LATINO IMMIGRANTS IN THE WINDY CITY: New Trends in Civic Engagement Authors: Judith Boruchoff Katz Center for Mexican Studies, University of Chicago Oscar A. Chacón National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities Susan R. Gzesh Human Rights Program, University of Chicago Amalia Pallares Latin American and Latino Studies Program University of Illinois at Chicago Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro School of Social Work University of Chicago Rapporteur’s report by: Amy Shannon Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Editors: Xóchitl Bada University of Illinois at Chicago Oscar A. Chacón National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities Jonathan Fox University of California, Santa Cruz Authors: Judith Boruchoff, Oscar A. Chacón, Susan R. Gzesh, Amalia Pallares, Amy Shannon, and Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro Copyeditor: Leah Florence Series Editors: Xóchitl Bada, Jonathan Fox, and Andrew Selee Coordinators: Kate Brick and Robert Donnelly www.wilsoncenter.org/migrantparticipation Preferred citation: Bada, Xóchitl, Oscar A. Chacón, and Jonathan Fox, Eds. Latino Immigrants in the Windy City: New Trends in Civic Engagement, Reports on Latino Immigrant Civic Engagement, No. 6. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, January 2010. © 2010, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Cover images: At top, members of the honor guard of the Club Ciudad Hidalgo (Michoacán) hometown association participate in a ceremony commemorating the birth of Mexican President Benito Juárez at the Plaza de las Américas in Chicago, IL, on March 21, 2009. At bottom, dancers affiliated with Ballet Folclórico de Víctor Soria are photographed at the same ceremony. (Photos by Claudio Ugalde) CONTENTS PREFACE 5 PROLOGUE 6 Chicago Community Dialogue: A Step toward Stronger Transnational Collaboration Oscar A. Chacón ESSAYS LATINO IMMIGRANT LEADERSHIP IN CHICAGO: 11 Historical Antecedents and Contemporary Questions Susan Gzesh FAMILY MATTERS: 21 Strategizing Immigrant Activism in Chicago Amalia Pallares MEXICAN HOMETOWN ASSOCIATIONS IN CHICAGO 51 AND THE CONFEDERATION OF MEXICAN FEDERATIONS: Experiences of Binational Civic Participation Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON MIGRANT 67 CIVIC AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT Judith A. Boruchoff COMMUNITY DIALOGUE ON TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM: 85 A Rapporteur’s Report Amy Shannon APPENDIX 1: 92 Persons Naturalized During Fiscal Years 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 ABOUT THE AUTHORS 100 5 LATINO IMMIGRANTS IN THE WINDY CITY: LATINO PREFACE This report is part of a series on Latin American background reports on important cross-cutting immigrant civic and political participation issues, such as the role of the Spanish-language that explores experiences in nine different media, the responsibility of faith-based organi- New Trends in Civic Engagement in Civic Trends New cities around the United States: Charlotte, zations, and the involvement of youth. Project NC; Chicago, IL; Fresno, CA; Las Vegas, NV; research products are accessible online at: www. Los Angeles, CA; Omaha, NE; Tucson, AZ; wilsoncenter.org/migrantparticipation. San Jose, CA; and Washington, D.C. This For the Chicago report, a roundtable com- series is part of an initiative sponsored by the munity dialogue took place in October 2007 Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute, at Casa Michoacán in Pilsen. The dialogue was and was funded by a grant from the John D. organized by our initial local partner organi- and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The zation, Enlaces América. Amy Shannon and project is led by Xóchitl Bada of the University Oscar Chacón collaborated with us in the se- of Illinois at Chicago, Jonathan Fox of the lection of topics and participants. In prepara- University of California, Santa Cruz, and tion for the dialogue, we commissioned four Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson background research papers, which were pre- Center Mexico Institute. The project was first sented and discussed at the forum. These re- coordinated by Kate Brick, followed by Robert search reports were then extensively revised by Donnelly. the authors, who incorporated in them feed- The reports on each city describe the op- back from the conference proceedings. portunities and barriers that Latino immigrants Although Enlaces América ended opera- face in participating as civic and political ac- tions in December 2007, Mr. Chacón and tors in cities around the United States, with an Ms. Shannon continued their collaboration emphasis on recent trends in Latino immigrant with this project. Amy Shannon assembled the integration following the 2006 immigrant civic preliminary drafts for this report, and Oscar mobilizations. Chacón, now executive director of the National The research questions are informed by a Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean comparative approach that highlights both Communities (NALACC), accepted our invi- similarities and differences across diverse cities tation to make NALACC our new local part- and sectors. The project also includes a series of ner and also wrote the prologue. 