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From national to topophilic attachments: Continuities and changes in Chicago's Mexican migrant organizations

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Abstract

The study of early transnational connections between Chicago-based Mexican organizations and the Mexican government is important for understanding the roots of contemporary practices of civic binationality in the city of Chicago. This article presents a historical analysis of Mexican migrant organizations in the city of Chicago and the metropolitan area to understand continuities, similarities and differences between contemporary Mexican hometown associations and early-twentieth-century organizations. Using original archival sources to map the historical evolution of Mexican migrant organizations, the article demonstrates that contemporary Mexican hometown associations established in the 1980s are not an entirely new phenomenon. While every migratory wave had its unique transnational characteristics, early-migrant organizations engaged in transnational practices with the Mexican state through the consulate and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; neither established working collaborations with state governments and municipalities nor used topophilic identities as organizing banners.

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Notes

  1. Sociedad Mutualistica Ignacio Zaragoza (sic), meeting at Bowen Hall, Hull House, Chicago, 2 June 1928, Chicago and Calumet Area Field Notes, Paul Shuster Taylor Papers, Bancroft Library Film 2724, Carton 11, Folders 32–34, p. 107.

  2. For concrete examples of HTAs agendas, see Schütze and Boruchoff in this issue.

  3. Membership Applications, Sociedad Mutualista Cuauhtémoc, 1940, (1944–1950), Unión Benéfica Mexicana Records (UBMR), Calumet Regional Archives (CRA) 136, Box 2, File folders 5–9, CRA, Indiana University Northwest.

  4. Bylaws, Sociedad Mutualista Benito Juárez, 1939, UBMR, Series Sociedad Mutualista Benito Juárez, CRA 136, Box 1, Folder file 2.

  5. For an in depth study of topophilic attachments, see (Tuan, 1974).

  6. Ernest W. Burgess Papers, Box 188 Series IV, Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library.

  7. Correspondence, Sociedad Mutualista Benito Juárez, 1939–1950, UBMR, CRA 136, Folders 3–8.

  8. ibid.

  9. ibid.

  10. Archivo Histórico Diplomático, Fondo Instituciones Filantrópicas Mexicanas, Núm. Exp. 73-10/523. IV/523 (73-10)/3 and Fondo IV-3399-20.

  11. Archivo Histórico Diplomático, Fondo Cónsules, Letter num. 1027, Exp. (73-10)/514.

  12. Reglamento de las Comisiones Honoríficas Mexicanas, 1930, Archivo Histórico Diplomático, Departamento Consular, Instituciones Filantrópicas Mexicanas.

  13. Correspondence, Benito Juárez, 1939–1950, UBMR, CRA 136, Box 1, File folders 3–8.

  14. Ordinary meeting minutes, 1956, UBMR, CRA 136, Box 1, File folder 2.

  15. In the late 1980s, the UBM had 82 members in its roster, and by 2006 it only had 95 members, down from approximately 1000 members that the Juárez and the Cuauhtémoc had in 1948.

  16. Community Organizations in Chicago, archive of the Mexican General Consulate in Chicago.

  17. The Crown, Monthly Bulletin, 14 February 1976, p. 5.

  18. In an unpublished manuscript, historian Louise Año Nuevo Kerr describes a Wildcats reunion meeting she attended in 1995 and mentions that many members made trips from Guadalajara, Los Angeles and Arizona to participate. At the event, all the discussions were taking place mostly in Chicago-accented English although the topics focused on California's Proposition 187, the conflict in Chiapas and Mexico's peso devaluation, see Año Nuevo Kerr (n.d.).

  19. Annual Report of the Mexican American Council of Chicago 1954–1955, Chicago Historical Society.

  20. For a revision of the classical assimilation theory applied to the Mexican case in the United States, see (Jiménez, 2009).

  21. In 2008, a search in the official Illinois Lions Clubs Web site listed the Chicago Azteca Lions as an active organization meeting every Wednesday at Don Rafa Restaurant at 4617-19 S. Kedzie Av. The Mexican Lions Club was not listed anymore but there is a Chicago Mexica Club.

  22. Beauty Pageant Program of 1996, Sociedad Cívica Mexicana, Community Organizations in Chicago, Archive of the General Mexican Consulate in Chicago.

  23. For more on the process of decentralization of local governments in Mexico, see (Grindle, 2007).

  24. In 2008, more than half (61.5 per cent) of Mexican-born adults aged 25 and older living in the United States had no high school diploma or the equivalent General Education Diploma (Terrazas, 2010).

  25. The Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights and the Chicago Community Trust were among the first supporters of Mexican HTAs in the 1990s.

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    Xóchitl Bada

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Bada, X. From national to topophilic attachments: Continuities and changes in Chicago's Mexican migrant organizations. Lat Stud 11, 28–54 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/lst.2012.53

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