Making Mexican Chicago: From Postwar Settlement to the Age of Gentrification

by Mike Amezcua

An exploration of how the Windy City became a postwar Latinx metropolis in the face of white resistance.

Though Chicago is often popularly defined by its Polish, Black, and Irish populations, Cook County is home to the third-largest Mexican-American population in the United States. The story of Mexican immigration and integration into the city is one of complex political struggles, deeply entwined with issues of housing and neighborhood control. In Making Mexican Chicago , Mike Amezcua explores how the Windy City became a Latinx metropolis in the second half of the twentieth century.

In the decades after World War II, working-class Chicago neighborhoods like Pilsen and Little Village became sites of upheaval and renewal as Mexican Americans attempted to build new communities in the face of white resistance that cast them as perpetual aliens. Amezcua charts the diverse strategies used by Mexican Chicagoans to fight the forces of segregation, economic predation, and gentrification, focusing on how unlikely combinations of social conservatism and real estate market savvy paved new paths for Latinx assimilation. Making Mexican Chicago offers a powerful multiracial history of Chicago that sheds new light on the origins and endurance of urban inequality.
 

Genres: Nonfiction

339 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 24, 2022

Reviews

[Sarah Fogel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I learned a ton from this book!!!! I am very glad I read it and would recommend it to others! I did, however, sometimes find the prose to be a bit uninviting, and parts of the book, especially later on, read to me as somewhat disjointed/disorganized. Moreover, this is mostly a history of Mexican Chicago south of Madison Ave -- not a bad thing in and of itself, but I was hoping (especially with the tagline referencing "the Age of Gentrification") to learn more about the Northwest Side.

[Lynn Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Making Mexican Chicago is a comprehensive read about the oppression and suppression of the Mexican immigrant in the city of Chicago. It shows how they fought against roundups, detainments, and deportations over the decades. Author Mike Amezcua shows how urban renewal plans constantly divided the Mexican community by building places such as the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Dan Ryan Expressway and left them lingering in disinvestment, overcrowding and dilapidated housing.

Several protests, melees and standdowns, especially in the 1970’s, helped them to make gains as they fought City Hall and city planners while making some steps forward and several steps backwards. They temporarily solidified their places in Pilsen, developed Little Village and gathered the Bungalow Belt gained after white flight. After that, the Mexican immigrant had to deal with the new Yuppie infiltration as gentrification continually pushed the older generations out. This is a timely and informative study as Pilsen is currently fighting ongoing and unusually new high tax bills which those on fixed incomes cannot afford as they strive to stay in their ancestral homes.

[Zak Yudhishthu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valuable book, capturing the challenges and successes of Mexican immigrant life in Chicago. Featured lots of history that was new, to me at least. This includes a very aggressive immigration enforcement campaign in the 1960s, community organizing and conflict in Back of the Yards, and different efforts at community organizing or political machine-oriented power building in Little Village and Pilsen. All of these chapters seem fresh and pertinent still today.

This is a serious work of history. However, at times I think the author was working a bit too strongly from his particular point of view, in a way that shaded the book

[Ryan O'Malley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a very deep dive into Mexican-American housing and activism in Chicago. The title can be misleading to suggest it is the history of Mexican Americans in Chicago, but the focus is definitely on housing policy. If you come into this book expecting that, it is fascinating. Others looking for more of a broad overview may find it dry.

[Thomas P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, well-written book on the history of Mexican neighborhoods in Chicago, and of the people who helped shape and define them.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great deep-dive into the creation of Mexican spaces in Chicago -- focusing especially on land, housing, local politics, and how Mexican communities / neighborhood infrastructures varied throughout the city, from neighborhoods like Pilsen and Little Village, in his discussions of neighborhood localism. The book shines in the ways it shows the diversity of Chicago Mexicans, and the book features political identities ranging from leftist radicals to conservatives. Selfishly, I would have loved even more on gentrification in these spaces, but I loved what was included on this topic. Bravo!

[Drew McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful read on the history of Mexicans in Chicago. It's incredibly thorough up until the late 80's/early 90's, but then the last 30 or so years are glazed over in relatively short order. I could've used another few chapters detailing that history a bit more, but regardless, it was a really well done book.