The Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are easy
to neglect from the urban historical accounts since they fall outside of any
binary understandings of race. Their experiences are rendered insignificant
from those of the African Americans as well as the European immigrants.
However, the dynamics of migration, settlement and the urban revitalization of
Postwar Chicago led to the radicalization of the Mexican and Puerto Ricans as
“other†and were placed in a very distinct racial position that remained fluid
and context-dependent[1].
Mexican and Puerto Ricans have a shared history as the transnational labor
migrants during and also after the Second World War through the state-sponsored
programs. They were later settled near the West Side of Chicago and ultimately
displaced from the area due to the urban revitalization policies, race-based
housing and also the federal highway constructions that happened later. The
played a significant role in maintaining of social networks between the
immigrants and their hometowns. The immigrants were instrumental at the racial
dynamics that Chicago, in general, experienced during the period.
Upon the arrival of the two
populations, there was tremendous social and economic change experienced.
Despite the falling industrial employments witnessed in Postwar Chicago, they
managed to carve out a geographical and racial position in the region[2].
Their experiences in the central
neighborhoods over the course of around three decades, the Mexican and Puerto
Ricans came together to articulate comprehensively a distinct racial position
in Chicago unlike any other witnessed before[3].
There were massive population shifts in Chicago that led to the radical
changing of the complexion in the North.
Even as the populations of the African
Americans grew while that of the whites declined in Postwar Chicago, the
immigrants added a complex layer of the local racial dynamics[4].
They were able to curve effectively out a racial position within Chicago that
is flexible and fluid at the same time since it was neither black nor white.
[1] Fernández,
Lilia. Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans
and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago (Historical Studies of Urban America).
Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2012.
[2]
Ibid, 288
[3]
Ibid
[4]
Ibid
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