Learn More

To learn more about the Latinx Community in the Kansas City, the Midwest, and across the United States, consult the following sources:

Local Exhibits:

Chávez, Gene T. “Mexican American Fast Pitch Softball Leagues: Connecting Communities Across State Lines.” The exhibit displayed at the Kansas City Museum in 2015, but an online version can be found here

Enríquez, Sandra I., Theresa Torres, and Hunter Victoria Albright. “Kansas City’s Guadalupe Centers: A Century of Serving the Latino Community.” The exhibit is on display at the Central Branch of the Kansas City Public Library, but an online version of the exhibit can be found here

Johnson County Museum, “Latinos in the Heartland | Latinos en el Corazón de los Estados Unidos.”  

Local Digital Collections and Archives:

Hispanic Oral History Collection at the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library.

Guadalupe Center Photograph Collection at the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library.

Kansas City’s Guadalupe Centers: A Century of Serving the Latino Community,” a documentary produced by Tico Productions. 

 

Books, Articles, and Other Resources

Latinxs in KC:

Dominguez, Andres M. “A Latino Presence in the Heartland: Challenges and Opportunities,” delivered at the Charles N. Kimball Lecture, Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City (now State Historical Society of Missouri-Kansas City), April 21, 2003. (The lecture’s transcript can be found here).

Steven L. Driever, “Latinos in a Polynucleated Kansas City,” in Hispanic Places, Latino Places, edited by Daniel D. Arreola. Austin: Texas University Press, 2004. 207-224. 

García-Hallet, Janet, Toya Like, Theresa Torres, and Clara Irazábal. “Latinxs in the Kansas City Metro Area: Policing and Criminalization in Ethnic Enclaves” Journal of Planning Education and Research 40:2 (June 2020): 151-168. 

Mendoza, Valerie Marie. “The Creation of a Mexican Immigrant Community in Kansas City, 1890-1930.” Ph.D. Diss., University of California Berkeley, 1997.

—– “Kansas City’s Guadalupe Center and the Mexican Immigrant Community,” in Wide Open Town: Kansas City in the Pendergast Era, edited by Diane Mutti Burke, Jason Roe, and John Herron. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2018. (A shortened online version of this chapter can be found here).

Serda, Daniel. “Finding Latin Roots: Hispanic Heritage in Kansas City.” Kansas Preservation 33:3 (2011): 8-15. (The article can be found here)

Torres, Theresa L. The Paradox of Latina Religious Leadership in the Catholic Church: Las Guadalupanas of Kansas City. New York: Palgrave, 2013.

Ortiz, Leonard David. “La Voz de la Gente: Chicano Activist Publications in the Kansas City Area, 1968-1989,” Kansas History 22: 3 (Autumn 1999) 229-244.

 

Latinxs in the Midwest:

Arredondo, Gabriela F. Mexican Chicago: Race, Identity, and Nation, 1916-39. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Cardenas, Gilberto. La Causa: Civil Rights, Social Justice, and the Struggle for Equality in the Midwest. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2004.

Fernández, Lilia. Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.

García, Juan R. Mexicans in the Midwest, 1900-1930. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004.

Innis-Jiménez, Michael. Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago, 1915-1940. New York: New York University Press, 2013.

Martinez, Rubén O., ed. Latinos in the Midwest. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2011.

Millard, Ann V., and Jorge Chapa, eds. Apple Pie & Enchiladas: Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.

Pérez, Gina M. The Near Northwest Side Story: Migration, Displacement, & Puerto Rican Families. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Rúa, Mérida M. A Grounded Identidad: Making New Lives in Chicago’s Puerto Rican Neighborhoods. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Valdés, Dionicio N. Barrios Norteños: St. Paul and Midwestern Mexican Communities in the Twentieth Century. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000.

Valerio-Jiménez, Omar, Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez, and Claire F. Fox. The Latina/o Midwest Reader. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017.

Vargas, Zaragosa. Proletarians of the North: Mexican Industrial Workers in Detroit and the Midwest, 1917-1933. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Vega, Sujey. Latino Heartland: Of Borders and Belonging in the Midwest. New York: New York University Press, 2015.

 

Latinxs in the United States (Broad Histories):

Acuña, Rodolfo F. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. New York: Pearson, 2014.

Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic. The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2010.

Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States. New York: W.W. Morton, 2014.

Fraga, Luis, John A. Garcia, Michael Jones-Correa, Gary M. Segura, Rodney Hero, and Valerie Martinez-Ebers. Latino Lives in America: Making it Home. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010.

Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin Books, 2000.

Gutiérrez, David G. The Columbia History of Latinos in the United States Since 1960. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

Gutiérrez, Ramon A. and Tomás Almaguer. The New Latino Studies Reader: A Twenty-First Century Perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2016.

Jiménez Román, Miriam, and Juan Flores. The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010.

Mitchell, Pablo R. History of Latinos: Exploring Diverse Roots. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2014.

Mize, Ronald L., and Grace Peña Delgado. Latino Immigrants in the United States. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012. 

Morales, Ed. Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture. London: Verso, 2019. 

Ortiz, Paul. An African American and Latinx History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 2018.

Pérez, Gina M., Frank A. Guridy, and Adrian Burgos, Jr. Beyond El Barrio: Everyday Life in Latina/o America. New York: New York University Press, 2010.

Rodríguez, Havidán, Rogelio Sáenz, and Cecilia Menjívar. Latinas/os in the United States: Changing the Face of América. New York: Springer, 2007. 

Ruíz, Vicki L. and Virginia Sánchez Korrol. Latina Legacies: Identity, Biography, and Community. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Sáenz, Rogelio, and Maria Cristina Morales. Latinos in the United States: Diversity and Change. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015.

Suarez, Ray. Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation. New York: Celebra, 2013.

Valerio-Jiménez, Omar, and Carmen Theresa Whalen. Major Problems in Latina/o History. New York: Cengage Learning, 2014.

Vargas, Zaragosa. Crucible of Struggle: A History of Mexican Americans From Colonial Times to the Present Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.