Nogales at the northern border.[34] The following map is from the 1929 Southern Pacific of Mexico map used in the passenger timetables. The map shows the completed line running from Nogales to Guadalajara.
The Railroad As An Indispensable Factor for Mexican Immigration
The railroad network of Mexico became an indispensable factor in the massive migration of Mexican laborers to American markets during the Twentieth Century. It is not likely that President Díaz and his advisers foresaw that the network would draw such large numbers of Mexicans away from their homes and lead to a dramatic increase in the Mexican-American population of their northern neighbor.
Bibliography
American Bank Note Company. Ferrocarril Internacional Mexicano y Sus Conexiones. New York, 1903. Online: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220361/ [Accessed 9/2/2024], University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas at Arlington Library.
Driscoll, Barbara A. The Tracks North: The Railroad Bracero Program of World War II. University of Texas at Austin: The Center for Mexican American Studies, 1999.
Cardoso, Lawrence A. Mexican Emigration to the United States 1897–1931: Socio-Economic Patterns: Porfirian Mexico: The Background of Massive Emigration. University of Arizona Press, 1980.
Corwin, Arthur F. “Early Mexican Labor Migration: A Frontier Sketch, 1848-1900,” in Immigrants – and Immigrants: Perspectives on Mexican Labor Migration to the United States. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1979.
Corwin, Arthur F. “Mexican Emigration History, 1900-1970: Literature and Research,” Latin American Research Review, VIII (Summer 1973), 3-24.
Garcia, Juan R. Mexicans in the Midwest, 1900-1932. Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 1996.
Leonard, Edward A. Rails at the Pass of the North – Southwestern Studies Monograph No. 63. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1981.
Matthews, Michael. The Civilizing Machine: A Cultural History of the Mexican Railroads, 1876-1910. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2013.
McNeely, John H. The Railways of Mexico: A Study in Nationalization – Southwestern Studies No. 5. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1964.
McWilliams, Carey. North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States. New York: Praeger, 1990.
Meier, Matt S. and Rivera, Feliciano. The Chicanos: A History of Mexican Americans. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.
Monroy, Douglas. Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the Great Depression. Berkeley: University of California, 1999.
Morales, Donna S. and Schmal, John P. The Dominguez Family: A Mexican-American Journey. Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2004).
Parlee, Lorena M. Porfirio Diaz, Railroads, and Development in Northern Mexico: A Study of Government Policy Toward the Central and Nacional Railroads, 1876-1910. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1981.
Poor's Intermediate Manual of Railroads. New York: Poor's Manual Company, 1917.
Powell, Fred Wilbur. The Railroads of Mexico. Boston: Stratford Company, 1921.
Reisler, Mark. By the Sweat of Their Brow: Mexican Immigrant Labor in the United States, 1900-1940. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1976.
Sánchez, George J. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900 – 1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Signor, John R. and Kirchner, John A.. The Southern Pacific of Mexico and the West Coast Route. San Marino, California: Golden West Books, 1987.
The Mexican Central Railway Company Limited. Facts and Figures About Mexico and Her Great Railroad, The Mexican Central. Mexico City: Mexican Central Railway Company Limited, 1900 – Third edition.
Wasserman, Mark. Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War. Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 2000.
Footnotes
[1] George J. Sánchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900 - 1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 21.
[2] Michael Matthews, The Civilizing Machine: A Cultural History of the Mexican Railroads, 1876-1910 (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), p. 48.
[3] Ibid., p. 55.
[4] Lorena M. Parlee, Porfirio Diaz, Railroads, and Development in Northern Mexico: A Study of Government Policy Toward the Central and Nacional Railroads, 1876-1910 (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1981), p. 2.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Michael Matthews, op.cit., pp 98-100.
[7] Mark Wasserman, Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War. (Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 2000), pp. 171, 184; Juan R. Garcia, Mexicans in the Midwest, 1900-1932 (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1996), pp. 5-6.
[8] Ibid., p. 6.
[9] Ibid., p. 5.
[10] George J. Sánchez, op. cit., pp. 18-19; Arthur F. Corwin, “Early Mexican Labor Migration: A Frontier Sketch, 1848-1900,” in Immigrants – and Immigrants: Perspectives on Mexican Labor Migration to the United States, Arthur F. Corwin, ed., (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1979), pp. 25-37.
[11] Barbara A. Driscoll, The Tracks North: The Railroad Bracero Program of World War II (University of Texas at Austin: The Center for Mexican American Studies, 1999), p. 18.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid., p. 19
[14] Douglas Monroy, Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the Great Depression (Berkeley: University of California, 1999), p. 90.
[15] Juan R. Garcia, op. cit., p. 6.
[16] The Mexican Central Railway Company Limited, Facts and Figures About Mexico and Her Great Railroad, The Mexican Central (Mexico City: Mexican Central Railway Company Limited, 1900 – Third edition), p. 63; John H. McNeely, The Railways of Mexico: A Study in Nationalization – Southwestern Studies No. 5 (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1964), pp. 14-15.
[17] The ATSF is known today as the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe), following the December 31, 1996 merger of the Santa Fe with the Burlington Northern Railroad Company.
[18] Edward A. Leonard, Rails at the Pass of the North – Southwestern Studies Monograph No. 63 (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1981), p. 5.
[19] Barbara A. Driscoll, op. cit., p. 20.
[20] Ibid., pp. 20-21
[21] Carey McWilliams, North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States (New York: Praeger, 1990), p. 169.
[22] Lorena M. Parlee, op. cit., pp. xii-xiii.
[23] Ibid. pp. xii, xiv.
[24] Fred Wilbur Powell, The Railroads of Mexico (Boston: Stratford Company, 1921). pp. 137–138.
[25] Poor's Intermediate Manual of Railroads (New York: Poor's Manual Company, 1917) pp. 928–946.
[26] American Bank Note Company. Ferrocarril Internacional Mexicano y Sus Conexiones (New York, 1903). Online: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220361/ [Accessed 9/2/2024], University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas at Arlington Library.
[27] “MEXLIST: The Mexican List for Railroad Information: USA - Mexico railroad gateways and related trackage,” http://mexican.railspot.com/minsk2.htm. [Accessed 6/8/2003]
[28] W. B. Dana, “The Commercial and Financial Chronicle” (January 1909: New York), p. 95
[29] Lawrence A. Cardoso, “Mexican Emigration to the United States 1897–1931: Socio-Economic Patterns: Porfirian Mexico: The Background of Massive Emigration” (University of Arizona Press, 1980).
[30] Matt S. Meier and Feliciano Rivera, The Chicanos: A History of Mexican Americans (New York: Hill and Wang, 1972), p. 130.
[31] John R. Signor and John A. Kirchner, The Southern Pacific of Mexico and the West Coast Route. San Marino, California: Golden West Books, 1987, p. 8.
[32] Ibid., p. 12.
[33] Mark Reisler, By the Sweat of Their Brow: Mexican Immigrant Labor in the United States, 1900-1940 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1976), p. 26; “New S.P. de M.R.R. Open to Traffic,” Nogales International, April 17, 1927.
[34] John R. Signor & John A. Kirchner, op. cit., p. 168.