Settling the Rio Grande Valley

Settling the Rio Grande Valley The Rio Grande Valley consists of the southern roughly part of Texas, along the Texas/Mexico border. The population growth in this area was truly slow until the 1900s, when it began to skyrocket. From 1920 to 1930, the population in the Valley more than doubled. One of the important factors for this population increase was the railroad construction. The St. Louis, Brownsville, and Mexico railroads all were completed in 1904. This furthered the elaborateness of the already popular method of irrigation farming in this area.The railroad formation allowed for commercial production of different fruits and vegetables. Irrigation farming became extremely popular in this area and citrus orchards began popping up in this area. The farmers even observed a tree that would thrive in the Valley climate. Irrigation farming became so successful that an amendment was added to the Texas constitution encouraging irrigation and drainage districts. Though it was beco ming very(prenominal) popular, irrigation farming was far more expensive than the dry farming through with(p) in West Texas.It was almost impossible for small farmers to compete with the merged farms and wealthy land owners. The large, corporate farms required extensive staff and thus increased the population. The railroads act to encourage population growth into the 20s and 30s by campaign excursion trains. These trains transported people, free of charge, from North Texas cities into South Texas. The passengers would often times secure land in South Texas and a single excursion could bewilder up to one million dollars in land sales. The economy continued to thrive and population continued to grow.Since most of the Valley consisted of large, corporate farms the farmers relied on low paid laborers and the farms had their own cotton gins, stores, and employee housing. This created a wide snap between the wealthy and the poor, this gap was wider and more apparent than in new( prenominal) areas of the state because there were less small farmers to buffer the gap. Many of the low-wage laborers were African- American or Mexican-American. With that said, not only did rifts between classes become more evident, exclusively also the racial tension became heavier.Earlier, tradition and a relatively electrostatic social and political order made people more humane with the Tejanos. But during the twentieth century, these wealthy land owners were far more unsympathising to the Tejano traditions and culture than in earlier years. This made discrimination more rearing and people became more outspoken with their bigotry. There are many enter events, like the Brownsville Affair to shed light on the extreme racism. In 1906, a documented fight broke out between a black soldier at Fort Brown and a local anesthetic merchant.Since the soldiers arrived at Ft. Brown, the black soldiers were subject to extreme hatred and racism. With this particular incident, shots were open fire and a white man was killed. This just goes to show the intense variation between the classes and the hatred that was shown between the two groups. The railroads, the newly popular irrigation system, and the blue land sales all contributed to the population growth, but because the corporate farms prevail the area, racial tension was very prevalent.