Tue. April 15

Mostly Sunny

38°/28°

Wed. April 16

Snow/Wind

32°/19°

Thur. April 17

Partly Cloudy

41°/24°

Fri. April 18

Partly Cloudy

43°/27°

Sat. April 19

Partly Cloudy

50°/32°

Sun. April 20

Partly Cloudy

59°/38°

WEEKLY WEATHER REPORT

A community newspaper serving Browerville, MN and surrounding areas. USPS 067-560

Thursday, April 17, 2014Volume 98; Number 41

www.bladepublishing.netstaff@bladepublishing.net

Ethnic Groups in Minnesota: What our ancestors faced and what current immigrants confront Part III: The Mexicans

A good day for the annual Men’s Ham Dinner

By Rin PorterIn this story, we continue our

series on Minnesota’s ethnicgroups of immigrants, and whateach group faced as people lefttheir home places and came to theU.S. The migrations began in the1600s and continue today.

BACKGROUNDFrom fewer than 6,100 people in

1850, Minnesota's population grewto over 1.75 million by 1900. Eachof the next six decades saw a 15%rise in population, reaching 3.41million in 1960. Growth thenslowed, rising to 3.8 million in1970, and to 4.91 million in the2000 census. As of July 1, 2009, thestate's population was estimatedat 5,266,214 by the U.S. CensusBureau <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Census_Bureau> .

The Constitution placed norestrictions on immigration. Infact, the new country needed morepeople to work - clearing land forfarms, building roads, cutting lum-ber, and growing food.Millions of people emigrated fromEurope between 1776 and 1890.

The first U.S. law limitingimmigration was the Page Act of1875. It prohibited immigrantswho were considered “undesirable”from entering the U.S. The law

classified as "undesirable" anyindividual from Asia<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia> who was coming to America tobe a forced laborer<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfree_labour>, any Asian woman whowould engage in prostitution<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution>, and all people consideredto be convicts<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convict> in their own country(Wikipedia).

Additional laws passed in 1906,1907, 1917, 1918, 1921, and 1924established more restrictions onimmigration: making some knowl-edge of English a requirement forcitizenship, further restrictingimmigration from Asia and includ-ing a reading test, restricting theimmigration from a given countryto 3% of the number of people fromthat country living in the U.S. in1910, and freezing the 1924 ethnicdistribution in response to risingimmigration from Southern andEastern Europe, as well as Asia,and introducing quotas.

In the first article in this serieson immigration, we examined theGerman-speaking people whoformed the largest group to come toAmerica and to come to Minnesota.

In the second article, we consid-ered the Polish people who camefrom an area close by the German-speaking areas, and sometimesoverlapping them in CentralEurope.

In this third article, we studythe experiences of Mexicans.

HISTORY OF MEXICOBefore Columbus, the conti-

nents of North and South Americawere populated by millions ofnative people, who formed thou-sands of tribes. The tribes livedthroughout the vast area of theWestern Hemisphere, from the tipof South America to the ArcticCircle of North America. Somewere hunter-gatherers, some wereagriculturalists, and some wereboth. These tribes had complexreligious and social systems, as weknow from archaeological studiesof the ruins of buildings created bythe Maya, Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec,Olmec, and many other civiliza-tions that were based in Centraland South America.

Before Columbus, explorersfrom areas we now know asScandinavia, France, and theNetherlands had rowed and sailedboats to Greenland and northernCanada, trading with the nativepeople there, but never trying to

It was a cold, blustery Sunday afternoon for the Annual Men’s Ham Dinner held at Christthe King Church on April 13th.

A large number of friends and family members helped TopsyMay celebrate her 80th birthday at the BrowervilleCommunity Center on April 12th.

Easter ChurchServices

Christ the King Catholic Church - Browerville

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church - Clarissa St. Joseph’s Catholic Church - Bertha

Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper,April 17 7:30 p.m. at Christ the King &Adoration until10:00 p.m.

Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, April 18 12:00 p.m. at Christ the King, Browerville3:00 p.m. at St. Joseph’s, Clarissa

Holy Saturday Easter Vigil, April 19, 8:00 p.m. at Christ the King, Browerville

Easter Sunday Masses, April 20, 7:30 a.m. at Christ the King, Browerville9:00 a.m. at St. Joseph’s, Clarissa11:00 a.m. at St. Joseph’s, Bertha

Zion Lutheran Church - BrowervilleHoly Thursday Service, April 17, 7:00 pm

Good Friday Service, April 18, 1:00 pm

Easter Sunday Services, April 20, 7:00 am & 10:00 amA breakfast will be served between services

Rose City Evangelical Free Church - Eagle Bend

16241 County Rd 14 NE218-943-4241

Good Friday Service with Communion, April 18, 6:30pm

Easter Sunday Service-Celebrate the Good of Godthrough the Resurrection Story, April 20, 10:45 am