"Riding the Rails to Hero Street" tells the story of the Mexican immigrants' early 1900s flight from the ravages of the Mexican Revolution to Cook's Point in Davenport, Iowa; Holy City in Bettendorf, Iowa; and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad train yard in Silvis, Illinois. Many lived in boxcars supplied by the railroad. Families experienced both acceptance and discrimination as they built their new community in what is now the Quad Cities. Around the time of the Great Depression, the boxcar village residents were forced to move to 2nd Street in Silvis. Some built houses and some moved their boxcar homes to the new site. The sons of these workers grew up in America and answered the call to service during WW II and the Korean War. Eight were killed in combat from this same block-and-a-half long street--more lost than any other street in America.
