“Guadalupe Speaks to Me”: Interpreting Las Guadalupanas’ Voices

Latinxs in the Kansas City Metro Area: Policing and Criminalization in Ethnic Enclaves

“…In the past decade, a few books were published on the history of Latinx immigrants in the Midwest, but they do not provide comprehensive consideration of the Latinx population in the Kansas City metro (Arreola 2004). A few scholars have partially examined the political and economic history of Latinxs in the Kansas City metro (Garay-Huaman and Irazábal 2019; Mendoza 1997; Smith 1989) and their current social implications (Bhuyan and Velagapudi 2013; PolicyLink and Program for Environmental and Regional Equity [PERE] 2013; Torres 2013; Urban League of Greater Kansas City 2015), yet the subject remains understudied.…”

“…Spanish explorers and Mexican cowboys passed through Kansas City early in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the nineteenth century, Mexicans followed the Santa Fe Trail passing through Kansas City as cowboys traveling with cattle drives and bringing goods from the United States to the Central Plateau region of Mexico (Laird 1975; Oppenheimer 1985; Smith 1989; Torres 2013). By the late 1800s, the Santa Fe Trail was replaced with a railroad system that linked the United States across the western frontier to the country’s southern border with Mexico.…”

“…By the late 1800s, the Santa Fe Trail was replaced with a railroad system that linked the United States across the western frontier to the country’s southern border with Mexico. Mexican trains linked with railroads in the United States, which established opportunities for migrant workers to travel easily to the Midwest (García 1996; Torres 2013). As a result, Mexican settlements were established along the cities and towns that served the railroads, specifically the Santa Fe Railroad.…”

“…Over time, however, an additional wave of immigrants arrived in the Kansas City metro area, filling the need for manual workers. With opportunities for more stable and lucrative employment, immigrant communities became permanent, as many migrants preferred working in the United States and traveling to employment was relatively simple using the railway system (García 1996; Torres 2013). The ease of transportation and the employment opportunities both influenced the growing Latinx population in the Kansas City metro, split by the Missouri–Kansas state line.…”

“…For instance, an often covert, yet prevalent, restriction from access to the best school districts structurally constricts access to better education (Logan and Burdick-Will 2016). In fact, school segregation has been a historical issue in the state of Missouri (Morantz 1996; Torres 2013), which is still undergoing efforts to desegregate school districts in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The educational segregation of Kansas City Latinxs existed from the beginning of the established settlements of Latinxs living in both states.…”