Sociedad Mutualista de Obreros Mexicanos records
Collection area: Borderlands
Collection dates: 1900-2012 bulk 1920-1949
The Sociedad Mutualista de Obreros Mexicanos records have been divided into four separate series. Series I, which makes up a majority of the collection, includes society records. These records include membership ledgers, receipt books, membership forms, expense ledgers, record books and acts, meeting attendance ledgers, and society related correspondence. Series II includes a small collection of Spanish books and publications housed at the Mutualista for reference. Series III includes 1/4" audiotape reels of interviews. Please note, these reels have not yet been digitized and are not currently accessible. Series IV includes ephemera, in this case, two flags that were hung outside of the Mutualista building.
The Sociedad Mutualista de Obreros Mexicanos (Mutual Aid Society of Mexican Worker) was founded in 1923 by Presciliano Rodriguez. Rodriguez was inspired to start the society after his friend, a worker with Southern Pacific Railroad, broke both of his feet on the job. Rodriguez and others at the Copper Queen Smelter began donating in order to help the injured worker, as the company only covered the man's hospital stay (after he paid for the visit up front!). As scholar Josiah Heyman explains, the "mutualista served an illness, injury, and death-benefit function in an era when Mexican American industrial workers had little or no work coverage and were subject to numerous assaults to their health" (198).
Mutualistas focused on creating a strong community bond, strengthening the rights of labor workers, and fought inequality. Often opening lodges, mutualistas became popular and found their memberships increasing throughout the 1920s through the 1940s. Sociedad Mutualista de Obreros Mexicanos had a large following in the Douglas, Arizona region.
For further reading see:
"The Oral History of the Mexican American Community of Douglas, Arizona, 1901-1942." Journal of the Southwest, Summer, 1993, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 186-206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40169884
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