By Natalie Garcia, IRES major, class of 2025
Part 1: Crossing the Border, Starting a Family, and Moises Aguilar’s Introduction to the U.S. Railroad Industry
The Aguilar family was a quiet yet persistent force in Lane County. They continued to make space for themselves and found ways to gain upward mobility despite the racial, social, economic, and political barriers of being Mexican-born or Mexican-American in the 1940s. Starting this legacy, Moises Aguilar was born on January 17, 1893, in Etzatlán, Jalisco, México. Etzatlán was a growing yet relatively small city in the state of Jalisco. At 23, Moises married Bartola Ruiz on September 7th, 1916. While there is no recorded documentation of Moises crossing the border, based on employment record documentation, one can determine that Moises was working for California’s El Paso and Southwestern Railroad system in July 1918. Expanding on his experiences, Moises’ work in 1918 points toward the start of a long-lasting career in the railroad industry. The railroad industry was growing exponentially due to the development of the transcontinental railroad, which pushed Mexican migrants north toward the U.S.-Mexico border. Moises’s time working for the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad system in 1918 connects to a broader pull from the U.S. railroad industry. The general need for cheap laborers due to the Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882 and 1884 created a gap in the labor force, prompting more migrations north.
Part 2: Arriving in Oregon and Growing Roots
Four years later, their first daughter, Lucia Aguilar, was born on December 19, 1920, in Etzatlán, Jalisco, Mexico. It’s important to note that while migrating through California and Oregon with Moises, Bartola took care of two children. On the 1930 federal census, Moises and Bartola are noted to be living in Tangent, a small town located in Linn County, OR. By this point, Bartola has given birth to two more daughters, Carolina (Age 5) and Theresa (Age 2), all while Moises has continued his work in the railroad industry as a section laborer. He is the sole provider of his family, which only continues to grow. Bartola’s role in maintaining the home and raising a family is one key element of the Aguilar family’s growth. Raising a family in the 1930s, a decade marked by the Great Depression, is no small feat.
While I was not able to find much information about Bartola Aguilar, it is important to contextualize her labor in the larger picture of the Aguilar family’s story. American Historian Vicki Ruiz notes that women’s work and family roles were inherently intertwined, and “…so too were the racial, economic, and patriarchal constraints they faced” (Ruiz, 1998, 15). Within the archive of history, Bartola’s story may have been lost to us, but the impact of her resilience and hard work as a mother is not lost.
In a newspaper titled The Albany-Democrat Herald, dated August 27th, 1928, Moises is reported to have been involved in an illegal “gambling joint.” Nothing is mentioned of any jail time that Moises faced, but perhaps the stress of being the sole provider for a growing family prompted Moises to find refuge and distraction from the stressors in his life. Marking a change for the Aguilar family, in the 1940 federal census, it’s noted that the Aguilar family moved from Tangent to Irving, a small town on the outskirts of Eugene, OR. By this point, Bartola had given birth to two more daughters, Mimi (3) and Anita (10). Her other daughters, Lucia (19), Carolina (15), Theresa (12), and Anita (10), were all attending school, while Bartola managed the household and took care of Mimi. Of the Mexican women listed on the 1940s Lane County census, the Aguilar family is the second largest family with 5 kids. However, they are distinct in that they are the only family with only daughters. Meanwhile, Moises is reported to be working as a section hand within the railroad industry. Moises’s consistent contributions within the railroad industry demonstrate the importance of Mexican labor in the growth of industrialization.
Part 3: Spreading Across Oregon and California: the Aguilar Sisters
The 40s and 50s mark a time of grief, change, and new beginnings for the Aguilar family. In 1942, Lucia Aguilar married Donald Weigel, marking the first of many Aguilar sisters who would leave home and start new lives.
1942 Marriage Certificate of Lucia Aguilar and Donald Weigel, Ancestry.com
1946 Salem High School Yearbook Portrait of Theresa Aguilar, Ancestry.com
Four short years later, it’s noted on the 1950s census that Moises is now a widower. Bartola Aguilar passed away in 1946 and was laid to rest in the St. Barbara Cemetery, located in Salem, OR. That same year, Theresa Aguilar graduated from Salem High School. Following up on Lucia, on the 1950 census, she is noted to have moved to Silverton, OR, and works as both a field worker and as a full-time housewife. Lucia had also given birth to her first son, Daryl, who was 6 at the time of the census. Donald is noted to be working in the lumber industry as a cat skinner, an operator of heavy machinery.
It’s interesting to note that Lucia gave Daryl an English name, indicating a step away from their Mexican heritage and towards Anglo-American acculturation.
Before Bartola passed, she gave birth to Guadalupe, who is noted to be nine years old at the time of the 1950s census. Moises has continued to work in the railroad industry as a track walker, and Carolina (25) is now maintaining the Aguilar household as her full-time job. Both Theresa (21) and Anita (19) have entered the workforce, with Theresa now working as an interpreter. The census does not specify where Anita was working but notes that she is working 40+ hours a week.
