Courtesy of the Missouri State Historical Society Research Center-St. Louis
Mexican immigrants on Art Hill, early 20th Century.
Actor and playwright John Leguizamo will be opening a new play on Broadway this November which explores the history and contributions of Latinos throughout United States history. Explaining his motivation in writing the play, Leguizamo told the New York Times that Latinos are often marginalized and ignored. He went on to explain that this is at least in part because “our [Latinx] contributions aren’t in history books and they aren’t being taught.”1
Leguizamo makes an important point; this exclusion from broader historical narratives connects to a broader issue of Latino exclusion and underrepresentation in the United States and speaks to a far too widely held belief that the Latino experience stands apart and distinct from the American experience. Historical institutions exacerbate this all-too-real erasure when they fail to incorporate Latino history into the work they do. Like so many other places, we in St. Louis are guilty of this. We have not adequately acknowledged the history of our Latino community, often based on the argument that it is smaller than other Midwestern cities. However, the fact remains that Latinos are the regions fastest growing minority group, and have been a part of the St. Louis region since the early 19th century.2
The St. Louis region owes it to its growing Latinx community to provide space for their stories and contributions. To recognize their struggles, and to simply acknowledge that they are here, and have been here for a very long time.
So in an effort to correct this ongoing problem, and in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, I thought I would share with you some of my findings on the history of a portion of the Latino community, those from Mexico or of Mexican heritage.
So here are the top 10 things I think you should know about the Mexican community in St. Louis.
10. The earliest Mexican immigrants to St. Louis came in the 1830s and '40s as Hispano traders along the Santa Fe Trail. They studied at Saint Louis University and Christian Brothers College, and married into several prominent St. Louis families.3
9. St. Louis had the largest trading relationship with Mexico of any city in the United States during the late 19th century. This led to an influx of economically successful migrants, especially after the Mexican Revolution began in 1910. This led newspapers from North Carolina to Oregon to report in 1913 on how “St. Louis is today being called the chief exile for wealthy Mexicans.”4
8. Beginning in 1905, members of the Mexican Liberal Party settled in St. Louis as exiles from their home country. These men and women would write and publish Regeneración, a newspaper of political and social thought that challenged the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. They directly inspired leaders of the Mexican Revolution such as Francisco I. Madero, who would lead the Mexican Revolution in 1910.5
Image from St. Louis Post-Dispatch December 16, 1906
7. During WWI and continuing into the 1920s, cities in the Midwest and beyond sought Mexican labor to deal with labor shortages caused by WWI deployments and new immigration laws that limited new arrivals from Southern and Eastern Europe. During this period St. Louis was a major distribution center for Mexican workers who were recruited by employment agencies, mostly located along Market Street, and sent to other cities in the Midwest and beyond.6
6. Mexican immigrants to St. Louis in the early 20th century appear to have settled in a number of areas across the City of St. Louis, as well as the Metro East, with smaller numbers present in St. Louis County. The dispersed pattern of settlement made cultural and mutual aid organizations that much more important. The Mexican Benefit Society (later called the Benito Juarez Society) in the City of St. Louis and the Mexican Honorary Commission in Granite City, Illinois, both established in the 1920s, were the two largest and longest lasting. The Mexican Honorary Commission still operates today in the Lincoln Place neighborhood of Granite City.7
Mexican Honorary Commission, 2017
5. In 1912, the St. Louis Archdiocese established a mission dedicated to serving Spanish speaking residents. It was named Our Lady of Covadonga, and the building in which it was housed still stands at 7100 Virginia Avenue in the Carondelet. It served a large number of Spanish immigrants, but roughly 30 percent of the congregation, as well as its two founding priests, were Mexican.8
4. Mexican immigrants in St. Louis faced significant amounts of discrimination, informal segregation, and mistreatment by community institutions including the police.9 The social challenges faced by Mexicans intensified during the Great Depression as a program of deportation and coercive repatriation led to the expulsion of millions of Latinos both U.S. born and immigrants. In St. Louis, the Mexican population was likely cut in half during this period.10
3. Beginning in 1942, the federal government implemented a guest worker program that allowed Mexican nationals to work within the United States. This practice continued until 1964 and was called the “Bracero Program.” Thousands of “Bracero” workers and other Mexican and Mexican American migrant laborers worked in the St. Louis region, most notably in the Gumbo area of what is now Chesterfield.11
2. While St. Louis was home to a Mexican restaurant as early as 1927, the oldest continuously operating Mexican Restaurant in the St. Louis region, Ruiz Mexican Restaurant, was established in 1966 by Jose Ruiz III.[12] In 1982, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was established with the mission of “increasing opportunities for Hispanic business owners.” Today an estimated 3000 Hispanic owned businesses are in the St. Louis region.13
And the number one thing you should know about Mexicans in St. Louis is:
In 2010, there were roughly 75,000 Latinos in the region (49,634 Mexican or Mexican American). They St. Louis’s fastest growing minority population. Mexican immigrants held the largest share of the region’s foreign-born. In 2030, St. Louis University research projects the region’s Latinx population could reach almost 130-160,000.14
Photo by Juan Montana
Cinco de Mayo, Cherokee Street, St. Louis
[1] nytimes.com/2017/08/23/theater/john-leguizamo-latin-history-for-morons-broadway.html
[2] U.S. Census Bureau. “2009-2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates”;
[3] Reynolds, Keegan. MS, “Missouri and the Hispano Merchants of Santa Fe” Term Paper, Lindenwood University, 2017.
