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Latinos in Chicago: Quest for a Political Voice
WINNER, 2023 Illinois State Historical Society Certificate of Excellence in “Books, Scholarly”!
The path to political power for Latinos in Chicago
In the Midwest’s largest city, Latinos have been fighting for political representation for more than half a century. In this exploration of urban politics in Chicago, Wilfredo Cruz shows for the first time how Latinos went from being ignored by the Irish-controlled political machine to becoming a respected constituency.
Beginning with the Latino community’s first attempt to acquire a political voice in Chicago politics in 1911 and continuing through Latino officeholders of the early twenty-first century, Cruz surveys not only the struggles of this community—specifically the two largest Latino groups in the city, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans—but also the ways in which Chicago’s Latinos overcame those challenges to gain their political voice.
For most of the twentieth century, Chicago politicians ignored the growing Latino community. This disregard changed with the 1983 election of Mayor Harold Washington, an African American who defied the political machine and actively recruited Latinos to his administration and helped them win city and statewide political offices. His actions opened the doors of government for Latinos in Chicago. Subsequent mayors, seeing the political success of Washington’s move, continued his policies.
Many up-and-coming Latino politicians making strides in Chicago, including state representative Aarón Ortíz, Alderman Andre Vasquez, and Alderman Rossana Rodríguez-Sanchez, contribute their takes on the struggle for political power and the challenges facing the rising new generation of elected officials. With this book, Cruz asks and answers this What does the future hold for Latinos politically in Chicago?
The path to political power for Latinos in Chicago
In the Midwest’s largest city, Latinos have been fighting for political representation for more than half a century. In this exploration of urban politics in Chicago, Wilfredo Cruz shows for the first time how Latinos went from being ignored by the Irish-controlled political machine to becoming a respected constituency.
Beginning with the Latino community’s first attempt to acquire a political voice in Chicago politics in 1911 and continuing through Latino officeholders of the early twenty-first century, Cruz surveys not only the struggles of this community—specifically the two largest Latino groups in the city, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans—but also the ways in which Chicago’s Latinos overcame those challenges to gain their political voice.
For most of the twentieth century, Chicago politicians ignored the growing Latino community. This disregard changed with the 1983 election of Mayor Harold Washington, an African American who defied the political machine and actively recruited Latinos to his administration and helped them win city and statewide political offices. His actions opened the doors of government for Latinos in Chicago. Subsequent mayors, seeing the political success of Washington’s move, continued his policies.
Many up-and-coming Latino politicians making strides in Chicago, including state representative Aarón Ortíz, Alderman Andre Vasquez, and Alderman Rossana Rodríguez-Sanchez, contribute their takes on the struggle for political power and the challenges facing the rising new generation of elected officials. With this book, Cruz asks and answers this What does the future hold for Latinos politically in Chicago?
184 pages, Paperback
Published November 25, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 15, 2026
This book reads as though it was not edited. At one point Cruz recycles two sentences from three pages earlier almost word for word. He concludes the introduction with a lengthy, pointless rundown on the relative number of Latino, Black, and white Chicagoans with a limp, first draft of a thesis tacked on at the end. The book is filled with barely relevant digressions alongside vague, sweeping claims he does not bother to substantiate. The last two chapters consist mainly of a succession of profiles on different corrupt and/or progressive Latino politicians without an actual narrative or interpretation of Chicago politics to cohere them into what you might call scholarship. For a book purportedly written to "fill in [a] void" in scholarship about Chicago politics, it is striking how content the author is to rely on hand-me-down truisms in his interpretation of history. Rarely if ever does Cruz offer fresh insights or meaningful analysis of his subject matter. It seems telling that he quotes so extensively from what others, and he himself, have written about the various topics he discusses, and it strikes me as very shoddy work to directly quote from politicians' accounts of their careers without any scrutiny whatsoever as frequently as he does.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of interesting information here, and I am glad I read it.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of interesting information here, and I am glad I read it.
January 4, 2023
3.5, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.
This was an interesting, if short, book about the rise of Latino political power in Chicago. Cruz covers the rise of Latino organizing during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, to the development of the HDO, to the modern era of progressive Latinos and the buildup to the question of if/when Chicago will elect a Latino mayor.
I'd say my biggest critique of this book is it focuses almost exclusively on elected officials, and doesn't talk as much about the growing Latino movement and union organizing that has played a crucial role in getting these officials elected in the first place. LiUNA, CTU, SEIU Healthcare IL + SEIU Local 73, United Working Families, the various northwest and southwest side IPOs, have also been a crucial part of how Latinos have found a political voice in Chicago. There's no mention of the #StopGeneralIron campaign, the organizing after the Hilco demolition, the push for police accountability after the murder of Adam Toledo. There was space to talk about these topics, as part and parcel of what Latino political organizing looks like in Chicago today, but unfortunately, Cruz chose to focus only on the campaigns of a handful of Latino elected officials. I think this limits the book's value long-term, but in the short term, it remains to my knowledge the only book that chronicles the story of modern Latino electoral political development in Chicago.
This was an interesting, if short, book about the rise of Latino political power in Chicago. Cruz covers the rise of Latino organizing during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, to the development of the HDO, to the modern era of progressive Latinos and the buildup to the question of if/when Chicago will elect a Latino mayor.
I'd say my biggest critique of this book is it focuses almost exclusively on elected officials, and doesn't talk as much about the growing Latino movement and union organizing that has played a crucial role in getting these officials elected in the first place. LiUNA, CTU, SEIU Healthcare IL + SEIU Local 73, United Working Families, the various northwest and southwest side IPOs, have also been a crucial part of how Latinos have found a political voice in Chicago. There's no mention of the #StopGeneralIron campaign, the organizing after the Hilco demolition, the push for police accountability after the murder of Adam Toledo. There was space to talk about these topics, as part and parcel of what Latino political organizing looks like in Chicago today, but unfortunately, Cruz chose to focus only on the campaigns of a handful of Latino elected officials. I think this limits the book's value long-term, but in the short term, it remains to my knowledge the only book that chronicles the story of modern Latino electoral political development in Chicago.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews