Report on Mexicans in Chicago Released on Operation Wetback Anniversary

Report on Mexicans in Chicagoland Released on 70th Anniversary of Operation Wetback in Chicago

 

On September 16, 1954, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) unleashed its terror on Chicago’s Near West Side Mexicans as they prepared to celebrate Mexican Independence Day with parades and bailes. Those detained were thrown in Cook County Jail for 2 days and then deported. The immigration sweep continued for the next several months until 20,000 to 40,000 were deported from Chicago.

This is just one of the many things we learn in a report released today, September 16, 2024, at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Latinos Progresando, Mujeres Latinas en Acción, Greater Southwest Development Corporation, Casa Norte, Erie House, and the National Museum of Mexican Art commissioned the Latino Research Initiative of the Great Cities Institute to produce a report that provides research to illuminate the conditions and contributions of Mexicans in Chicagoland. The report, Fuerza Mexicana: The Past, Present and Power of Mexicans in Chicagoland, is an 88-page report with several significant findings and policy recommendations.

Among the many jewels in this report is the opening statement in its “Summary of Findings” section:

The rapid growth of Chicago’s Mexican population has been a remarkable bright spot in this city for the past 50 years, at first as a counterpoint to its post-industrial decline and population loss, then as an unheralded force of low-wage workers and business owners who quietly buttressed the city’s economic revival in the 21st century.

One might say that the Mexican population “saved” Chicago and contrary to the anti-immigrant rhetoric of yesteryear or today, have played and do play an extremely important role in the economic vibrancy of this highly important urban area.

Please join us on Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. at Latino Research Initiative Summit 2024, to hear more about the significance of this report from the Executive Directors that commissioned it in a panel moderated by Xóchitl Bada, UIC Latin American and Latino Studies Professor and faculty affiliate of GCI’s Latino Research Initiative. The keynote address of the Summit 2024 will be delivered by Juan González, who will speak to the significance of the Mexican presence in Chicagoland in a larger socio-political context.

We invite you to attend the whole summit, if you can. We will convene at 8:00 a.m. at Student Center East Illinois Room, 750 S. Halsted and adjourn at 2:00 p.m. for dessert and networking. You can see the full agenda here, where you can also RSVP.

 

Fuerza Mexicana: The Past, Present, and Power of Mexicans in Chicagoland

Executive Summary:

In recent years, numerous academic studies have explored the state of Chicago’s Latino community, but the unique contributions and circumstances of the city’s Mexican population have often been overlooked. Despite the fact that Census data indicates Mexicans account for 21.5% of Chicago’s population and nearly 74% of its Latino residents, their specific experiences are frequently overshadowed by broader statistics on Latinos as a whole. This general approach tends to obscure key differences in areas like education, employment, health, and housing between Mexicans and other Latino groups, such as Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Ecuadorians, Colombians, and Central Americans.

This report aims to address this significant gap by providing a detailed and current overview of the social and economic conditions of Mexicans in Chicago and Cook County, alongside comparisons to other Latino groups. Additionally, the report includes data on the collar counties, as these areas are experiencing the most rapid growth in the Mexican population across Illinois.

 

Authors:

Juan González
Senior Fellow, UIC Great Cities Institute

Teresa Córdova, Ph.D.
Director, UIC Great Cities Institute

Matthew D. Wilson, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Economic & Workforce Development, UIC Great Cities Institute

Elham Pilegar
Research Specialist, UIC Great Cities Institute

David Segovia
Visiting Research Specialist, UIC Great Cities Institute

José Miguel Acosta-Córdova
Doctoral Candidate in Geography and GIS, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

 

 

Read and Download the Full Report Here.

 

Chicago Latino Neighborhoods Report Preview

 

Executive Summary:

The report highlights significant demographic and economic changes in Chicago’s Latino neighborhoods between 2017 and 2022. Notably, Logan Square and Irving Park transitioned from majority Latino to predominantly non-Hispanic White, contributing to a broader decline of over 15,000 Latinos citywide and 36,000 across 14 studied neighborhoods. However, areas like Chicago Lawn, Garfield Ridge, New City, and East Side saw Latino population growth. Median household income for Latinos in Chicago is $62,046, below the city average of $71,673 and significantly lower than non-Hispanic Whites at $104,734. Income disparities are pronounced, especially in Logan Square, where non-Hispanic Whites earn nearly $70,000 more than Latinos. Employment patterns reveal that a high proportion of residents work outside their neighborhoods, limiting local economic benefits. Public transit usage remains lower than city averages, except in a few neighborhoods, underscoring transportation challenges. These shifts reflect broader trends of gentrification and economic pressures on Latino communities.

