Historic Hood River
Mexican Casualties
4-26-2022
Notes
This image from the Agricultural Extension annual report was captioned, “Mexican Casualties,” presumably because of the injuries these men have been treated for. This image is one of the few which actually shows the housing in these migrant labor camps. I am not sure how many labor camps were set up in the county, but the report notes all the Mexican workers were housed at the Odell labor camp.
The report also makes reference to an early group of workers coming from Arkansas and Mississippi, but in an oblique manner makes it clear this didn’t work out very well.
nels
OPB has a 27 minute documentary on “The Braceros” and starts out with them in Hood River.
Arlen L Sheldrake
pieces of southern pacific railroad history talk about bringing these Braceros in to fill track worker positions but NOT providing any language training for their supervisors. tough to do everything by show & tell
Kalley
I am looking at the exact spot on the hills from here in Odell! Many years have passed by since this picture was taken. When my Grandpa John Merz had his orchard in Parkdale, I remember him driving his bus to get workers from Portland to come up and pick fruit. A few times he went to Arizona with his bus also to find pickers.
Our valley is so blessed to have many cultures.
nels
With such a large encampment I assume there was a cafeteria style meal in the evening, packed lunches for noon, and possibly a do-it-yourself kind of breakfast. Strange that such a situation would be lost in history. Like Kalley says, there had to be buses to deliver workers to farms and then pick them up. Surely somebody remembers all this.
ArthurB
Exactly right, nels. The report included photos and details of the mess hall and the lunches provided to the workers. Unfortunately, no menus!