The ‘only architect in Liberal’ finds his entrepreneurial spirit
Tucked into southwestern Kansas stands the city of Liberal, a majority-Latino community where more residents speak Spanish than English. Many work at the nearby National Beef Packing Co., a common job for rural Kansans – including immigrant workers. Manuel Ortuño moved to Liberal from Chicago in pursuit of a lower cost of living. He quickly found a job at National Beef, which provided a good living but was extremely labor intensive. His son, Edgar, says that his father started building cabinets in his garage and taking night classes outside of his factory shift. Eventually, he found a carpentry job building displays [...]