If you tried to research the history of Hispanic people in Lawrence, you would have trouble finding any information at all. It’s not recorded.

Members of the Douglas County Historical Society and local Hispanics are trying to change that, so they formed a committee of researchers. A group consisting mostly of Mexican Americans, the committee plans to conduct a survey to obtain information from Hispanic Lawrence residents.

Lawrence resident Cora Adame, who came to the United States from Mexico when she was a baby, talks about Mexican immigration to Kansas at Watkins Community Museum of History.

“We’ve been meeting on a monthly basis to try to think of ways we can inquire information and what we can do with the information once we get it,” said Dr. Phillip Godwin, president of the historical society.

History: lost or found?

Godwin said recording Hispanic history soon is vital.

“My concern is that when another generation of Hispanic culture is gone, I’m not sure we’ll ever know,” he said.

Grace Marion, a Mexican-American Lawrence resident, said learning history is important because the Hispanic people in Lawrence do not have a sense of pride concerning their heritage.

“If they knew the people who came before them, maybe they’d be like, ‘Oh, I do have a great past,'” Marion said. “The Mexican people here are so acclimated to being American.”

Results from the U.S. Census Bureau’s censuses do not include Hispanics in Lawrence until 1980. Steve Jansen, historian at Watkins Community Museum of History, said that was about 50 years too late.

“We know Hispanics were living here in the ’20s and ’30s, but it wasn’t common,” he said.

Jansen wonders if census takers avoided neighborhoods in which Hispanic people lived or if they simply counted them as white people. The 2000 U.S. Census reports that 3.3 percent of Douglas County’s population is of Hispanic or Latino descent.

Recorded Mexican-American history in Kansas or the lack thereof was the topic of a thesis by Larry Rutter in 1968.

Rutter’s preface describes the process of his research and states: “This study was undertaken knowing full well that there were few documentary sources of information about the Mexican ethnic group in Kansas.” This suggests Lawrence is not the only place in the state that lacks historical information on Hispanic ethnic groups.

Marion said, in the case of Mexican people, this is perhaps because of the people’s apathy.

“Mexicans as a group, at least in my experience, are not into researching,” Marion said. “There’s not a sense of history.”

Information means understanding

Cora Adame, a Mexican-American who is active in the community, moved to Lawrence in the 1950s and has watched Hispanics’ actions in the area.

“One of the things we should know is the contributions Hispanics gave to Lawrence. … Sometimes people think Hispanics stay back, when actually they do quite a bit,” Adame said.

Adame said she plans to help with the committee’s research, and she knows it will take a great deal of time.

Marion said the committee will start with St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 1229 Vt., because many Mexican people are Catholic. Susan Campbell, an administrative assistant at St. John’s, said nearly 100 of the church’s 1,250 families are Hispanic.

An exhibit at Watkins Community Museum of History, 1047 Mass., about Mexican Americans in Kansas shows a small part of Mexicans’ participation in Kansas history. It describes immigration and a few Mexican traditions.

The research committee, however, would eventually like to have its own exhibit, complete with photographs and a written history from Lawrence Hispanics, Marion said. The committee is looking for volunteers to help with the search for information.

Adame said once the committee educates others, Lawrence residents may understand one another better.

“We have to know each other … because I think some of the prejudices melt away when you know each other,” she said.