Afterword

This chapter addresses the dearth of scholarship on, and academic attention to Latina/os of mixed national heritages as a sector of our population. Based on twenty interviews with Intralatina/os in Chicago, the chapter argues that they perform and embody Latinidad in their everyday family lives, negotiate between their two or more national identities, and experience relational racializations within both of their national communities. Their national negotiations reveal the complicated and shifting meanings of their multiple nationalities. In reclaiming their presence and legitimacy as hybrid Latino/as within their families and communities, Intralatino/as both engage the fluidity of national imaginaries as well as reify them in daily performances of culture, class, gender, and race. This research project aims to foster future research interventions that analyze Intralatina/o lives in the United States.

El Museo del Norte

This essay offers an overview of the El Museo del Norte, a community/university partnership with the goal of establishing a “museum without walls” in Detroit, Michigan. The essay provides some background on the genesis and development of the museum project, as well as it’s scholarly, pedagogical and community goals. Beyond offering a narrative of the project, the essay also engages with some of the conceptual, methodological, and personal questions that shape such public humanities initiatives. As such, it offers a meditation on the challenges and productive tensions that arise when our scholarship and teaching engages with modes of knowledge production that exceed the boundaries of the classroom or the library.

History in Drag

This chapter examines the performances of Miss Ketty Teanga, a Chicago-based trans-Latina drag queen, and argues they were an example of Latina/o queer worldmaking. Miss Ketty’s performances evoked history through her fashion, hair, makeup, and musical taste in order to present alternative patterns of cultural consumption to her young fans. In contrast to mainstream drag culture and popular media’s pop-oriented, fast-paced choreography, her performances evoked a queer past by drawing on slow, dramatic presentations of boleros that emphasized upper-body choreography.

Latina/o Immigration before 1965

This essay examines the migration of Mexican immigrants, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans to Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s, long before the more widely recognized post-1965 immigration to the U.S. from Latin America. It argues that this pre-1965 migration to the Midwest was significant and played a critical role in establishing communities that would receive later migrants. In fact, by 1970, the city of Chicago officially counted nearly a quarter of a million Hispanics or Latinos in that year’s census. The essay examines how these populations became racialized as “non-white” in employment, housing, and the local enforcement and perceptions surrounding immigration policy.

¡Viva La Causa! in Iowa

This chapter explores how Mexican Americans in Iowa supported the national boycott of California table grapes in the 1960s while concurrently fighting for the rights of Tejano migrant workers employed seasonally in Iowa’s agricultural industry. Their advocacy for legislative change through community-based coalitions illuminates the collaborative efforts of members of organizations such as migrant agencies, unions, and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in securing passage of Iowa’s first migrant worker legislation.

The Young Lords Organization in Chicago

This chapter examines the formation and lifespan of the street-gang-turned-political-entity, the Young Lords. Founded as a turf gang in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago in 1959, the group shifted focus and purpose in 1968 under the leadership of José “Cha Cha” Jiménez. This brief history of the Young Lords Organization examines their emergence as a social movement organization, Jiménez’s influences for transforming the group, the group’s activism, and the group’s connections with the Young Patriots Organization and the Black Panther Party under the label of the Rainbow Coalition. The original Chicago chapter granted charters to form branches in New York, Milwaukee, and elsewhere; but the Young Lords Organization in Chicago was largely defunct by 1972.

The Black Angel

The literature on Cuban born artist Ana Mendieta commonly ignores her Midwest experience, imbricating her Latinidad with her homeland in Cuba and with her multiple trips to and production of site-specific artworks in Mexico. This chapter looks at Mendieta's experiences in Iowa City, where she arrived at the age of 12 as a refugee of Operation Peter Pan and where she lived longer than any other location. By studying an enigmatic film that the artist made in 1975 called The Black Angel, it argues that Mendieta was aware of and could identify with other immigrant experiences in her adopted state, especially those portrayed through images of motherhood and loss.

Contesting the Myth of Uncaring

This chapter explores and challenge the perception that immigrant parents demonstrate a kind of caring and advocacy that differs from dominant majority parents. It situates the case of one Salvadoran parent in the larger context of research that documents the differing communication practices of immigrant parents and teachers who teach their children. Teachers may misinterpret communication practices and participation in school events as a lack of caring. Using the story of Margarita, a Salvadoran parent of three children, the chapter demonstrates the experiences of one immigrant parent interacting with rural teachers to show how Latina/o parents are involved and actively advocate for their children’s academic futures. It concludes with a call to educators to adopt new visions of working with immigrant parents in jointly constructed activities where both parents and teachers assume shared roles of learning to solve problems, and to learn to work across diverse experiences.

Not Just Laborers

This essay focuses on Latina/o claims to belonging in the community and the nation while working and living in Perry, Iowa. Attracted to jobs in the meatpacking industry, Latinas/os made connections to Perry and developed a sense of belonging despite feeling initially unwelcomed by the town’s residents. Among the challenges confronted by Latina/o residents were the policing of their use of Spanish, negative perceptions of a local Spanish-language radio station, and the racialization of Latinas/os as criminals and foreigners. By confronting these challenges and claiming a place in the community, Latinas/os demonstrated the changing nature of the rural heartland. The town’s Latinas/os characterized themselves as integral to the social, economic, and political fabric of their community and the nation.

Mexican Workers and Life in South Chicago

By recognizing and not underestimating the significance of everyday forms of resistance and the politics of culture, as well as institutions and organizations not normally seen as vehicles for everyday and working class change, we can delve into the strategies that helped Mexicans in interwar South Chicago cope with the oppressive environment that surrounded them. Individual Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans in interwar South Chicago, including steel workers, shop owners, union organizers, and social workers, formed a community that was able to change its physical and cultural environment to help its members and create a degree of resistance that helped Mexicans persevere against intimidation and prejudice. These individual and community histories—the stories of people, organizations, and their physical surroundings—shed light on Mexicano life in a place far from the border and at the industrial heart of the United States.