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  #1  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 4:19 AM
Docere Docere is offline
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Chicago as a Mexican American hub

It looks like Chicago became a hub for Mexican immigration in the 1950s? Beofre the 1990s it seems like it was the only US city with a large Mexican American population outside the Southwest.

What drew such a large Mexican population? Could say it was industry, but they really didn't go to other Northern or Rust Belt cities in large numbers.
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  #2  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 4:52 PM
Chisouthside Chisouthside is offline
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I've read that the first wave that settled on the southeast side of Chicago were heavily recruited to come work in the factories and for others Chicago was a primary train destination and that's how alot of Mexicans ended up here after crossing into the southwest The second wave settled in a heavily immigrant area in the near west side of the city where they could practice their customs without alot of fear of discrimination. I do know other Mexican Americans whose families settled in other smaller midwestern cities usually had to Americanize much faster. I know there was another big wave in the 70s and I know for alot of them it was a combination of available housing and jobs. My family skipped Los Angeles because even back then there was already a housing crunch in the Mexican areas and skipped Texas because of the crappy job opportunities whereas in Chicago they were able to work in factories and rent cheap 2 or 3 bedroom apartments. The 90s wave, which I think was the biggest came to an already established Mexican community also primarily made up of first gen immigrants from mostly the same parts of Mexico.
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  #3  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 6:04 PM
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Chicago is a Mexican hub
The entire western 3rd of the USA laughs at this.

Last edited by Steely Dan; Jan 24, 2020 at 6:43 PM.
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  #4  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 6:06 PM
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Doesn't Chicago have the second largest Mexican American population after L.A.?
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  #5  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 6:12 PM
Chisouthside Chisouthside is offline
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Originally Posted by Docere View Post
Doesn't Chicago have the second largest Mexican American population after L.A.?
Yeah theres like a half million in Chicago alone and im sure over a million in the whole metro area. And yeah it's a hub as Mexican culture in Chicago is not as watered down with 3,4 or 5th generation Mexican Americans like in the southwest.

Last edited by Steely Dan; Jan 24, 2020 at 6:43 PM.
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  #6  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 6:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Docere View Post
Doesn't Chicago have the second largest Mexican American population after L.A.?
Are you going to argue relative vs absolute? There might be several hundred thousand Mexicans in the city of Chicago but there are millions upon millions of them in Western states. In New Mexico for example 49% of the population identifies as Latino or Hispanic with 30% of households speaking Spanish.

Sure there are more people in absolute terms in the city of Chicago but they are not a dominate cultural group in Chicago or the Midwest.
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  #7  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 6:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Obadno View Post
Sure there are more people in absolute terms in the city of Chicago but they are not a dominate cultural group in Chicago or the Midwest.
mexican-americans don't have to be the dominant group in chicago for it to be a hub of mexican immigration.

and yes, of course there are more total mexican-americans in "the western states" (no fucking shit), but comparing a single city to "the western states" is an absurdity.

the fact that chicagoland is home to 1.1 million people of mexican ancestry is still quite notable considering that it's over 1,100 miles NE of the border.
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Last edited by Steely Dan; Jan 24, 2020 at 11:30 PM.
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  #8  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 6:38 PM
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Originally Posted by Obadno View Post
Are you going to argue relative vs absolute? There might be several hundred thousand Mexicans in the city of Chicago but there are millions upon millions of them in Western states. In New Mexico for example 49% of the population identifies as Latino or Hispanic with 30% of households speaking Spanish.

Sure there are more people in absolute terms in the city of Chicago but they are not a dominate cultural group in Chicago or the Midwest.
The premise of the thread is why Chicago is unique as a Mexican immigration hub outside the Southwest.
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  #9  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 9:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Obadno View Post
In New Mexico for example 49% of the population identifies as Latino or Hispanic with 30% of households speaking Spanish.
Yeah, and a lot of those Latino residents of NM have been living in the US for generations - often equal to or longer than many Americans of Irish or Italian descent. New Mexican Latino culture =/= Mexican culture.

