ID badge of P. Martinez, South Works

The Martinez family donated many items to the Southeast Chicago Historical Museum. This ID badge shows Pasquala Barrios Martinez who worked at Carnegie-Illinois Steel (South Works) during World War II. Her children called her “Rosita the Riveter.” Pasquala was from the Zacatecas region of Mexico and crossed the border into the United States in 1923 with their oldest daughter Carmen who was then 2 years old. She joined her husband Lucio Martinez, who was from Momax, Mexico and who had come to Southeast Chicago around World War I to work in the steel mills. They lived with their six children in South Deering near Wisconsin Steel. During an oral history conducted in 1982, the daughters Carmen, Olga, Faye, Coni, and Martha, along with granddaughter Rita Jirasek, told many stories about Pasquala. They described how she had fled to the mountains to escape violence during the Mexican Revolution. Later, she made a point of helping those in trouble, including feeding jobless Mexican-American men who had fallen on hard times and would show up at their backdoor.