Cultural Nationalism and Racial Formation in Puerto Rican Chicago, 1946-1994
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BETWEEN TWO FLAGS: CULTURAL NATIONALISM AND RACIAL FORMATION IN PUERTO RICAN CHICAGO, 1946-1994 BY MICHAEL J. STAUDENMAIER DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor David R. Roediger, Chair Professor Adrian Burgos, Jr., Co-Chair Professor Antoinette Burton Professor Jerry Dávila Professor Kevin Mumford Abstract This dissertation traces the history of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community between 1946 and 1994, a period of sustained growth and repeated transformations. Throughout this period, cultural nationalism proved itself a valuable tool to mobilize support for multiple and competing political projects, including both those that supported and those that rejected independence for the island of Puerto Rico. As such, I argue, cultural nationalism played a key role in shaping the racial formation of the local community and, eventually, the emergence of “Latina/o” as a novel racial category on a broader scale. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, including newspapers, government documents, ethnographic field notes, and polemical writings produced within social movements, Between Two Flags sheds new light on the history of attempts by forces within Chicago’s Puerto Rican community to define its identity in the face of external pressures. The first two chapters investigate three early efforts to deploy cultural nationalism on a local scale, all of which promoted (in different ways) the eventual assimilation of Puerto Ricans into whiteness. Chapters three and four examine the collapse of these early models, first by excavating in detail the pivotal three-day Division Street Riots of 1966, and then by looking at the gendered experience of poverty in the community. Chapters five and six track the emergence and eventual institutionalization of a militant anti-colonial cultural nationalism, focusing on the influence of black nationalism as well as the growing alliances connecting Puerto Rican and Chicana/o activists, who collectively influenced the emergence of latinidad. A brief epilogue draws lessons for the present moment. ii Acknowledgements This project has been twenty-two years in the making, though for most of that time I had no idea it would result in a dissertation. I would never have chosen to study the history of Puerto Ricans in Chicago had it not been for the welcome, encouragement, education, comradeship and friendship I received during the years between 1994 and 2004 that I spent interning, volunteering, and working at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School (PACHS) and its related projects. Among too many to remember, I give special thanks to: Marvin Garcia, Lourdes Lugo, José López, Alejandro Molina, Michelle Morales, Marcos Vilar, Evie Cabrera, Raquel Ortíz, Laura Ruth Johnson, Viola Salgado, Michael Hannan, Jesse Mumm, Adriana Gonzalez, Georgina Valverde, Eduardo Arocho, Michelle Luellen, Verónica Crespo-Rich, Ruben Gerena, Johnny Tirado (RIP), Hannah Meyer, Beau Golwitzer, Joe Burton, Milagros Pagan, Denise Ruiz, and Alejandrina Torres. Thank you all for the incredible work you put into transforming Chicago’s Puerto Rican community and especially its youth. I learned more than I can say from each of you; hopefully at least some of it is reflected in this dissertation. More recently, at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign I have been honored to work with a committee of scholars who have challenged and supported me. I am particularly grateful to have David Roediger as my advisor and mentor. Dave has an uncanny ability to provide exactly the right intellectual feedback at exactly the right time. He also has always seen me as a whole person rather than some abstract graduate student. I will never forget our first encounter, years before I even began to contemplate graduate school. He was happy to chat with me, and expressed interest in and support for the independent research project I was just beginning then, but his attention was clearly captured first and foremost by our then-newborn iii daughter Sofia. Thank you for consistently striking the right balance between radical scholarship and human connection. I could easily tell stories just as memorable about each of the other members of my committee. Antoinette Burton has provided unstinting support and has treated me as a friend and colleague-in-training since she taught my first graduate seminar. Adrian Burgos stepped in as soon as it became clear I was focusing my research on the Puerto Rican diaspora, and offered both critical feedback on my work and a helping hand with the administrative and professional difficulties of graduate study; I remain sad that of all my committee members he is the only one with whom I never took a seminar. Kevin Mumford broadened my perspective on scholarship in an array of areas, including African American