The same can be said for many Latinos in the borderland areas of Texas and Arizona. When it comes to the Southwest, having Latino ancestry is extremely different from being a recent immigrant.
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  #10  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 9:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Obadno View Post
In New Mexico for example 49% of the population identifies as Latino or Hispanic with 30% of households speaking Spanish.
Well isn't that what you'd expect from a place called NEW Mexico?!?

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  #11  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 11:25 PM
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Originally Posted by Obadno View Post
The entire western 3rd of the USA laughs at this.
I have family all over the west coast (California, New Mexico, Texas). Chicago is a Mexican hub, and a completely unique one for being so far north and East . It’s only laughable to west coasters that have never been there.
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  #12  
Old Posted Jan 24, 2020, 11:39 PM
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I have family all over the west coast (California, New Mexico, Texas). Chicago is a Mexican hub, and a completely unique one for being so far north and East . It’s only laughable to west coasters that have never been there.
Yea I tell Mexicans in LA how large Chicago's Mexican population is. Most of them had no idea. I mention Milwaukee sometimes too.
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  #13  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2020, 12:20 AM
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Chicago's role as a Mexican-American hub is not laughable to people on the West Coast--I think it's exactly what we would expect of such a large and prominent American metropolis. It's just that Westerners often don't know much about a lot of places to our east, including Chicago.

If anything, I would think Westerners are guilty of assuming Mexican-Americans have a bigger presence throughout the nation, especially in the big regional hubs, than the data would support.
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  #14  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2020, 5:58 AM
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Originally Posted by craigs View Post
Chicago's role as a Mexican-American hub is not laughable to people on the West Coast--I think it's exactly what we would expect of such a large and prominent American metropolis. It's just that Westerners often don't know much about a lot of places to our east, including Chicago.

If anything, I would think Westerners are guilty of assuming Mexican-Americans have a bigger presence throughout the nation, especially in the big regional hubs, than the data would support.
What do Mexican-Americans and those with familiarity with Mexican-Americans in the West think about NYC? Would it be surprising that the Mexican presence isn't as big out east or is it common knowledge that other Hispanic groups are more common out east like Puerto Ricans around NYC's metro or the various Latin American/Caribbean groups in Miami?
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  #15  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2020, 8:57 AM
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Originally Posted by Capsicum View Post
What do Mexican-Americans and those with familiarity with Mexican-Americans in the West think about NYC? Would it be surprising that the Mexican presence isn't as big out east or is it common knowledge that other Hispanic groups are more common out east like Puerto Ricans around NYC's metro or the various Latin American/Caribbean groups in Miami?
I would say Westerners of every race expect all big US cities to have Mexican-Americans in large numbers, including New York, as a projection of what we experience here. At the same time, I'd say everybody also knows the West Coast and Southwest are more Mexican-American than most of the country.
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  #16  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 12:06 AM
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Central NJ is rapidly becoming a hub for many Hispanic/Latino folks. Tons of folks from Central America and South America via El Salvador, Peru, Guatemala. Not really Mexican as much, but mostly South Americans.

Perth Amboy is a mecca in NJ. Yah gotta brush up on your Spanish in Perth Amboy, because a lot of folks don't know English there for some reason. Union City, West NY, Paterson, Elizabeth, and Passaic to name a few have a sizable demographic for Hispanics/Latinos.

If you look at a lot of the 3PL or light-industrial/light-manufacturing/warehouse storage companies in Central NJ or around the Passaic area, a large bulk of the work force is Hispanic.

Newark NJ has seen a shift in the traditionally Spanish (Spain) and Portuguese Ironbound neighborhood to one that has more Brazilians and Dominicans.

