Blog Entry #4 - Field Trip to Pilsen
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| 2) Neighborhood area of Chicago |
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| 1) Community area of Chicago |
In Chicago, there are seventy-seven community areas. The meaning of Community area and Neighborhood area are different. As shown in the figure above, the community areas are also divided within Chicago. Community areas are kind of new cities. Neighborhood areas are made by real estate.
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| 3) Map of Lower West Side |
I've been to one of those places, Pilsen. Pilsen is primarily a Latino community. The actual statistics show that Hispanics are 70.7% [1]. Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood is located on the city’s southwest side. Founded in 1878 by a settlement of Czech families who named their neighborhood after Pizen, a city in what is now the Czech Republic, Pilsen became home to a European immigrant community comprised of Poles, Croatians, Lithuanians, and Italians by the 1930s (Gramennos, Wilson and Wouters 2004). These ethnic groups came to work in the steel mills, meatpacking plants, and stockyards located in and around the neighborhood during Chicago’s industrial development [2].
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| 4) Mural in the CTA Station |
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| 5) Mural in the CTA Station |
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| 6) Mural in the CTA Station |
The easiest way to get from IIT to Pilsen is to get off at CTA Pink line 18th station. From the station, I saw murals, the symbol of Pilsen.
You can see a variety of murals in Pilsen. Murals are a method of communicating without language. Most of the residents of Pilsen are Latino, whose first language is Spanish. They expressed their opinions in a mural.
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| 7) Murals at W 16th St. |
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| 10) A mural with a woman on it at W Wood St. |
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| 11) A mural with a dragon at W 18th St. alleys |
Although the Asian population in Pilsen is not much than Latino, I found a mural with a dragon widely used in Asia on it. It was amazing to find Asian symbols in the Latino's community.
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| 12) A mural at W 18th St. |
This mural represents the declaration of immigration because most people live in Pilsen are immigrants. The contents of the mural are as follows.
We are a nation of immigrants.
No inhumane treatment depcrtation family separation detention.
No Wall. No human being is illegal.
National security is used to foster inter-ethnic tension.
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| 13) Avengers mural at W 18th St. |
I also found modern murals. Avengers, a Marvel film, characters are painted on this mural.
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| 14) A mural at W Cullerton St. |
The people in the mural seem to be drinking water. I think personally that drinking the same water means sharing the same culture. There is an apple on the mural and I want to know what it means.
There are also various murals all over the street. These murals seemed to contain a lot of meanings.
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| 15) A poster written in Spanish |
As I've been mentioning, Pilsen is a Latino community so everything was written in Spanish. The contents of the poster are as follows.
You don't sell your neighborhood
You love it
You defend it
I think it's a poster that shows the Pilsen, a community of the same culture.
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| 16) Bakery |
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| 17) Latin Restaurant |
As mentioned earlier, Pilsen is the community of Latino. Most stores use Spanish and are written in Spanish. There are restaurants and shops for the Latino people just as Chinatown had Chinese restaurants and shops. What's different from Chinatown is that there's no Starbucks in Pilsen.
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| 18) St. Adalbert Catholic Church at 1650 W 17th St. |
As I was passing by the street, I found a Catholic Church that seemed to be being repaired. When I came home and searched, this Catholic Church is St. Adalbert Catholic Church.
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| 19) Pilsen Neighborhood Community Council |
At first, I thought it is an ordinary house but when I took a closer look at the sun symbol in the window, this is Pilsen Neighborhood Community Council. Pilsen Neighbors Community Council is a non-profit, community-based organization whose mission is to develop new community leaders through leadership training to bring about civic engagement and action in Pilsen and Southwest areas of Chicago.[4]
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| 20) Lozano branch of Chicago Public Library |
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| 21) A newspaper in Lozano branch of Chicago Public Library |
I also found the Chicago Public Library located at 1805 S. Loomis Street. Here is Lozano branch. Lozano that name of the Chicago Public Library in Pilsen is a person who fights for immigrant and worker rights, Rudy Lozano [3]. The inside of the library was mostly in Spanish and pictures related to Latin culture were hung. I visited various branches of Chicago library through Global Chicago class. It was interesting to see a different atmosphere in different regions.
