Jenn Arias ’23
Staff Writer
An anticipatory hush settles on the crowd as set-up begins. Interested parties turn their attention as the room continues to fill up. The room bubbles with energetic words, bouncing around each other to find meaning, diverse vessels waiting to be enlightened. It is time to begin.
February 28 brought enlightenment to Lake Forest College in the form of Dr. Lilia Fernandez, who started a dialogue about the rich cultural history of Latinos in postwar Chicago, the crucial role migrants have played in building this city, and why it matters today.
Fernandez is a history professor at University of Illinois Chicago. Her book, Brown in the City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago, focuses her research on the migration and settlement of these populations and the communities they formed.
According to Fernandez, the stigma surrounding the Latino (or Latinx which incorporates forms of self-identification) community has become stereotypical. They are seen as “a service worker, or low-wage laborers, or as the undocumented,” she said, “those are most often the characterizations that get attached to the population but there’s much more below the surface and a much richer and deeper heritage that many of us are entirely unaware of.”
When people think about the history of Chicago, they generally think about it in terms of black and white, including the influx of African Americans in the building of this city, she said.
“But where are Latinos in this picture? Where do we account for their presence, which has grown so dramatically in the last several decades?”
Historians who are working to uncover the history of Latinos emphasize the critical role they played in WWII, their assistance in building the 19th century American empire, and how they suffered in the postindustrial urban crises.
“All that we see gets limited to just the culture, the fiestas, the colors, the vibrancy,” said Fernandez. “Personally, I’m interested in going much deeper and expanding the context and the scope of these characterizations to provide a fuller picture of these groups and the complexity of their lives.”
A common misconception is that Latinos have been historically represented as low-wage farm workers, but Fernandez’s research is uncovering proof that they worked in manufacturing and industrial labor, became members of their local unions, and protested unfair dismissals.
What interests Fernandez is the history behind these portraits of Latino workers. This starts and finishes with contacting relatives who may still be alive.
“Doing oral history interviews can provide a wealth of information and they really let you know an individual person’s account of their experiences, what they remember, what they did, what they witnessed,” she said.
According to Fernandez, the biggest challenge of her research includes getting people she is interviewing to embrace their experiences and understand why their memories are important, significant, and worth repeating.
As the presentation finished, half of the audience filed out on to their Tuesday night plans, but those who lingered discussed personal connections, family histories, cultures they had experienced or places they wanted to travel, even documents that may be recovered. Lake Forest students who stuck around talked about the awareness presentations like this provide for the students.
“I can’t speak for Chicagoland in general, but for the College, having presentations like this, we have tons of culture celebrations, we have other programming to support Latinx information, so it’s just cool to have presentations like this,” said Morgan Blank ’24.
“I think the biggest thing I took away was just the Latino presence in Chicago for the past century and the ways they’ve contributed to the city and helped it grow,” said Tony Dellocono ’24. “I feel like there’s a lot more awareness of Latino accomplishments and the culture, how it’s progressed over time.”