 

Authors:

José Miguel Acosta-Córdova
Doctoral Candidate, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Matthew D. Wilson, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Economic & Workforce Development, UIC Great Cities Institute

 

 

Read and Download the Full Report Here.

 

Latino Research Initiative Summit 2024 Kicks Off Hispanic Heritage Month

Latino Research Initiative Summit 2024 Kicks Off Hispanic Heritage Month

 

On September 17, 2024, from 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. the Latino Research Initiative at the Great Cities Institute will hold its Summit 2024 at Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted. The event is free and open to the public.

The purpose of Summit 2024 is threefold: 1) to highlight the various partnerships of the Latino Research Initiative; 2) to provide our partners an opportunity to speak about their work; and 3) to provide an opportunity for networking.

Juan González, Senior Fellow at Great Cities, the co-host of Democracy Now, and the author of several books including the Harvest of Empire, will offer a keynote speech beginning at 11:30 a.m.

The keynote speech will be followed by a panel with the leadership of the Illinois Latino Legislative Caucus and the Illinois Latino Legislative Caucus Foundation.

Kicking off the morning is a short presentation by Elena Gonzales on ¡Aquí Chicago!, a forthcoming exhibit at the Chicago History Museum.

UIC Professor Xóchitl Bada, author of Mexican Hometown Associations in Chicagoacán: From Local to Transnational Civic Engagement, will then moderate a panel with five local community organizations that commissioned the Great Cities Institute to produce a report on Mexicans in Chicago. The report, Fuerza Mexicana: The Past, Present, and Power of Mexicans in Chicagoland, will be released on September 16, exactly seventy years after the 1954 unleashing in Chicago of Operation Wetback by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

We are very excited to hear about the further impact of the report that we co-produced with Mujeres Latinas en Acción, ¡Actívate!: A community data-driven guide to help Latinas and their families thrive. Mujeres continues to do the important work of addressing gender-based violence. A panel on their work includes Carrie Ward, CEO, Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, (ICASA); Norma Hernández, Illinois State Representative, 77th District; and Andrea Ortez, Program Officer, Woods Fund. The panel will be moderated by Sayeed Sanchez, Advocacy Manager, Mujeres Latinas En Acción.

Lilia Fernandez, UIC Professor and author of Brown in the Windy City, will moderate a panel on the growing presence of Latinos in the suburbs.  Ambassador Reyna Torres Mendivil, Consul General, Consulate General of Mexico, will be joined on the panel with Maria del Socorro Pesqueira, President, Healthy Communities Foundation and Dr. Daysi Ximena Diaz-Strong, Assistant Professor, Jane Addams School of Social Work.

Other highlights of the Summit include updates from Rob Paral on serving recent immigrants and José Miguel Acosta-Córdova on the changing dynamics of Latino neighborhoods in Chicago. Professor Patrisia Macias will introduce both Rob and José.

Alderwoman Jesse Fuentes, 26th Ward, will headline a panel discussing the efforts in preserving the presence of Puerto Ricans in Humboldt Park through the creation of Puerto Rico Town, a state designated cultural district.

Alberto Morales will also share with you our work with Nuestro Futuro on a Latine philanthropic landscape scan.

The vibrancy of arts and culture is an important part of Latino presence in the region. Ignacio López, Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, will speak about the very important Latino Arts and Culture Alliance Summit.

The Latino Research Initiative Summit concludes with remarks by Aldermen Michael Rodriguez and Rossana Rodriguez, co-chairs of the City of Chicago Latino Caucus.

Please join us for what promises to be a very interesting and exciting day. Feel free also to pass the word to your friends and associates.

You can view the whole agenda here.

You can RSVP at this link.

See Latino Research Initiative main page here.

 

Starbucks Is Opening In Little Village, Angering Some Neighbors

This article from Block Club Chicago discusses a recent development where Starbucks is set to open a new location in Little Village, a predominantly Latino, working-class neighborhood. Some residents oppose the move, fearing it will contribute to rising prices and gentrification, as seen in nearby Pilsen. Critics argue that big corporations like Starbucks displace local culture and push out longtime residents. Starbucks officials claimed their commitment to the community through local hiring and partnerships with nonprofits, but this did not appease all concerns. Balthazar Enriquez warned, “People from Pilsen are now getting pushed into Little Village because of high rents,” reflecting worries about similar demographic shifts.

