Migrant camp, Weslaco, Texas

Migrant camp, Weslaco, Texas

Local employment men say that there was no need for migrant labor to handle the citrus and vegetable crops in the valley, the local supply of labor being ample for this purpose. Most of the local labor is Mexican and the labor contractors favor Mexican labor over white labor, partly because the Mexican will work much cheaper than whites. One white woman who was a permanent resident (her husband was on WPA (Works Progress Administration/Work Projects Administration) said that the white people who lived in the valley, had no trouble with the Mexicans. The Mexicans were good neighbors, she said, always willing to share what they had. She said the white migrants who came into the valley and resented and misunderstood the Mexicans caused the trouble between the two races. Some towns in this section permit camping only in trailers. The charge for camping in tents is about fifty cents per week, including water, which in some cases must be carried four city blocks. Privies are tin, very bad condition. Garbage is collected only once a week, with large dumps of decaying fruits and vegetables scattered among the camps. Some of the white migrants in this camp were very suspicious of governmental activity, due to the use by south Texas newspapers of the term "concentration camps" referring to FSA (Farm Security Administration) camps

Russell Lee

Farm Security Administration

Feb. 1939

No known restrictions

en

Still image

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA