Revisiting Oak Grove Park

Many months ago, when writing about land that the City of Iowa City had recently purchased near Oak Grove Park, which in turn is next to the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad’s yard (now owned by the Iowa Interstate Railroad) on the margins between the south and central parts of town, I mentioned the area’s history as one of the first places where people of Latin American descent first settled in Iowa City, as workers for the Rock Island Line and their families. Soon after, I received a message on Facebook from the granddaughter of one of the railroad workers, whose mother Elena — now 100 years old, had also lived around what is now Oak Grove Park as a child. In our correspondence, the granddaughter, Monica, was gracious enough to provide me additional details of Elena’s life in Iowa City, as well as their family’s path to Iowa in the first place.

An abridged family history

Before immigrating to the United States, the Cano family lived in Guanajuato, Mexico, a state nestled deep in the center of the country. The father, Magdaleno Cano, was a laborer at a hacienda — a large landed estate — named Haciendo de Botija. In search of additional income to support a growing family, Magdaleno and his uncle, Antonio, traveled for a month to New York, loading freight onto trains and trucks while sending money back to Mexico. In 1927, the whole family moved to the U.S. by way of staying with family in Nuevo Laredo, a northern town by the border in Mexico. Initially living and working on a beet farm in Beltrami, Minnesota, the family then decided to take a train to Chicago, based upon accounts from other Mexican workers of both work and community there. It was on this trip that the train stopped in West Liberty when Magdaleno heard a young boy whistling a Mexican tune. Upon further inquiry, it was revealed that there was work to be found on the Rock Island Line, alongside other Mexicans. After living in West Liberty and Columbus Junction over several months, the railroad transferred them to Iowa City, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

The railroad provided converted boxcars for single men to live in, and three one-room houses, converted from offices, “about the size of a double garage” for families to live in. There was no electricity or running water when the Canos lived there from 1928 to 1936; lighting was from kerosene lamps, the stove was fueled from wood or coal, and each house had its own outhouse. All Rock Island buildings were “painted bright yellow on the top half and dark green on the bottom half.” Initially speaking only Spanish brought some difficulties for the family, from purchasing food at the grocery store to spending time with the children in the other railroad families, who were also of Mexican descent but primarily spoke English. Their diets were supplemented by a vegetable garden, as well as chickens, ducks, and turkeys they raised.

Catholic services in Spanish were provided by Father Nickolas of Lone Tree, and they also attended services and school at St. Patrick’s, which at the time was near East Court and South Linn Streets. The parish school, where Hyatt Place and RISE are now today, was consolidated at Regina from the 1950s through 70s, while the historic church building was destroyed in a 2006 tornado.

The Rock Island Line closed its worker housing in 1936, and the private housing market in Iowa City was not friendly to the Canos, suspicious of their non-white ancestry, railroad work and a large family of several children. A house on Walnut Street was rented from a Mr. Abbott in 1937 only after intervention by the railroad, but over time relations with the Abbotts and Canos improved, to the point of the latter bringing the Canos a turkey on Thanksgivings. After two years there, the Canos lived at a house on 1300 South Linn Street (near what is now South Gilbert and Second Street) from 1939 to 1952, before purchasing a house on South Capitol Street. This house was demolished in 1967 by the University of Iowa to make way for a new dormitory, “Harrison Hall,” that was never built. The site is now part of the Recreation Center parking lot, “temporary” now for over 50 years.

Magdaleno worked for the Rock Island Line for 40 years, from 1928 to 1968, and then as a janitor at St. Patrick’s parish school for an additional six years, before passing away in 2002. His wife, Maria, began working as a housekeeper at Mercy Hospital in 1954, at the age of 50 after her nine children had grown up. She passed away in 1997, on the year of her 75th Diamond Jubilee with Magdaleno. Although both Magdaleno and Maria had no formal education, they made sure all of their children did, with five attending the University of Iowa.

Placing the Canos and other families in Iowa City

In the records of early Latin American settlement in Iowa City, centered on associations with the Rock Island Line, the Canos are one of the more well-recorded families. In a 2017 article by Nathaniel Otjen published in the quarterly of the State Historical Society of Iowa, The Annals of Iowa, the Canos are considered to be one of five “core” families in this first Iowa City ‘barrio’ during the 1920s and ‘30s. Furthermore, the Canos are the subject of a memoir by the youngest sibling in the family, Vincent. Titled Leno and María: A Success Story, it too chronicles the journey of the Cano family from Mexico to Iowa City. Preserved in the Iowa Women’s Archives, upon asking Monica about this story I was told that the memoir written in the style of a novel, with some historical liberties taken in its contents.

In order to better visualize the Canos’ journey in Iowa City, and the disposition of Mexican railroad workers in an around what is now Oak Grove Park more generally, I created a Google Map with markers and accompanying descriptions for the various sites, such as homes, shops, and places of works, listed in these accounts. Depending on the information available, the markers are either in their exact addresses, or circumstantial approximations. It can be viewed below:

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Change, and continuity over time

Back then, Mexicans had the options of living in substandard dwellings by the railroad without electricity or running water — often made from converted boxcars — or competing in a private rental market that was often hostile to racial and ethnic minorities, families with children, and people who were less well off, characteristics which described many of the Mexican families in Iowa City during the 1920s and 30s. Although the fair housing components of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, along with later amendments, state code, and municipal code have banned discrimination or refusal to rent/sell on the basis of race or familial status, more recent studies on local fair housing choice by the University of Iowa Public Policy Center and the City of Iowa City find that residential segregation continues in Iowa City to this day. “Not in my backyard” sentiments, landlords turning away people using housing vouchers, outright discrimination by landlords and real estate agents, as well as employers and real estate agents “steering” people into certain neighborhoods on the basis of race, class, and age are all noted to impede truly fair housing choice in Iowa City today.

Although the workers’ original employer, and their conduit into Iowa City — the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad — has been defunct since 1980, the practices of the private railroad industry in general still bear similarities across the decades. In the early 20th century, the Rock Island Line did not treat its Mexican workers well. Otjen notes that their work on the railroad, the construction and maintenance of track, was “dangerous and physically demanding,” and “the most unfavorable job in railroad companies,” without opportunities for advancement. The form of their housing by the railroad, made from discarded scrap metal, wood, and freight cars, was done so to cut costs. Wages were low, work could take place at any hour, and fuel for heating and cooking was obtained by scavenging for wooden rail ties or coal dropped by passing trains.

Cutting costs instead of investing in worker safety or well-being remains common practice among the surviving large private railroads in the U.S. today. Draconian attendance policies which functionally force workers to remain on-call for days or weeks at a time, keep workers from taking time off for familial or medical matters, and an obstinate refusal to provide sick days until recently have driven away workers from a critical industry, and at worst have needlessly destroyed their health, well-being, and autonomy for the sake of juicing up numbers on a spreadsheet.

A French proverb by the critic, journalist, and novelist Jean Baptiste Alphonse-Karr translates to “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” In at least these respects, this rings relevant to the legacy of this first ‘barrio’ in Iowa City — especially in regards to the injustices they struggled against many decades ago, which are still yet to be fully resolved.

Austin Wu is a Gazette editorial fellow. editorial@thegazette.com

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