I found Professor Garskof's lecture on Latino's in Michigan to be very interesting. Until today, I was not aware of the profound effects that the sugar cane and beet farmers had on Michigan's employment and economy. I thought this specific statistic was particularly illustrative in describing America's hunger for a cheap source of calories:
1830 -- The average American consumed 12 Lbs per year
1900 -- The average American consumed 75 Lbs per year
1920 -- The average American consumed 100 Lbs per year
I also enjoyed Professor Garskof's points about the influx of migrant labor as a cornerstone and foundation of the United States economy. Interstate and international migration has been extremely vital to our nation and I will take these points into consideration as our group creates our final project website.
Ultimately, I was very impressed by today's lecture and I am now enthusiastic about researching Professor Garskof's main points. In fact, I have recently come across The Political Economy of Mexican Farm Labor Program, 1942-1946 by Joon Kim. This reading is very relevant, as Kim highlights many of the domestic workforce issues which are related to our current discussions.
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4 comments:
I agree with the reflection post on Latinos in Michigan. Coming from Miami, I was under the false impression that Latinos mostly lived in the urban centers on the coasts. I was unaware that the labor pool of migrant Mexican workers in Michigan was so large and that those workers continuously move back and forth between the US and Mexico. It was interesting to learn about how Latinos in Michigan have affected the sugar industry.
Chelsea Roth
I also thought that the lecture was very interesting and informative. The sugar statistics alone were impressive. I also liked how he linked the cheap calories in sugar for the working class with the belief that all Americans should be able to afford groceries which kept the prices for food so low and in turn the wages of the immigrants. It was also interesting to see the way in which immigrants migrate.
I too found this lecture to be interesting as well. I have lived in Michigan my whole life, and never once had a teacher or history book, when dealing with Michigan history, mention the sugar beet workers. It is surprising that this is not discussed more because the migrant Mexican workers have had a very profound affect on the sugar industry.
I was also surprised that I had never heard about the Latino labor in Michigan in any of my classes considering what an integral role they seemed to play in Michigan history. I was also surprised, that the article focused mostly on the Mexican experience when Puerto Ricans, in fact, had a very significant and unique role in Michigan labor as I recently learned in a lecture. In fact, the difference in each of these group's experience is evidence of the heterogeneity of the Latino population.
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