Argentine, Kansas: The Evolution of a Mexican American Community, 1905-1940

Submitted to the Department of History and the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.This study grew out of a chance visit I made to the Argentine district of Kansas City, Kansas, in 1971. My initial contact with Mexican-Americans there sparked my curiosity about the origins and history of the barrio. Casual inquiry gradually gave way to systematic research efforts. I soon discovered two pitfalls which threatened to spell the end to my inquiry: the apparent lack of written records generated by the Mexican-American people and destruction of other local public and private records by a devastating flood which inundated low-lying portions of Argentine in 1951, Curiosity prevailed and the search for data continued. A lucky break came in the Fall of 1973 when I gained access to Santa Fe payroll records. These records permitted more critical analysis of state census data and enabled me to explore the work life and migration patterns of Argentine's Mexican railroad workers