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| 23) Mexico flag |
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| 22) Tenochtitlan Plaza |
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| 24) Mexican symbol on the street |
I also could find many Mexican cultures in Pilsen. The reason why Mexicans came to Pilsen was because of gentrification. Gentrification is a phenomenon in which the old city thrives and rent increases and the natives are driven out. Although Mexican workers employed by the railroad or by International Harvest began moving into Pilsen as early as the 1920s, it was not until the 1960s that the Mexican
population Pilsen is now known for started to grow in great numbers. Between 1960 and
1980, the Mexican population of Pilsen and the adjacent neighborhood, known as Little
Village, grew from 7,000 to more than 83,000 (Wight 2006). Several factors contributed to this increase. Richard J. Daley became Chicago’s Mayor in 1955 and collaborated with the University of Illinois at Chicago to build the West Loop campus in an area largely inhabited by Mexican families, leading them to migrate further south and west. Second, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (the Hart-Cellar Act), which led to the abolishment of nation-origin quotas. During the 1970s and 1980s, Mexico experienced a demographic explosion while simultaneously struggling with a drop in oil prices, high inflation, and mounting foreign debt. These “push” and “pull” factors of migration contributed to 18 million immigrants from Mexico entering the United States legally between 1965 and 1995, triple the amount admitted during the previous thirty years (Center for Immigration Studies 1995), and an estimated 485,000 immigrants from Mexico entering the United States illegally each year (Passel 2005). [2]
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| 25) National Museum of Mexican Art |
I visited the National Museum of Mexican Art to warm up with my classmates. The National Museum of Mexican Art is located at 1852 W. 19th Street.
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| 26) The Mexican style in the National Museum Of Mexican Art building |
There is an iconic pattern of Mexico on the outside of the museum building.
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| 27) ABYSS |
Currently, the museum is holding an exhibition of Rocio Caballero's ABYSS.
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| 28) Souvenir shop in the National Museum Of Mexican Art |
I saw traditional Mexican clothes at the museum's souvenir shop.
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| 29) Stair made up in connection with Pilsen |
I could feel the love of the residents for Pilsen on the stair of the house, marked Pilsen Forever.
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| 30) Statue in front of the Benito Juarez Community Academy |
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| 31) Statue in front of the Benito Juarez Community Academy |
The last location on my sites visited was Benito Juarez Community Academy located at 2150 S. Laflin Street. In front and back of the school, there are statues of famous Hispanics.
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| 32) Statue of Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla |
I looked closely at one of these. This statue is Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla (1753-1811). According to the plaque, he was known as the "Father of the Nation" for initiating Mexico's movement of Independence from Spain and served as "Generalissimo". He also
abolished slavery and indigenous tributes.
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| 33) A picture with classmates |
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| 34) A picture with classmates |
This time, I have been to the Pilsen with more classmates than the last field trip. We had a good time because we could share each other's culture.
Written by Dayoung Lee.
References
[1] https://statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Illinois/Chicago/Pilsen/Race-and-Ethnicity
[2] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZspnGa0b0T-x0QzSPCJTkHxwedJ0wyxu/view
[3] https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/rudy-lozano-remembered-as-fighter-for-immigrant-worker-rights/
[4] http://pilsenneighbors.org/about-us/history/
Images
1) https://chicago.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d56603be39824be099557dcdf9d7f7b9
2) https://chicago.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=f00e99da0f3d4aaf8bd6fcba0d0643ba
3) Google map
4) through 31) taken by Dayoung Lee
32) taken by SuJin Cho
33) taken by Yeonhee Cho
34) taken by Ronald Corbin
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