In June 1952, Theresa Aguilar married Norris Marlin Seaton, who is noted to have been working as an installer for Western Electric, while Theresa was working as a bank clerk in Salem. Around the same time, in a newspaper article published in February 1953, we know that Anita had graduated from a dental assistant’s school the past November, likely taking advantage of the educational opportunities in San Francisco while her future spouse, Enrique Franco, was being enlisted in the army. Just a year later, Anita married Enrique, who was working as a loom operator, and Anita was noted to be working as a dental assistant in July 1953. Marking a significant shifting point in the Aguilar family, Moises Aguilar passed away at the age of 66 in February 1959.
Part 4: The Aguilar Sisters: Then and Now
After the 1950s, it became harder to track down information about the Aguilar sisters. What we do know are the documented deaths of Carolina and Theresa. In contrast to a majority of her siblings who found partners, married, and started their own families, Carolina remained single until 1975, where it’s noted in the marriage applications of the Salem Capital Journal that an application was placed on the behalf of Carolina Aguilar (50) and Celestino Puente (54). After 29 years of marriage, Carolina passed away in September 2003.
Theresa Aguilar, now Theresa Seaton, moved to Woodburn, OR, in 1957 and spent the rest of her life there. She worked at Birds Eye Cannery and was an active member in the community and the St. Luke Catholic Church. She passed away in March 2017 and was preceded in death by her large family.
Lucia Aguilar, now Lucia Weigel, moved to Silverton, OR, and was documented to have placed a petition for her naturalization in March 1980. In this form, her address indicates that she moved from Silverton to Redmond, OR. I could not find any public records of her after 1980 but found her name listed in the obituaries of her younger sisters, where Lucia is noted up until 2017.
From the perspective of the present, it may seem like the decisions that the Aguilar sisters made pale in comparison to some of the struggles of the present. However, it’s important to remember that the struggles of the past are the same that marginalized women experience in the present. American Historian Vicki Ruiz outlines the ways that Mexican-American women navigated the changing racial and economic landscapes of the time. Their lives are not the narratives of fairy-tales, but rather a group of hard-working people who had to make-do with the cards that had been dealt to them. Sometimes, this meant pursuing higher education, marrying into white families, or finding stable factory jobs (Ruiz, 2021, 66).
Despite coming from the same household, the stories of the Aguilar sisters are all distinct and important in their own ways. Anita pursued a higher education and utilized her practical skills to become a dental assistant, and Theresa found strength through the Catholic Church and economic stability in a cannery. Of the six sisters, Theresa and Lucia married Anglo men and were able to reach a level of economic stability that allowed them to start families. With Carolina and Anita, we know that they married Latino men and found varying stability in their own way while maintaining a Hispanic surname. Of the information I was able to find, there is something to be said about being able to find more information about families with Anglo surnames as opposed to Hispanic surnames.
Salem’s Statesman Journal featuring the obituary of Theresa Seaton-Aguilar
Of the Aguilar sisters, I could not completely trace the lives of Anita, Mimi, and Guadalupe. Reflecting on the Aguilar family overall, this family is particularly unique due to the number of women and girls in the Aguilar family. In comparison to the majority of 30–40-year-old men in the 1940 census, the women in the Aguilar family provide an important look into the emergence of the Mexican American working class in Lane County. In examining how and where the Aguilar women decided to move across cities and towns in Oregon or California, we can gain a better understanding of the socio-economic circumstances that Mexican women faced in the 1940s and better understand the same circumstances that Mexican and Latine women face in the present. The same climb toward upward mobility within working-class Mexican American immigrant communities is something we see in the present and connects these struggles across generations. Additionally, learning about Moises Aguilar and his constant contributions to the railroad industry highlights the importance of Mexican labor in the progression of U.S. industrialization. It is through his constant work and dedication to his family, alongside Bartola’s consistent presence and support of her daughters, that the Aguilar sisters were able to propel themselves forward socially and economically.
Bibliography
Albany Democrat-Herald; Publication Date: 27 Aug 1928; Publication Place: Albany, Oregon, USA; URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/441219819/?article=d4844c70-eefd-44d5-aecf-cce45c2f6811&xid=4515
Ancestry.com. U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60525/records/7844461
California State Railroad Museum Libraries; Sacramento, California; Record Group: Payrolls – Southern Pacific Subsidiaries; Description: El Paso and Southwestern Railroad
Driscoll, Barbara A. “Mexican Railroad on U.S. Railroads,” essay, in The Tracks North: The Railroad Bracero Program of World War II (Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, n.d.), 13–24.
Ruíz, Vicki. “Border Journeys.” From out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Ruíz, Vicki. “Star Struck: Acculturation, Adolescence, and the Mexican-American Woman, 1920-1950” Latina Lives, Latina Narratives: Influential Essays. Edited by Miroslava Chávez-García. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2021
Salem High School Yearbook, 1946.
Lucia Aguilar Marriage Certificate, 1942
Theresa Seaton Obituary, 2017