“People from Pilsen are now getting pushed into Little Village because of high rents.”

“The Lower West Side community area, which includes Pilsen, decreased from 88 percent Hispanic or Latino in 2000 to 71 percent in 2020, according to the UIC Great Cities Institute.”

“Starbucks is driving gentrification. Starbucks, Christopher Columbus, they’re the same kind of colonizers.”

 

From Block Club Chicago (To go to the actual article, please click on this link.)

 

All Eyes on Chicago, as 2024 Democratic National Convention Begins

All Eyes on Chicago

 

Today, August 19, 2024, marks the first day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. It is expected that upwards of 50,000 people will descend upon Chicago including delegates, media, and protestors. We are taking this opportunity to invite you to view the video, photos, and a set of interviews from an event that the Great Cities Institute hosted, exactly fifty years after the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

On the night of August 28, 1968, thousands of young, primarily white, activists headed for the Democratic National Convention in downtown Chicago, intent on protesting the Vietnam War. Mayor Richard J. Daley dispatched an army of police officers and called upon the National Guard and U.S. Secret Service. Activists appealing for peace were greeted by nightsticks and tear gas, as were reporters and Eugene McCarthy convention delegates, as they tried to exercise their First Amendment rights. The debacle was televised and triggered outrage around the nation. The protestors chanted: “The Whole World is Watching.”

In Chicago in 2024, there will be many protestors against the War on Gaza. While we do not expect a repeat of the 1968 debacle, we do think that reflecting on 1968 reminds us of the interplay between protest and repression in a democratic society.

On August 28, 2018, exactly 50 years after that infamous 1968 Convention, UIC’s Great Cities Institute hosted a provocative and urgent program exploring why “The Whole World is Still Watching.” Participants included organizers of the 1968 protests who brought personal accounts, including reflections on the period leading up to that day. These and other panelists discussed the personal and historical significance of these events. Key to the discussions were questions about the role of social protest in a civil society. Moderator Laura Washington also asked questions about the legacy and lessons learned from their experiences.

We invite you to watch the discussion held in the University of Illinois Chicago with panelists who provided firsthand accounts and fifty-year reflections. This link also gives you access to sit-down interviews with Cha Cha Jimenez, Che Brooks, Mary Scott-Boria, and Don Rose.

As Mary Scott-Boria says on the panel, “Democracy is a verb.” It requires action – from all of us who value it.

 

Memory, Music, & The Moving Image: The Work of Olukemi Lijadu

 

The Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago will host a film screening of “Come and Speak to Me of What You Felt” (2021), “Guardian Angel” (2022), and “Trading Memories Part I” (2022) by 2023 Villa Albertine Resident Olukemi Lijadu. This event, which is open to the public, will be held on Tuesday, August 6th, 2024 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM CDT at the Great Cities Institute (412 South Peoria Street, Suite 400, Chicago, Illinois 60607-7067). Click here for the downloadable PDF of the flyer. To RSVP, click here.

 

About the Films:

The work, Come and Speak to Me of What You Felt (2021), the artist weaves together fragmented threads of Black music. Come and Speak to Me of What You Felt is an exploration of the search for one’s history and how music can communicate feelings beyond words across time and distance.

A multi-screen projection and multi-sensory live performance, Guardian Angel (2022) is a commissioned film that explores the artist’s relationship with religion, informed by her grandmother, study of African philosophy and Catholic upbringing.

Trading Memories Part I (2022)is a moving image work and soundscape that incorporates film, sound, and photography, based on a collection of photos of a middle-class family in Lagos. These photographs were discovered in 2021 at an antique market in London’s Notting Hill, where they were sold among piles of otherwise discarded goods for just two pounds. The striking nature of these images, functioning as a time capsule far from their original context, immediately conveyed to the artist that they depicted a Nigerian Yoruba family from the early 2000s. The core inquiry of this series centers around the concept of ‘just knowing.’ In Trading Memories Part I, the artist explores the photographs not merely as artifacts of memory and family history, but as sites of encounter between themselves and the images. The work dissects moments of recognition, focusing on the artist’s personal reflections and connections with the photographs. A recurring theme in Trading Memories Part I is the close-up, which emphasizes these moments of recognition. Elements such as the harmattan dust on polished black buckled shoes, the texture of a birthday girl’s tulle dress, crates of soft drinks in glass bottles, white socks, and a Barbie birthday cake are motifs that resonate with the artist’s own childhood experiences in Lagos.

