Article

Hanford, the Columbia Basin, and the Legacy of Hispanic Leadership

Aerial view of sparsely populated farming community with homes and fields along a wide river.
Aerial view of Richland in 1943. Lewis & Clark School can be seen in center of picture. The straight street to the right is now George Washington Way. Howard Amon Park can be seen by the river.

Courtesy of Hanford History Project

Article written by Saul Bautista 

On March 31, 1957, the Yakima Sunday Herald published the inspiring story of an immigrant worker named Tomas Cerna. The article described how, in 1918, young Tomas Cerna and his wife “Phyllis” (Felicitas) Cerna came to the U.S. in the wake of the Mexican revolution. They first moved to Wyoming to build a farm and a life for their family. The American Dream had led Cerna to this place. The same dream prompted him to move to more fertile lands in Washington in the 1940s, as World War II was breaking out. The Cerna’s oldest son had urged them to relocate to the Yakima Valley. Tomas purchased 10 acres of land, which by 1957 had grown to 200 acres. Tomas Cerna and his family had become a shining example of the American Dream in action.1 Forty-one years later, one of their sons, Tomas O. Cerna Jr., passed away at the age of 70. Tomas Jr. had risen to the presidency of the state Commission on Hispanic Affairs. For 30 years, he served his community as an advocate for farmworkers' rights, and for 20 years, Tomas Jr. developed and maintained the Farm Workers Clinic in the Yakima Valley. “He was a quiet man and a powerful man. He was an instrumental person, along with others, who founded this clinic,” said Carlos Olivares, director of the Farmworkers’ Clinic system.2 The Cerna family exemplifies how the children of farm-working immigrants become leadership figures in the Chicano community and integral contributors to the region’s economy and society, including through careers at the Hanford site.

The Yakima Herald article briefly mentions that Mr. Cerna Sr. moved to the U.S. in 1918 alongside his wife Felicitas because of the instability caused by the Mexican revolution.3 This conflict raged for a decade, from 1908 until February 5, 1917; sporadic infighting continued into the 1920s.4 The instability of the revolution led to a significant number of people in Mexico migrating to the United States. “Between 1910 and 1930, the number of Mexican immigrants counted by the U.S. census tripled from 200,000 to 600,000.”5 Luckily for some, like the Cernas, from 1910 to 1920 the state of Wyoming embarked on an Americanization campaign, offering English and citizenship classes to help immigrants better understand American history, government, and culture, while preparing them for naturalization. “This period also reflected a belief that immigrants had to leave behind their old ways to be considered 'truly American'.”6 A much different, even larger wave of Mexican migration began in 1942 with the Bracero program, a bilateral migration arrangement between Mexico and the United States, designed to meet the war-time demand for agricultural laborers. During its twenty-two years of operation, the program issued over 4.5 million guest worker contracts to Mexican men to labor in the agricultural and industrial sectors.7

The multi-generational legacy of migration and community leadership echoes in the life stories of former Hanford employees. In a 2018 interview with Robert Franklin, Carlos Leon, a longtime member of the Chicano community in the Tri-Cities, describes his family’s migration experience to the Pacific Northwest. “Oh, golly. My grandparents were all born in Mexico. My dad in Texas, my mom in Kansas. And then, my mom’s parents moved to Toppenish early ‘40s.” Leon continues, “Ah, they worked in the fields. My grandparents, my parents, and stuff, they worked the field. My dad had a trucking firm that, you know, so he hauled potatoes and peas and all kinds of produce.” However, Mr. Leon did not become a farmer like his father. No, his vocation was a bit more unorthodox. As explained to Robert Franklin, he found a job at Hanford in the least expected way possible. (Franklin): “Really? You answered an ad in the paper?” Mr. Leon explains that the ad was in the Yakima Herald; it was the summer of 1971, as far as he could remember. Later, he describes his experience working at the Hanford N reactor: “I worked at N Reactor for four-and-a-half—actually, five-and-a-half years total. Because after I went to college. I went to Pacific University in Oregon and graduated with a degree in science. Plain science: a bachelor’s degree in science.” After graduating, Leon explains that he returned to become an instructor on the N-Reactor: “People still ask me, ‘Well, what do you do?’ I teach reactor operators. I teach people how to run nuclear reactors.”8

Frank Armijo, interviewed in 2024 by Drew Gamboa, describes the migration experience of his parents and the life circumstances of his upbringing. “Yeah. Both my parents and their parents, my grandparents, were from Edinburg, Texas, and they were all migrant farm workers.” Later, after his family had moved to Washington and his father had met his mother in the late 1950s, Armijo’s father was offered a construction job at George Grant Construction, which he held for the next 35-40 years. “A lot of [Grant Construction’s] work,” he says, “was out of Hanford.” The Armijo family eventually settled in Pasco and Frank attended Columbia Basin College, where he learned he had an aptitude for computer programing. After completing a Bachelors desgree in computer science at Eastern Washington University, he was hired by the Boeing Company’s Computer Services at Hanford, which at the time was “supporting the whole Hanford site with computer systems.” After Lockheed Martin took over from Boeing, Frank continued to rise through the ranks.9 He was Lockheed Martin’s Vice President for Business Development when he retired in 2022.10

The Chicano community, throughout its history, has been sustained by a long chain of multigenerational migration between Mexico and the United States. Some of the most successful stories of migration resulted from policies that facilitated the naturalization or smooth migration process for individuals pursuing the American Dream. The Chicano leadership in the Hanford and Columbia Basin areas has its roots in the Mexican migration that followed the Mexican Revolution, and the individuals who made their new home in this land of opportunity.

  1. Sam Churchill, "No time for siestas," Yakima Sunday Herald, March 31, 1957.
  2. "Farmworker Advocate Tom Cerna Dies," Seattle Times, July 22, 1998,
  3. Sam Churchill, "No time for siestas," Yakima Sunday Herald, March 31, 1957
  4. Timeline - The Mexican Revolution and the United States | Exhibitions - Library of Congress," Library of Congress, accessed May 12, 2025.
  5. A Growing Community | Mexican | Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress," The Library of Congress, accessed May 15, 2025,
  6. Immigration to the United States.
  7. Saul E. Bautista, "Braceros & Other Farm Workers: Forgotten Radiation Victims (U.S. National Park Service)," NPS.gov (U.S. National Park Service), last modified April 2, 2024.
  8. Robert Franklin, "Latinx Experiences at Hanford: Carlos Leon (U.S. National Park Service)," NPS.gov (U.S. National Park Service), last modified February 11, 2025.
  9. Drew Gamboa, "Latinx Experiences at Hanford: Frank Armijo (U.S. National Park Service)," NPS.gov (U.S. National Park Service), last modified March 7, 2025.
  10. ACORE, American Council on Renewable Energy.

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Last updated: December 31, 2025