Forgotten No More
An invitation to a remembrance and celebration for Salvador Samano
If you’re new to Lafayette or have lived here for years there are probably aspects of our history that are unknown to you. Did you know that the Ku Klux Klan was very active in Lafayette during the 1920’s and 1930’s? They served on our city council and held other governmental and social positions and yes, burned crosses on residents lawns. I know, I was shocked to learn about this too.
Even people who have lived here most of their lives, or have spent a great deal of time digging in on our history, are discovering new information.
I’d like to share with you an example of new information uncovered recently. Luckily for me Doug Conarroe, “he who knows all about Lafayette’s history ” has put together all the information that has come to light. It’s regarding past mistreatment of Latino, Catholic and non-Protestant residents who were buried in Potter’s Field in the Lafayette cemetery regardless of how much money they had.
The discovery began with a grandson’s search for Salvador Samano’s grave in our cemetery. Salvador was a union organizer who died in 1929. When David couldn’t find it he turned to Frank Archuleta who is dedicated to recognizing past injustices to Lafayette’s Latinos by conducting extensive historical research. Frank’s research to find Salvador’s final resting place brought to light a pattern of racism in how people were buried in the cemetery from 1910 to 1930. Basically unless you were white and Protestant you were delegated to the pauper’s area know as Potter’s Field. It also made clear that there are people buried there, many of them babies, that were unknown to the city until now.
Doug, working with Frank, was able to document these prior actions. You can read Doug’s description of what they uncovered in this document, also shared here with his permission. I encourage you to take a look. It’s full of historical information about the time the Klan was active here and how that manifested itself in the city government. You can also see the detailed work that went into uncovering what happened at the cemetery. It’s astonishing.
Doug’s website will also take you on a trip back to Lafayette’s early days. Take a look at the stories he tells.
On Friday May 5th at 1p.m. you can participate in recognizing these past wrongs. A remembrance and celebration of Salvador will be held at his newly marked grave at the north side of the cemetery and all are invited to attend. It would be wonderful to have a huge crowd there in support of the Samano family.
I’m sorry for the short notice about this event. I hope to get better at bringing all types of information to you sooner as I continue to share on Substack.