MUSCATINE, Iowa–Since its founding, Muscatine has always attracted immigrants from all over, including from Latin America. The Women’s Archive at the University of Iowa, led by Curator Janet Weaver, compiled primary sources, reaching back over 100 years, about Latino migration in Iowa, including Muscatine. By amassing interviews, newspaper articles, correspondence, personal papers, diaries, photos, and even videos, the Women’s Archive collected a compelling history of Latino migration in cities and towns across Iowa.
Using this information, the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, worked with the Women’s Archive to assemble a curriculum making this history accessible to third grade students. Nick Salazar, state director of LULAC and a Muscatine resident, explained: ” With Muscatine having a rich history of migration of different communities, we wanted to highlight how Latino migration is a critical part of that broader story. With the State of Iowa having a requirement for third graders to learn migration, we thought this would be a great opportunity to share this local history.”
Designed as a short series of lessons teachers can incorporate into their social studies curricula, Salazar detailed that the curriculum provides an overview of migration and the factors that can lead people to move from one place and settle in another. The curriculum also looks at local examples of Latino migration happening in Muscatine’s history and how these migrations relate to broader economic, military, political, and social trends at the times they occurred. To make migration more relatable for students, the curriculum allowed them to share how their families came to Muscatine and think about what factors influenced their families’ and relatives’ decisions to move.
Rosa Mendoza presenting to a third grade class. Photo courtesy Nick Salazar.
To complement the LULAC curriculum, Rosa Mendoza, director of the Diversity Service Center of Iowa, an organization in Muscatine that assists immigrants, has started visiting third grade classes. She has visited West Liberty Elementary School and Franklin Elementary School in Muscatine and will soon go to Jefferson, McKinley, and Mulberry Elementary Schools. During her presentations, Mendoza spoke about migration as far back as the first people to come to North America, the arrival of the first European immigrants, and the enormous amount of migration to the United States in the early 1900s. She talked about her experiences working with immigrants and let students see some of the unique gifts she had received from people she helped. Finally, she gave an overview of how people who come to the United States can become citizens and how the Diversity Service Center assists them. “It has been a great experience to see how attentive the students are and the interaction during the time for questions,” Mendoza shared. “Students were amazed (by) the artifacts that we received (from) our clients.”
Along with students in Muscatine and West Liberty, classes in Davenport and Columbus Junction got to try out the LULAC curriculum. In the future, Salazar hopes to grow the curriculum and bring it to all elementary schools in the state so that they can experience the powerful history of Latino migration all across Iowa.
