Eating Hard Tack and Salt Meat In Turn of the Century Guatemala

Add Railroad construction Crew on the Caribbean Coast of Guatemala 1890s (Photo Hemeroteca Nacional, Guatemala City)

Here is an interesting history description of the experience of  U. S. immigrant workers that contrast with the current views on undocumented immigrant workers in the United States. In 1897 William B. Lyons and J. C. Watts, two white Cincinnati boys, met on the streets of New Orleans. Unable to find work in the United States they migrated to Central America in search of  jobs. They said in a letter published in their hometown of Ohio that “the food and accommodation on the steamer Breakwater and the treatment we received were something outrageous." Passengers on deck received "a small pan full of stew, some salt meat that nobody could eat, some rice, and sometimes once a day, a cup of coffee.” The two go on to describe the food and conditions on the Caribbean Coast of Guatemala where they found jobs as railroad workers. Company officials and the local police/soldiers treated them  like slaves and fed them rations of salt pork and hard tack.  In short, during periods of severe depression, North Americans have migrated to source of jobs and tasted what it can be like to be immigrant worker from Latin America.

Guatemala Stories and Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Guatemala+