This spreadsheet lists everyone with a Hispanic name who was included in the Trinidad City Directory for 1871. The 83 people cover a wide range of occupations, with many people described as laborers (which could be in agriculture, mining, or whatever) as well as skllled workers and craftspeople, business owners, farmers/ranchers, and Las Animas County’s Representative in the Colorado Territorial Legislature. To open the spreadsheet, click following link: Hispanic Occupations, 1871
This material can be used in several types of classroom units:
— In Math classes, to introduce students to spreadsheets and how to work with them (e.g., how to sort and count by occupation, or how to make a graph based on those numbers)
— In a Social Studies unit about communities or work, to explore what kinds of occupations people had and what that suggests about their integration into the local community. Note that a few women had their own occupations outside the family, including a silversmith
— In a Social Studies unit on immigration, what does this spread of occupations suggest about the backgrounds of Hispanics in Trinidad in 1871, which was less than a decade after the founding of the town by people from northern New Mexico? Were all the immigrants unskilled workers coming in search of whatever employment could find? Why do you think the others may have come?