Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago

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University of Chicago Press, Dec 12, 2012 - History - 376 pages
"Like other industrial cities in the postwar period, Chicago underwent the dramatic population shifts that radically changed the complexion of the urban north. As African American populations grew and white communities declined throughout the 1960s and ?70s, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans migrated to the city, adding a complex layer to local racial dynamics. Brown in the Windy City is the first history to examine the migration and settlement of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in the postwar era. Here, Lilia Fernandez reveals how the two populations arrived in Chicago in the midst of tremendous social and economic change and, in the midst of declining industrial employment and massive urban renewal projects, managed to carve out a geographic and racial place in one of America?s great cities. Over the course of these three decades, through their experiences in the city?s central neighborhoods, Fern?ndez demonstrates how Mexicans and Puerto Ricans collectively articulated a distinct racial position in Chicago, one that was flexible and fluid, neither black nor white."--Publisher's description.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Mexican and Puerto Rican Labor Migration to Chicago
23
Putting Down Roots Mexican and Puerto Rican Settlement on the Near West Side 194060
57
Race Class Housing and Urban Renewal Dismantling the Near West Side
91
Pushing Puerto Ricans Around Urban Renewal Race and Neighborhood Change
131
The Evolution of the Young Lords Organization From Street Gang to Revolutionaries
173
From Eighteenth Street to La Dieciocho Neighborhood Transformation in the Age of the Chicano Movement
207
The Limits of Nationalism Womens Activism and the Founding of Mujeres Latinas en Acción
239
Conclusion
263
Notes
269
Index
349
Copyright

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About the author (2012)

Lilia Fernández is associate professor in the Department of History at Ohio State University.