6 PROLOGUE Chicago Community Dialogue: A Step toward Stronger Transnational Collaboration New Trends in Civic Engagement in Civic Trends New By Oscar A. Chacón, Executive Director, consolidated over time into federations, repre- National Alliance of Latin American and senting the interests of blocs of migrants and Caribbean Communities (NALACC) embracing agendas that advance civic engage- ment and participative democracy both in Chicago is one of the most diverse and interna- the United States and in Mexico. At the same tional cities of this nation, thanks to the con- time, the unique setting, history, and context tributions of generations of immigrants who of Chicago, with its rich legacy of political ac- have made it their home for much more than tivism and community-based organizing, have a century. facilitated the achievement of these goals. LATINO IMMIGRANTS IN THE WINDY CITY: LATINO Mexicans have enriched the city’s history Advances in communications and transpor- and tradition of immigration. While the set- tation technologies have also enhanced the op- tlement of Mexicans here goes back many de- portunities for civic engagement and political cades, so does the presence of hometown as- participation of Latin American immigrants in sociations, which continue to attract migrants Chicago. The greater affordability and supply from Michoacán, Zacatecas, Jalisco, Guerrero, of international jet travel has created new op- Guanajuato, and other states. Hometown as- portunities for travel between the United States sociations have played an essential role in and Latin America. Similarly, advances in tele- the development of Chicago’s Mexican com- communications and the Internet have enabled munity, keeping alive migrants’ memories of immigrants to stay in touch continuously by their communities of origin and helping to logging onto the websites of their hometown fund important social and infrastructure proj- newspapers and through the expanded use of ects in them. cellular and landline telephony. Such advances Yet hometown associations have also have allowed immigrants to keep unbroken adapted to changing times. No longer just contact with their communities of origin and focused on country-of-origin concerns, many have likewise enabled them to renew and up- have gained a more sophisticated understand- date these connections continuously, thus ing of the motivations driving out-migration deepening the transnational quality of contem- from Mexico. And consequently, many have porary Latin American immigration. Technological advances, the work of home- civic engagement and political participation. town associations, and Chicago’s unique legacy Since the 2007 gathering in Pilsen, however, of political activism and community-based such efforts have met with difficulty because organizing have combined to place the city’s of the onset of the worst economic crisis since Mexican and other Latin American communi- the Great Depression. The current global re- 7 ties of origin at the forefront of evolving pat- cession is more than a temporary slowdown terns and practices of transnational civic en- of world financial markets. Rather, it is a vote IMMIGRANTS IN THE WINDY CITY: LATINO gagement and political participation. of no confidence in the so-called “Washington To advance our understanding of this new Consensus,” whose side effects in the forms of transnationalism, the National Alliance of insufficient government regulation and height- Latin American and Caribbean Communities ened speculation have threatened many Latin (NALACC), Enlaces América, and the American economies. This is especially the case Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute or- for Mexico and for some Central American and ganized the workshop, “Community Dialogue Caribbean countries, which have made the te- on Transnational Activism in Chicago: nets of the “Washington Consensus” the foun- Strategies of Integration and Engagement,” in dation of their economic policies for years. October 2007. The dialogue was held at Casa The ongoing economic crisis bolsters argu- New Trends in Civic Engagement in Civic Trends New Michoacán, the headquarters of the Federation ments made by migrant-led organizations in of Michoacán Hometown Associations in favor of the adoption of new social and eco- Illinois (Federación de Clubes Michoacanos en nomic policies in their countries of origin. With Illinois) in Chicago’s predominantly Mexican the U.S. economy shedding hundreds of thou- Pilsen neighborhood.