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Storm Lake, as we have come to know, is a town filled with hope, change, diversity, and tragedy. Our goal this week: to take a deeper look into the stories that make Storm Lake what it was, and what it is. To do so, we have begun collaborating with students at BVU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Readers of this blog might wonder\nhow we have been conducting collaborative research to date. We (students at\nMiami) are organizing and sharing historical research with each other via SourceNotes,\nan online program. It helps us summarize and organize our notes on old newspaper\narticles, accessed through the Storm Lake Public Library\u2019s website. We tag\nkeywords and people on each entry. Bit by bit, we are building a large database\nof entries for our final research papers and other projects. So far, we have more\nthan 300 entries from newspaper archives dating back to 1979, from our previous\nacademic readings, and from current Storm Lake Times<\/em> issues.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, we have more than 300 entries from newspaper archives dating back to 1979, from our previous academic readings, and from current Storm Lake Times<\/em> issues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I recently found, for example, a\ncouple of interesting articles from 1984 about a vote to re-unionize at IBP,\nand how some workers claimed that managers at the plant vandalized their cars\nbecause they were in support of the union. One portion of the article stated\nthat \u201cemployees favoring unionization would have their cars damaged and were\nthreatened with violence.\u201d Fellow students Travis Shane and Adam Kimble both mentioned\nhow they, too, had found more articles about failed unionizing efforts at IBP. Nathaniel\nHieber also found something noteworthy: a story from 1979 about how the\ncommunity of Lakeside took Storm Lake to court because the price of its water\nhad been increased; Lakeside claimed that Storm Lake was giving a discount to\nHygrade, while over-charging them to make up the difference. These stories helped\nto bring more to our discussions in class and lit the fire under a lot of\nstudents to dig out the hidden gems from these archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This week also marked the start of a large project called \u201cSmall Town, Big World.\u201d This is a joint effort between our class and Dr. Andrea Frantz\u2019s Digital Journalism class to create profile pieces on residents connected to Storm Lake High School. Each of us at Miami is paired with one or two BV students to produce a written and multimedia profile. Soon, we will schedule Zoom meetings to hear our interviewees\u2019 stories. We want to understand how newcomers to Storm Lake are much more than immigrants; they all have their own personal stories of sacrifice and struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Frantz, Professor of Digital Media at BVU (and also, apparently, a big-time Wonder Woman fan!), shared how excited she was to have historians and journalists working together for this project. This raised a potential challenge and opportunity for us: our disciplinary differences. We history students at Miami need to rely on BV students for their digital media and storytelling skills, and they must lean on us for our historical knowledge and training. To address this, in our first online meeting, Dr. Frantz spoke with us for a half hour on digital journalism and interviewing tactics. A group gathering of all students followed, where we introduced each other. Then, Dr. Offenburger spoke to BV students on the difference between journalism and oral history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJournalism is the first draft of\nhistory,\u201d the clich\u00e9 states, but Dr. Frantz spoke of how journalism\u2019s purpose\nis to empower the informed, foster civic discussion, and be a watch dog of the\ngovernment. (One interesting claim to fame for journalists: their profession is\nthe only one named in the Constitution.) If we don\u2019t have a free press, we\ncan\u2019t have a democracy. While, in history, we tend to interpret stories, in\njournalism, they tend to focus on getting information out quickly. This\nconversation seems very fitting for some of the world events this past year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the students were together, we\nlearned some fascinating things about each other. Katie Johnston (Miami) speaks\na little bit of Scottish Gaelic. Clayton Van Horn (BV) hosts his own radio\nshow, \u201cThe Untitled Radio Show.\u201d Talon Wolter (Miami) is a third-degree black\nbelt in taekwondo. Colin Imhoff (BV) also brought up how he is a second-degree\nblack belt with a national medal in taekwondo. (Looks like there will have to\nbe a match in the octagon to settle this.) Michel Reising (Miami) always wears\nrock-band tee-shirts. (Apparently, if he is not, it is a cry for help.) When Max\nOlsan (BV) shared that he performed as Aladdin in his eighth-grade musical, his\nfellow classmate, Omar Alcorta, chimed in, \u201cHe can show you the world!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though it was a week of\nintroductions for this group project, some Miami students have also begun\nconducting additional individual interviews. Student Anna Rottenborn\ninterviewed Emilia Marroqu\u00edn, who had previously spoken with other SALUD!\norganizers. This time, Rottenborn wanted to learn more about Marroqu\u00edn\u2019s\npersonal experiences. She talked about her first move to Storm Lake, to work\nfor IBP, and how difficult the first few weeks were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she first came to Storm Lake,\nIBP had offered her family lodging at a hotel, but because her husband had to\ntake their car to work and they could not cook at the hotel, they had to resort\nto Burger King for the first three weeks. She said that since she still did not\nknow English very well back then, she would just point to the numbers on the\nmenu. \u201cThat was our life for about 4 weeks, eating Burger King,\u201d she said, \u201cso\nwe cannot see Burger King anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Marroqu\u00edn\u2019s story of her migration\nto the United States was also filled with tragedy because of the life-changing\nchoice she had to make. When she first moved from El Salvador to California,\nshe had to leave her oldest daughter behind. Her daughter\u2019s father had placed a\nrestriction order that would not allow Marroqu\u00edn to take her out of the\ncountry. Because of this, she was not able to see her for 10 years, when her\ndaughter arrived in the United States. Marroqu\u00edn shared how difficult this\ndecision was for her, and how it has impacted her family, but she also shared\nhow grateful she was, because this experience allowed her daughter to become who\nshe is today. \u201cI went through the same situation with my mom . . . It was so\nhard to call my mom \u201cMom\u201d after 20 years. So I had the same feeling that what\nhappened was the same with me and my daughter, because I didn\u2019t know her.