The study of Latinos in the Midwest is not a new phenomenon, but one that has gained increased recognition due in part to the leadership and vision of Julian Samora. The growth in the numbers of Latinos in the Midwest, a region that is today viewed as a rust belt and a context where change is slow to occur, has become increasingly important. In many ways, Latinos can be seen as contributing to the regeneration of the vitality of communities in the heartland of the United States. Especially important is their social, political, and economic incorporation in the coming decades,...

The Spanish explorers left huge footprints in the New World, and their cultural influences are widely felt today from the Canadian border with the United States to Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off the tip of South America. The mixing of Spanish, African, and other Old World cultures in the New World over the past five hundred years has left few, if any, indigenous peoples untouched and has produced a rich cultural tapestry that has variants of the Spanish language as the major thread that ties it together. In the United States, these peoples are called Latinos. They are a...

In the field of Chicano Studies, the Mesoamerican connection to the southwestern United States is well documented. However, these connections have not been adequately explored for the American Midwest. An alternative perspective, however, suggests a long-standing connection between the indigenous peoples of the Midwest, the Southwest, and Mesoamerica. Examining midwestern Chicano identity through the lens of story provides an interesting counternarrative that dramatically deviates from the dominant historical narrative for the region.

Storytelling and oral traditions have played an important role in the development of the field of Chicano Studies. In 1969, at the First Chicano National Conference in Denver,...

The Midwest has attracted Latinos since the early parts of the 20th century, when Mexicans were recruited to work in jobs in agriculture, railroads, meatpacking, stockyards, and manufacturing (Garcia 1978; Mapes 2004; Lane and Escobar 1987; Rosales 1978; Saenz 1991; Samora and Lamanna 1987; Sepulveda 1978; Valdés 1991; Vargas 1993; Wells 1978). While 90% of the Mexican-origin population in 1930 in the United States were located in five southwestern states (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas), 7% (numbering 98,122) made their home in the Midwest. At that time, Illinois had the sixth largest Mexican-origin population, with 28,906 making their...

The U.S. Latino population is not only the nation’s largest ethnic minority group, it is also the fastest growing group in the country, making up “more than half of the overall population growth in the United States” since 2000 (Passel and Cohn 2008). Indeed, Latinos are expected to more than double their numbers by 2050 and comprise 30% of the nation’s population. Accompanying this growth, unfortunately, is a fear of its impact on the “conventional tapestry” of the nation. Samuel Huntington, for example, in his 2004 bookWho Are We: The Challenges to America’s Nation Identity,argued that Latinos threaten...

This chapter explores the incorporation of recent Latino immigrants into local primary institutions in a medium-sized metropolitan area in the Midwest. Institutional incorporation is one dimension of what Portes and Rumbaut (2006) term “context of reception,” situations in the host nation and its communities that can both facilitate and inhibit the successful integration of newcomers and their ability to use whatever opportunities or resources are available. As Portes and Rumbaut (2006, 92) describe it, “Individuals with similar skills may be channeled toward very different positions in the labor market and the stratification system, depending on the type of community in...

Early on Tuesday, December 12, 2006, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) entered the Swift & Company pork-processing facility in Marshalltown, Iowa.¹ Federal agents blocked the exits and began checking identification, sorting workers into groups of citizens, legal residents, and those without legal documentation. Using handcuffs, they arrested 90 people, loaded them into three buses with opaque windows, and drove them to Camp Dodge, in Johnston, Iowa, a National Guard facility. Families, lawyers, and members of clergy struggled to get straightforward information from ICE officials about detainees’ whereabouts. After 72 hours, the arrested workers were deported or transferred to out-of-state federal detention...

Latinos now constitute the largest ethnic minority group in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau 2008b). As such, they have contributed more than half of the population growth (50.5%) in the United States in the 21st century (Fry 2008). Although most of the growth has taken place in geographical areas that historically have been home to a large Latino population, fast growth has occurred in smaller urban and rural areas in which the Latino influx is a relatively new phenomenon (Cunningham et al. 2006). With increased geographic dispersion of the Latino community, attention has been drawn to health coverage and...

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that from 2000 to 2007, the size of the Latino population grew by 10 million people, an increase of 27%, making them, by far, the nation’s largest minority group. The Latino population in the midwestern states grew by 30% over this time frame, adding about 1 million inhabitants. Crime and justice research has not kept pace with this regional and national population growth. Research on racial minorities and crime is largely a comparison of blacks’ and whites’ offense levels and justice outcomes (Hawkins 1995; Hebert 1997; Kaufman 2005; Martinez 2002; Russell 1998; Walker, Spohn, and...

During the 20th century, educational issues of segregation and language became increasingly interrelated legally. Beginning in 1930 several landmark federal cases in Texas and California addressed unequal treatment in the form of separate “Mexican Schools” with special classes for the Spanish speaking that separated them from Anglo students. During the 1940s, according to education historian Guadalupe San Miguel (1987, 121), most Texas school districts with growing numbers of Mexican students also segregated them “in classrooms, in the teachers’ roll books, and especially in extracurricular activities.” In 1947 a California appeals court ruled inMendez v. Westminsterthat segregation of Mexican...

In 2002 a local newspaper reported on the start of a distance learning program at an Aurora, Illinois, high school that would link adult students in Aurora with teachers in Mexico via satellite (Moore 2002).

[District One] ready to launch partnership with Mexico

Distance learning: Satellite link will allow immigrants to complete education

Aurora—People walking or driving past [District One] High School might notice for the first time a large object on the roof of the building. A satellite dish that will link the school to Mexico for a distance-learning program was installed this week. It should be tested...

In agriculture, Michigan’s second largest industry, Hispanics are becoming increasingly important. In 2006, Hispanics made up only 3.9% (393,281) of Michigan’s total population; however, this figure represents a 20.3% increase over the previous six years. Furthermore, Michigan ranks fourth in the nation in the number of seasonal agricultural migrant workers, with approximately 45,000 annually, most of whom are Hispanics. The majority of these workers come from Mexico, following the southern migrant stream and harvesting crops in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina before reaching Michigan. Texas, followed by California, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Washington, Idaho, and Michigan, had the...

For more than 30 years, thousands of viewers, both residents and visitors, have enjoyed Detroit’s oldest standing outdoor Mexican American / Chicano mural, commonly known asCitySpirit. An example of public art well integrated with a living space, the mural is prominently located on a busy street corner in Mexicantown, a vibrant Detroit community possessing the largest concentration of Latinos/Chicanos in Michigan. Painted in 1979 by Michigan muralists Martin Moreno (who now lives in Arizona) and me (I now teach in Texas), the mural has been cherished and protected by the neighborhood since its birth, surviving urban construction and the...

The studies and essays in this volume shed light on some aspects of the experiences and dimensions of Latinos in the Midwest. Although a robust body of scholarship is beginning to emerge, much research remains to be done both on the historical experience and current context of Latinos in midwestern communities, especially relative to ways by which they can be incorporated into societal institutions and how their socioeconomic status can be improved. The demographic shift that is currently under way portends many social, economic, and political consequences for the region and the nation, especially if the incorporation of this growing...