By the 1920s, Dawson County’s rapidly expanding cotton economy was outgrowing its labor supply, and Lamesa, like other areas of the country, began to rely on migrant laborers from Mexico to increase the available pool of seasonal workers. As part of a federal effort to regulate migrant labor, farm labor communities were created to ensure a dependable source of labor for farmers and to provide safe and sanitary living facilities for migrant workers and their families. The Lamesa Farm Workers Community, present-day Los Ybanez, operated from 1942 until 1980. In 1941, the Farm Security Administration approved an application for a migrant labor camp on 50 acres of land southeast of Lamesa, and the first families moved in on August 17, 1942. The Lamesa complex consisted of 50 residential buildings, a gate house, manager’s residence, and a community center. Unlike other labor communities, it provided indoor plumbing and running water, along with a medical clinic, educational programs, nursery, recreational activities, and religious services. The families who lived there harvested cotton and worked in cotton gins, cotton oil mills, feed mills, and egg processing plants. They paid no rent for their homes but were expected to perform maintenance work around the camp and contribute to the camp welfare fund. Their limited social time included traditional Mexican entertainment and reflected their bicultural background through baseball, Mexican and U.S. holidays, and conjunto music. In 1980, the Ybanez family bought the community to provide low-income housing for Hispanic families.