By Sulema Gonzalez Cabrales, Family Human Services Major, class of 2026
Who was Pedro Corpus?
In January of 1897, in Zacatecas, Mexico, Pedro Corpus was born. Later in 1910, with the Corpus living barely above the poverty line, Pedro decided he would travel to the United States to earn money to support himself and his family. Before departing, Pedro Corpus met another person from his hometown who was also the same age as him named Pedro Garcia who would then accompany him to venture off to the United States. Although we do not know what happened on the journey to the United States we can imagine it was a long and treacherous journey for the young men. They did not give up after they endured extreme measures of hunger and difficulties along the way. At some point, it seems like the pair split up with Corpus making his way to Lane County in Oregon while his friend’s destination is unknown. The 1930 census lists Corpus as working for the railroad and that he was a veteran assumably during World War I.
This photo was taken between 1930-1940 in Astoria, Oregon.
On a Larger Scale
In Oregon, it was a common that little communities of families had stayed in Eugene while single men were often found elsewhere to settle down. Immigration Act of 1917 allowed Mexicans to work in the US and this helped many people gain citizenship to stay as the war was happening. I believe this did impact why many people decided to stay in Eugene especially with Johnson Farm which was originally established in 1915. Johnson’s Farm provided many people with jobs and continues to do so. With the job security during the harvest season which varies with each fruits and vegetables. During this time, many people, specifically women, benefited from working in the orchards because they were not able to get drafted to the war yet. For men however, it was a common to be employed as laborers on the railroad which varied in wages, duration, and hardship of a language barrier.
A logging railroad for the Peninsular Lumber Company of Portland in the area around Columbia City, Oregon. (1910)
In 1931 Pedro Corpus was recorded crossing the Texan border once again. I believe it is reasonable to infer that Corpus was traveling back and forth to visit family and return to the United States for work. From researching Corpus’ life history, I was learning all about what was going on in the US from 1910-1930 and the discrepancies that might have occurred in terms of recording accurate evidence. When I originally started my research on the 1930 census reports I noticed grammatical errors such as; Pedro Corpus was listed as “Pedro Carbus”. This sparked an interest to dive deeper and look at the demographics in Oregon in this time period (1930-1940). That said, Eugene was a Latino populated area for quite some time but it eventually died down and people started to leave Lane County whilst others from specific areas in Mexico stayed. World War I was actively happening making it so many people were to actively fight in the US. With this information it is very likely that other Mexicans decided to stay in the Pacific Northwest, at least for seasonal positions.
Bibliography
- University of Oregon Libraries. “Crib trestle on the Columbia and Nehalem Valley Railroad” Oregon digital. Accessed June 4, 2024. https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df66tw076.
- University of Oregon Libraries. “Grain Storage Elevator from Elevated Walkway at Cottonseed Oil Mill, Brownsville, Texas.” Oregon Digital. Accessed May 20, 2024. https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df71zz365.
- Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com. Accessed May 20, 2024. https://www.ancestry.com.
- Valdes, Dennis Nodin. Al Norte: Agricultural Workers in the Great Lakes Region, 1917-1970. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.