To  Albuquerque,  the 1930's  should be a very special decade.  The railroad  shops were going strong.   New businesses  were starting up and long established companies, such as Sears, Montgomery Ward, Kress,  J. C. Penny were expanding and hiring workers. Bars, Theaters and Restaurants were opening up , and general stores  were selling everything from animal feed to clothing, hardware, seed,  meats, and even livestock. Oh, Yes!   Right smack in the middle of the great depression.. 
 At the top of the local business ladder, were Italian, Jewish,  Greek,  Armenian, and Lebanese businessmen  they hired family first and locals next. 
         Albuquerqueans were helped to make the transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society by those  immigrants who had already experienced the difference in the their old home countries.  Most had come here to escape poverty and  understood the plight of the people.  Bars, general stores, and wholesale liquors were the Italian while prepared food businesses were mostly Greek owned. 
         The Lebanese liked Marketing almost everything you can dream up. Jewish businessmen tended to go with the new market, created  by the Fred Harvey chain , Indians, Indian Lore, and Indian Crafts..  It was mainly the Harvey chain that sold tourists the idea to take bus tours out to the pueblos and reservations to see Indians in their natural habitat, and consequently, gave value to Indian jewelry, blankets, even the way Indians dressed and all about Indian art,  sand paintings, their dances and their pottery. But New Mexico was also very culture friendly, because of the Archaeology school at UNM. Grade School teachers who attended the UNM made their students aware of Indian culture s and their rightful place in New Mexican society, long before it became popular to be Indian friendly elsewhere. Jewish merchants established trading Posts that bought and sold Indian craftsmanship and hired Indians to works in their shops and homes.  They moved into Indian country to be closer to the source of their income and were so accepted that one Jewish man became the chief of a tribe. Another became governor of New Mexico,
       The Italians reigned in the business district of Albuquerque though, their children went to UNM and became business, social and political leaders, teachers, lawyers,  Doctors , Nurses, etc..
        All immigrants were welcomed with open arms by the people, the same people who became the consumers and a labor force, ideas were exchanged between the immigrants and the populace but except for a few  individuals in other immigrant groups , it was only the Italians who spoke the language of the state fluently, and could also do business in several dialects spoken by the tribes.  Jewish businessmen had the Indian trades in silver and artifacts but more than that they prided themselves in mastering Native American languages.
         One Lebanese man ran a grocery  store in the Isleta Pueblo, he married a  Isleta Indian and fathered two beautiful daughters that made quite a name for themselves later in life. All in all, you could say that Albuquerque survived the 1930's by scratching each other's back. Unfortunately others, (non immigrants) did not come here to be part of the town, they came like an occupying army, to change, to take over and be in charge. and by the 1940's  Albuquerque was beginning to change. They played the game of "divide and conquer."  ////fglyl