[4] “The Spanish Language” Brownsville (TX) Daily Herald, January 5, 1893.
[5] "The Thrilling History of the St. Louis Junta." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 16, 1906.; Mueller, Philip R. The Mexican Liberals in St. Louis: 1905-1906. MA diss., Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1983. 1-50.
[6] Eldridge, Florence W., and Elena Torres. The Report of the St. Louis International Institute to the National International Commission on Mexicans in the Five Leading Cities in the United States. 1929. TS, International Institute of St. Louis, State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center-St. Louis, Saint Louis.
[7] Ortiz, Tresa. "Mexican Culture in Lincoln Place." Madison County Historical Society News 3 (May 2015): 6.; La Coss, Louis. "Loyal Mexican Expatriates." St. Louis Globe-Democrat Sunday Magazine, October 7, 1934.
[8] "Spanish Colony Opens Its Church." St. Louis Republic, September 17, 1915.; Jose Pico Jover and Jesus Ceja Personnel File Appointments. 1915-1920. MS, Our Lady of Covadonga, Archives of the St. Louis Archdiocese, Saint Louis.; Address List for Our Lady of Covadonga Congregation. 1923. MS, Our Lady of Covadonga, Archives of the St. Louis Archdiocese, Saint Louis.
[9] T245 Interview with Rodolfo V. Siller and Gonzalo and Severo Guerrero. 1973. MS, Oral History Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center-St. Louis, Saint Louis.
[10] La Coss, Louis. "Loyal Mexican Expatriates." St. Louis Globe-Democrat Sunday Magazine, October 7, 1934.; Informe protección 1932. IV-333-3. Archivo Histórico Genaro Estrada. Acervo Histórico Diplomático. Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. 27
[11] Mexican Farm Labor Treated Worse Than Prisoners of War, 9/24/1954, Newspapers Clippings from Archive of the Archdiocese of St. Louis RG07816; “Estollio Abella,” Interview by Daniel Gonzales, 2016.
[12] “Quaint Old-World Eating Places Still Found in Odd Corners in City” St. Louis Star Times, November 20, 1927.Survey of St. Louis City and County Directories/Phone books from 1952-1994.; "Marisa and Douglas Marshall." Interview by Daniel Gonzales. 2016, Lease and Agreement for Ruiz Mexican Restaurant. 1 Apr. 1986. Lease.
(Of the Mexican restaurants open with Ruiz in 1966 all but one had closed by 1985. The remaining restaurant, El Sarape, closed in 1994 after 38 years in business. Its building has since been demolished.)
[13] “About Us.” Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of St. Louis, hccstl.com/about; Barker, Jacob. “St. Louis Looks to Immigrants for Population, Workforce Boost.” stltoday.com, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 23 Apr. 2017, stltoday.com/business/local/st-louis-looks-to-immigrants-for-population-workforce-boost/article_8e172de2-0a41-51e2-abbb-4c77ea5cee10.html.
[14] U.S. Census Bureau. “2009-2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates”, data compiled by Saint Louis University Professor J.S. Onésimo Sandoval, Ph.D.
