Dodge City man shares stories of life growing up in Mexican Village

This resident has written a book about being born and growing up in the Dodge City ghetto called Mexican Village. A sad story about discrimination in our country. This discrimination continued until the residents who served in World War II returned and demanded change. DP

By ERIC SWANSON, Daily Globe

dodgeglobe.com: When Fred Rodriguez was growing up in Dodge City's Mexican Village, he and his friends often drove to Hispanic dances in Garden City, Holcomb or Deerfield because they were not allowed to attend dances in their hometown.

But driving to those events in other cities helped the Mexican Village's residents forge closer relationships, Rodriguez said.

"We really had a togetherness in those days," he said. "Now that assimilation has taken place, that does not exist anymore. Relationships have fallen by the wayside."

Rodriguez, who is writing a book about daily life in the Mexican Village from 1930 to 1940, shared his memories of that era Saturday afternoon at the Dodge City Public Library. The program was part of the library's "We the People: Created Equal" grant, sponsored by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Mexican Village was a ghetto in the southeast corner of Dodge City, where many of the Santa Fe railroad's migrant workers made their homes. It was founded in 1909 and dissolved in 1955 after the railroad evicted its residents to expand operations in Dodge City.

Rodriguez was born in the village in 1929 and lived in Dodge City until after he graduated from high school, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He later graduated from nursing school and lived in Chicago for 27 years before returning to Dodge.

Rodriguez said the Mexican Village's residents were segregated from the rest of Dodge City, and discrimination was commonplace. For instance, he said, the area's residents were commonly referred to as "Mexican," even if they had been born in the United States.

He said the village's residents were not allowed to speak Spanish at school or in stores, even though that was the language they used at home. They were barred from using the public swimming pool, so they swam in the Arkansas River instead.

But he said the residents of the Mexican Village never spoke out against discrimination.
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