 

About the Filmmaker:

Olukemi Lijadu is a visual artist, DJ and music producer who performs under the moniker KEM KEM. Lijadu engages with sound as a transcendent conduit of memory and reconnection for the fractured African diaspora and work as a form of accessing Atlantic memory. A trained philosopher; she holds a masters degree in Philosophy from Stanford University. She lives and works between London and Lagos. Over the years, her work and performances have been held at ICA London, Frieze Cork Street and Mariane Ibrahim Chicago. Her original compositions have been played on the runways of Copenhagen fashion week and are woven into her films. As a DJ, KEM KEM has performed in and for the Luma Museum, Tiwani Gallery and Corvi-Mora. She was selected as a 2023 Villa Albertine resident where she is currently researching and developing a body of work around the West African influence on Chicago House music.

 

 

Reinventing artists’ residencies, Villa Albertine is creating a network for arts and ideas spanning France and the United States. It offers tailor-made residencies for global creators, thinkers and cultural professionals. For more information on Villa Albertine, please click here.

Categories:

Study shows the number of Illinois teens out of school, work is still too high

This news radio highlights the persistent issue of youth joblessness in Illinois, with a study by UIC’s Great Cities Institute revealing that 163,000 young people are out of school and work. The problem is severe on Chicago’s South and West Sides, with calls for $300 million in funding for youth jobs.

“The study by UIC’s Great Cities Institute shows that there are some 163,000 young people not going to school or working.”

“In the city alone, 16 to 24-year-olds, there’s over 25,000 youth and young adults who are out of school and jobless; and they are not moving forward with their lives. It’s a dangerous situation.” He says kids with nothing to do can get involved in unrest and gangs. He’s calling for Gov. J.B .Pritzker and the legislature to commit $300 million to more youth jobs. “We’re hoping that the legislature and the Governor can come up with the money necessary to provide them the jobs this summer and some jobs, you know, simple jobs during the school year,” Wuest said.

The study by UIC shows that young people in Illinois overall experience unemployment more than the national average.

 

 

From WBBM NewsRadio/Audacy (To go to the actual article, please click on this link.)

 

Our Chicago: Keeping Children Safe & Youth Joblessness

This article highlights the efforts of Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development (BUILD) in Chicago to engage youth through programs focused on gang intervention, violence prevention, and development, aiming to create safe and relaxing environments for children and teens. It also addresses the severe youth joblessness rates in Chicago, with some neighborhoods experiencing rates as high as 92%. The report, written by the Great Cities Institute at UIC and commissioned by the Alternative Schools Network, underscores the urgent need for youth employment to improve economic conditions in these communities.

It found that young people in Chicago, ages 16 to 24, had higher rates of unemployment than the national average. Black and Latino youth were more likely to be unemployed, than White teens.

“The neighborhoods are in dire straits. They don’t have much in the way of an economy, very few jobs. What used to be an industrial economy in the 50s, 60s is a service economy,” he (Jack Wuest of Alternative Schools Network) said.

“Young people miss out when they can’t find a job,” he said. “They learn how to show up on time, getting paid is a big incentive, it’s their money and it helps their families too. Having that first job, if they’ve never had it before, succeeding, getting there regularly, getting along with people and getting paid that’s a big deal.”

 

From ABC7 Chicago (To go to the actual article, please click on this link.)

 

Chicago’s Youth Joblessness Rate Worse Than U.S. & Illinois

This article highlights Chicago’s alarming youth joblessness rate, which surpasses both the national and Illinois averages, particularly affecting Black and Latino youths. The highest rates are found in South and West side neighborhoods. According to the University of Illinois Chicago’s Great Cities Institute, economic recovery post-COVID-19 has been uneven, with jobless rates for Black teens nearly doubling from 2021 to 2022. Lead researcher Matt Wilson pointed out the persistent disparities, stressing the need for increased funding for youth employment programs to address these issues and boost local economies.

“This report shows that despite an overall rebound in employment levels in Chicago since the pandemic, recovery has been uneven among different racial and ethnic groups in Chicago.”

“Black and Latino teens and young adults continue to have high jobless and out-of-school jobless rates compared to white Chicagoans.”

 

From PR Newswire/Alternative Schools Network
(To go to the actual article, please click on this link. Also available on The Ritz Herald)