On a side note, some of those cities are good areas for parades if you can catch one. And generally, Latina women know how to party.
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  #17  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 2:52 PM
Chisouthside Chisouthside is offline
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Originally Posted by chris08876 View Post
Central NJ is rapidly becoming a hub for many Hispanic/Latino folks. Tons of folks from Central America and South America via El Salvador, Peru, Guatemala. Not really Mexican as much, but mostly South Americans.

Perth Amboy is a mecca in NJ. Yah gotta brush up on your Spanish in Perth Amboy, because a lot of folks don't know English there for some reason. Union City, West NY, Paterson, Elizabeth, and Passaic to name a few have a sizable demographic for Hispanics/Latinos.

If you look at a lot of the 3PL or light-industrial/light-manufacturing/warehouse storage companies in Central NJ or around the Passaic area, a large bulk of the work force is Hispanic.

Newark NJ has seen a shift in the traditionally Spanish (Spain) and Portuguese Ironbound neighborhood to one that has more Brazilians and Dominicans.

On a side note, some of those cities are good areas for parades if you can catch one. And generally, Latina women know how to party.
A Brazilian friend of mine that lives in Chicago has family in Newark and often travels there. I know from him the parades get wild.
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  #18  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 2:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Chisouthside View Post
A Brazilian friend of mine that lives in Chicago has family in Newark and often travels there. I know from him the parades get wild.
Oh my lord do they get wild.

DO NOT bring the girlfriend or wife to those parades, because as a man, you might become a fatality if they catch you staring, and drooling. Keep them eyes in your head, because they will pop out.

Anything involving Brazil winning in soccer usually results in topless folks and nice 46" rears up in the air.
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  #19  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 4:21 PM
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Originally Posted by chris08876 View Post
Central NJ is rapidly becoming a hub for many Hispanic/Latino folks. Tons of folks from Central America and South America via El Salvador, Peru, Guatemala. Not really Mexican as much, but mostly South Americans.

Perth Amboy is a mecca in NJ. Yah gotta brush up on your Spanish in Perth Amboy, because a lot of folks don't know English there for some reason. Union City, West NY, Paterson, Elizabeth, and Passaic to name a few have a sizable demographic for Hispanics/Latinos.

If you look at a lot of the 3PL or light-industrial/light-manufacturing/warehouse storage companies in Central NJ or around the Passaic area, a large bulk of the work force is Hispanic.

Newark NJ has seen a shift in the traditionally Spanish (Spain) and Portuguese Ironbound neighborhood to one that has more Brazilians and Dominicans.

On a side note, some of those cities are good areas for parades if you can catch one. And generally, Latina women know how to party.

everything from the westside of elizabeth to newark is central american these days. definitely a big hub.
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  #20  
Old Posted Jan 25, 2020, 6:59 AM
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For Latino/Hispanic populations in cities and states, everywhere but the eastern seaboard is mostly Mexican with the occasional smaller group thrown in (Hispanos in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, Tejanos in Corpus Christi and San Antonio, Central Americans in Los Angeles and Houston, a rich tapestry of ethnicities in New Orleans, Puerto Ricans in Chicago, San Antonio was founded by the Spanish crown but originally settled by afrohispanic Canary Islanders, etc.).

Along the eastern seaboard, however, cities and states all lack the same large Mexican American populations present west of I-95 yet are still known for specific particular communities: Brazilians (Boston, Jersey, Chicago), Cubans (Miami, Jersey, NYC), Puerto Ricans (Orlando), Hondurans, Costa Ricans, and other Central Americans (Miami, NYC, Boston), Haitians and other (NYC), Dominicans (NYC), Colombians (NYC), Venezuelans (NYC), etc. EXCEPT rural North Carolina. Economic pressures there have resulted in decent rural pockets of Mexican American farm labor.

My question is this: why doesn’t the United States have any city to speak of with a large immigrant population from Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, The Guyanas, Paraguay, or Uruguay? Or do we and I just don’t know?
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