\u201d Hearing this story was a reminder that, behind\nthe town\u2019s celebrated diversity, for many, life-changing decisions and painful\nsacrifices guided many to the United States and to the City Beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marroqu\u00edn also shared that when she\nfirst came to Storm Lake, she felt a lot of support from the people. In one\nanecdote, she recalled one day when her family got stuck in the snow, and\nlocals came with shovels to help them move their car. When asked what she\nthough the biggest shift was in town, she said, \u201cThe many different cultures\nthat we created. Because yeah, in a way, we created them.\u201d She also mentioned\nhow the biggest challenges she sees within the community are getting various\npeoples to blend and learn from each other, along with the housing and affordable\nchildcare shortages. In one of her closing thoughts, Marroqu\u00edn remarked that,\n\u201cLike anybody else, Iowa or Storm Lake gave me this opportunity to become\nmyself. I discovered who I was in Storm Lake. I never imagined myself doing any\nof the things I\u2019m doing right now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike anybody else, Iowa or Storm Lake gave me this opportunity to become myself. I discovered who I was in Storm Lake. I never imagined myself doing any of the things I\u2019m doing right now.\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Emilia Marroqu\u00edn<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Alongside of all the SourceNotes,\nmeetings, and interviews, on Wednesday, we dedicated thirty minutes to talking\nabout the ending chapters of Any Way You Cut It<\/em> and how some of the\nproblems from meatpacking plants in the 1990s are still here today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapter 9 deals with the\nmeatpacking industry itself, the immigrant workers, and healthcare for these\nworkers. It opens by discussing how the emergence of Midwestern meatpacking has\ncreated a \u201cdisposable labor force,\u201d and how the meatpacking industry sustains\nthe highest rates of industrial injury recorded in the United States. This also\ncauses a \u201cstrain on housing, schools, social services, and law enforcement\nwherever it [meatpacking] appears.\u201d This raises a recurrent question: Are\nmeatpacking plants beneficial to communities, like Storm Lake, or do their\ncause more harm than good? Our class, and some of the residents we have talked\nwith, give mixed responses to this question. On one hand, meatpacking has\nhelped Storm Lake grow into the community it is now, and the industry has\nhelped bring diversity to this town. On the other hand, many workers are\nexploited and the companies themselves have not really offered any help to the\ncommunities or to many of their workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Anna Rottenborn mentioned a\ntroubling statistic from this chapter. In 1990, researchers found that 42\npercent of women giving birth in Finney County, Kansas, received inadequate\nprenatal care. One SourceNote by Rachel Rinehart brings this larger issue into\ncontext with Storm Lake. She found a piece from 1992 that looked at the\nsocietal changes during the IBP era, and it mentioned that, at the time, 62.6%\nof the poverty population of Buena Vista County were women. After this, Dr.\nOffenburger mentioned another study with similar results the University of\nIowa. It looked at the changes in birth outcomes among infants born to Latina\nmothers after a major immigration raid had taken place. As we have come to\nknow, Storm Lake women in particular face many issues relating to gender\ninequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To close out our discussion on Any\nWay You Cut It<\/em>, Joseph Puckett offered a statement about how depressing it\nis that the writers of the book offered an optimistic closing chapter on how\nthings can change and get better for the meatpacking industry. \u201cUnfortunately,\nthis text is still as relevant in 2021 as it was in the 90\u2019s,\u201d he said. The\nfinal pages of this book bring up how there has also been a rise in places in\nBrazil, like Rio de Janeiro, accepting this emergence of the \u201cmarginal class\u201d\nof workers, but the study ends on the hope that we can still choose whether to\naccept it or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we reconnected with our BV\ncollaborators, Dr. Frantz shared some good news. Yesterday, BVU had received\n150 COVID vaccines. She had received her shot and had been \u201cfeeling better than\nI felt in a year.\u201d The reason they had received the vaccines, though, was potentially\nconcerning; they had been originally reserved for Tyson and Rembrandt Foods workers,\nand only 40% of them wanted to receive the shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We Miami students then separated into\ndiscussion rooms with our partners from BV and spent the rest of the class\nlearning more about each other, and discussing some of the details about our\ninterviews for the \u201cSmall Town, Big World\u201d project. My partner for the project\nis Charisma Mendez. She is from Des Moines, Iowa, and does most of the graphic\ndesign work for people or clubs at BV. Together, we will interview Mar\u00eda Ramos,\nwho is a city council member, a SALUD! member, and an office manager at United Community\nHealth Center. Our class has already spoken with her before, during our SALUD!\ninterview, but the goal of this interview is to hear more of her story and\nultimately make a profile piece on her to highlight her experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This week laid the foundation for what is to come for our \u201cSmall Town, Big World\u201d project, and it has shown us just how important this project truly is. Diversity can come at a high cost\u2014and great personal sacrifice\u2014especially for immigrants. This can be lost in daily life, and often goes unnoticed, unless you take the time to simply ask a neighbor her or his story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hunter Kolbus is a junior Political Science major with minors in History and Finance. He enjoys learning about American history and watching most any movie. After graduation, Hunter intends to go to law school, possibly specializing in corporate law.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hunter Kolbus Storm Lake, as we have come to know, is a town filled with hope, change, diversity, and tragedy. Our goal this week: to take a deeper look into the stories that make Storm Lake what it was, and what it is. To do so, we have begun… Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-project-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/stormlake\/files\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-10-at-3.45.36-PM.png\")