Resettling the West

Segment: Jackson and its immigrant population

Narrator: The reception of Mexicans in Jackson is proof of what a community can accomplish through goodwill and a generous infusion of private money.

Carmina Oaks: So it's very new and it's a shock also for the community in Jackson to have so many Hispanics coming here.

???: Ten years ago, we had very few Hispanic, Spanish-speaking members in the community. If they were here, I and many other members of the community didn't see it. Jackson Hole is not the same.

Narrator: But race relations were not always smooth in Jackson.

Candra Day: There were fights on the school grounds at the elementary school between Hispanic kids and American kids that were of concern to us, and there were nasty letters in the paper about housing issues that were of concern to us.

Elias Garreto: There is a lot of racism here, I encountered it when working in a hotel. That is part of the reason why I left. But the racists were the American tourists, not the Europeans. You can't change your skin color; I don't understand why people behave that way. All I want to say is that Mexicans were just human beings, if they don't like others, it's because they don't like themselves.

Narrator: At one point, several school children in Jackson even presented a petition to their school asking that Mexicans be banished from the schools.

Francesca Hammer: The petitions to remove Mexicans children, it was matter of education from the counselors, they did deal with it and the fact that some of the American kids stood up for them and said "Hey, they just have to learn and we are all learning together and this isn't right."

Candra Day: Karen Stewart at the Art Association and myself had the idea that we would try to use the arts to ease the strains of immigration. So from the seed of that idea began to do the Hispanic Cultural Festival.

Carmina Oaks: It could be through food, through art, through music. And that started us getting the community accepting a little bit more. We love parties, we love to have food, we love to share things, so that was one of the things that we tried to do. Sharing through parties, through entertainment and also cultural things so that they could be proud of themselves.

Narrator: Cinco de Mayo commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla when Mexicans beat back French invaders. The annual celebration in Jackson raises money for Teton Literacy, where Mexicans and other non-English speakers can get special help in learning English.