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Fascinating invocation of the term 'hospitality' by Green Bay's @MayorGenrich in anticipation of #POTUS's Wisconsin trip. As my research shows, political leaders have often cited the state's history of welcoming im/migrants while generally failing to live up to the ideal.
THREAD https://twitter.com/JasonCalvi/status/1275975676852686848
THREAD https://twitter.com/JasonCalvi/status/1275975676852686848
Mexicans first came in large numbers to Wisconsin in the 1920s, recruited to work in Milwaukee's thriving tannery industry. Instead of hospitality, however, they encountered hostility over access to jobs, and struggled to see themselves as Wisconsinites. https://www.wiscontext.org/milwaukees-first-mexican-americans-left-legacy-struggle-and-pride
Tejano migrant farmworkers, meanwhile, were recruited to the state throughout the mid twentieth century and were essential in powering Wisconsin's agricultural industry. They too found, however, a much less-than-welcoming reception upon arrival. https://www.wiscontext.org/mid-century-turning-point-migrant-farmworkers-wisconsin
The same was true of Mexican residents living in Wisconsin without legal documentation in the 1970s and 1980s, who labored in tanneries, foundries, factories, and fields but found little reprieve from INS raids. https://www.wiscontext.org/immigration-documentation-and-growth-wisconsins-mexican-american-communities
Lest we forget, less than 20 years ago, in the midst of dramatic growth in its Latino population, the Brown County Board tried to make English the official language of county government. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/19/us/divided-by-a-call-for-a-common-language.html
And it should be noted that an inattention to genuine hospitality towards Latino im/migrants has historically been bipartisan in nature. When GOP legislators tried to pass an English-only bill this year, they modeled it after a 2009 Dem effort. https://www.wbay.com/content/news/Wisconsin-GOP-resurrects-bill-to-make-English-official-language-566751181.html
Latino im/migrants have often made a home in Wisconsin in spite of local politicians' and business leaders' hospitality, not because of it. Perhaps the best example of this is the Sanctuary Movement, which flourished in Milwaukee and Madison in the 1980s.
Today, orgs like @voces_milwaukee remain indispensable for making true these promises of hospitality. That's nowhere more apparent than in the fight to bring justice for immigrant meatpackers in Green Bay, who disproportionality face the effects of COVID. https://www.wuwm.com/post/workers-are-scared-says-wisconsin-meatpacking-plant-worker-who-tested-positive-covid-19#stream/0