history and the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. Jerry Dávila provided critical suggestions on this project, and he helped remind me that Latin American history has a place in my present and future; my hemispheric ambitions can be credited directly to his encouragement. Prior to working on the dissertation, I benefitted from coursework with Professors Jim Barrett, Sundiata Cha-Jua, Fred Hoxie, Bruce Levine, Erik McDuffie, and Marc Hertzman, among others. My experience of graduate life was made infinitely easier by the staff of the History Department, especially graduate secretary Shannon Croft and her predecessor Stephanie Landess, as well as business manager Tom Bedwell. It is difficult to express how much Kyle Mays has meant to me over these five years. He has been my best friend in the Department, and one of my favorite people to grab a couple beers with. I’ve learned an enormous amount from our conversations. He was also my inspiration to finish my PhD in five years, and my go-to source for templates, models, and quick iv answers on pretty much everything. Along the way he came to know and love my family as well. It is absolutely fitting that my kids call him Uncle Kyle. To the many other friends I made in Champaign, thank you for conversation, challenge, and community in spite of only spending three days a week downstate: Megan White, Devin Smart, Deirdre Ruscitti Harshman, Stefan Kosovich, Stefan Djordjevic, Jia Fung, Martin Smith, Zach Sell, Veronica Mendez Johnson, Courtney Cain, Sharony Green, John Carlos Marquez, Mark Sanchez, Raquel Escobar, Tariq Khan, Emily Pope-Obeda, Utathya Chattopadhyaya, Beth Eby, Jason Jordan, Anna Kurhajec, among many others. Thanks also go to the community of scholars researching US Latina/o history, Puerto Rico and its diaspora, and Chicago specifically. Mérida Rúa was a teacher at PACHS when I started there as an intern, and after many years without any contact she re-entered my life incredibly supportive of my foray into the history of the community where she was born and raised. Many other scholars have offered similar encouragement, including: Lilia Fernandez, Lorrin Thomas, Sonia Song-Ha Lee, Eileen Findlay, Carmen Whalen, Gina Pérez, Delia Fernandez, Mirelsie Velazquez, Mónica Jiménez, Solsiree del Moral, Isar Godreau, Gabriela Arredondo, Dan Berger, and others. Aldo Lauria Santiago and Ramón A. Gutiérrez have been like shadow committee members, providing feedback on multiple versions of various chapters, as well as career advice. I am also grateful for the scholarly home provided by the Latin American History Writing group in Chicago, whose members read early drafts of three chapters included here. Thanks to Margaret Power, Ellie Walsh, Andrae Marak, Teresa Prados-Torreira, and Neici Zeller. Andrae is one of several people who deserve specific thanks for getting me on track as a teacher as well as a scholar. He secured my first position as an instructor of record and has v mentored me as a teacher in ways that I appreciate deeply. I am also thankful to Christopher Manning at Loyola University, James Tallon at Lewis University, Dave Golland at Governors State University, Mark Soderstrom, Denise Hatcher, Eva Serrano, and Jessica Thurlow at Aurora University, and Juan Diego Castrillón at the Universidad del Cauca, in Popayán, Colombia. Archives are the heart of this dissertation, and I’m grateful for the help of archivists at each of the institutions listed in the bibliography. I offer particular thanks to Janet Nolan, whose phone call to me in November 2011 led not only to a wonderful friendship but also eventually to the placement of her indispensible collection of ethnographic field notes on Puerto Rican Chicago in the 1960s at DePaul University. There, we were helped immensely by Jamie Nelson, head of Special Collections and Archives, and later also by library assistant Derek Potts. Within a few months, the Janet Nolan Ethnographic Research on Puerto Ricans in Chicago Collection will be open to researchers for the first time. My family has supported me throughout. Thank you to my uncle, George Roth, for welcoming me into his home so warmly; other than my wife and children, no one else gave more to make this outcome possible. Thank you to two other historians, my uncle John Staudenmaier, sj, and my brother Peter Staudenmaier, for encouraging my pursuit of a history PhD. Thank you to my dad, L. William Staudenmaier, and to my siblings Ann Marie, Bill, Terry, Peter, and Suzanne, as well as their spouses, partners, and children. Thank you to Diane and Aaron, my in-laws, whose own success as writers and historians has inspired me for years. Thank you to our newest family members, Malcolm’s first parents Kiara and Brandon, Malcolm’s sister, Janelle and his great-grandmother, Barbara. vi Finally, Anne Carlson and our children, Sofia, Nico, and Malcolm, have been my constant source of inspiration and have bent over backwards to help me finish my degree.