Traqueros

By Felix Alvarado

August 12, 2015

Traqueros North Texas

To understand the history of Mexicans in North Texas we must first understand the history of North Texas.  This history includes the Indian control of North Texas; the settlement of North Texas by Northern and Southern Whites and Europeans all lured by abundant fertile, cheap land and its economic potential.  This rapid industrial development was made possible by the railroad. 

Stragglers have been crisscrossing Texas ever since the ill-fated expedition of Panfilo Narvaez to Florida in 1527.  Of over 300 men in that expedition only four survived to tell their story the most notable one being Albar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca.   Eighty other survivors died of disease, hunger or were killed by Indians.  Spain laid claim to all areas visited by the four survivors.  That area was Florida to California and all land in between.  Many more expeditions followed.  Today we would call this expeditions “fact finding” missions.  Spain might have claimed it all but it did not have the resources to keep it all.  Louisiana was lost to the French first.  The French in turn sold it to the nascent United States. 

Once the Americans reached the top of the Appalachian Mountains they could see the end of the world.  From there they could see Texas.  Texas was the prize to claim. The inevitable happened and America’s Manifest Destiny became a reality.  America became owner of all the land east of the Appalachian Mountains. 

Texas was virtually untouched by Spain.  Spaniards did not want to come to the New World and the Indians were fiercely opposed to any intrusion into their country.  All that changed with the French settlement in East Texas in the late 1600’s.  Spain became frightened of losing its claim and started settlements from Nacogdoches to San Antonio in the early 1700’s.  Spain was able to sparsely settle parts of South Texas.  North Texas was still the reign of the Indians.

After the Civil War there was a flurry of activity in North Texas.  There was immigration and there were railroads to construct.  American industrialists wanted to connect the eastern to western and southern to northern parts of the United States.  These industrialists could see the economic benefit of such a connection.  Concurrently, settlers from everywhere were laying claim to the vast farmland of North Texas.  The Comanche were still a problem.

Porfirio Diaz President of Mexico wanted to make his country an economic power.  He negotiated with the French, English and Americans to construct a railroad that connected the Rio Grande to the interior and the coastal parts of Mexico.   

Little did Diaz realize that he was laying the foundation for the rapid industrialization of North Texas.  Once the railroad was built there were hundreds of experienced Mexicans ready to build more railroads.  These railroads were across the border in Texas.  Diaz provided the experienced pool of railroad workers (called Traqueros) needed to install the railroads in Texas and other parts of America.  Hiring crews of Mexicans minimized the language barrier problem.

According to Jeffery Garcilazo in his book, Traqueros; Mexican Railroad Workers in the United States, 1870-1930, fifty percent (50 %) of the railroad tracks in the west were installed by Mexicans. Building the railroad was hard backbreaking work.  Everything needed to install the tracks was carried on boxcars pulled by teams of horses.  The work crew consisted of 300 men broken into 50 teams.  They laid about 12 miles per week.  Ahead of the work train were the telegraph installers.  Most men that volunteered to work on the railroad did so because of the wages.  The wages may not have been high but they were income.  Once the men had saved enough money they would head back to Mexico to their family or to start one.  Along the track building way there was little entertainment.  There was very little social life for Mexicans once they went north of San Antonio.

We can ascertain with considerable accuracy that there were few Mexicans living in North Texas between 1850 and 1880.  We can also surmise that given that working on the railroad was backbreaking that at least some of the workers were hurt.  These Mexicans that were injured had to decide whether to return to Mexico or stay in the nearest town.  Of those that stayed some married White women.  Traqueros were contracted to work on the railroad.  Their work did not stop at the state border.  The railroad line had no borders, they just kept going north.  Traqueros went with the railroad. 

We can follow the chronology of Refugio Aguirre.  In 1880 he lived in Stephenville with his two children. He was a widower.  We do not know what occupation he had.  We do know that in 1900 he was in Mingus, Texas employed as a laundry worker.  We know that his son died in 1890 and his daughter in 1891.  Presumably his son was working in the coal mines.  These are probably the oldest Mexican-American graves in North Texas.  Refugio died in 1921 and is buried alongside his family at the Davidson Cemetery in Mingus. 

The Traqueros were the largest group of skilled Mexicans to arrive in North Texas prior to 1880.  This group contributed to building what was going to be the machine that drove the North Texas economic development.  The train was going to bring thousands of more Mexicans to North Texas.  Once the railroad was laid, first to come north were the mineros.  The railroad brought about a huge demand for skilled and unskilled labor.  Mexico was nearby to fill the void.  Recruiters went usually to their hometown to find workers to work as factory workers, construction workers or the developing service industry.