We're celebrating Hispanic-American Heritage month with a deep dive into the rich history and diversity of the Hipanic/Latino/LatinX/Latine community in Chicago.

Topics include the following:

-the debate about the language we use to describe the Hispanic or Latino community -the first Latinos in Chicago in the 1850s -the political upheavals in Central and South America that drove migration -the mass deportations during the Depression -the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924 -the Bracero Program (1942-1964), which brought Mexican laborers to the US to help with the war effort -the program of expulsion, unfortunately named Operation Wetback (1954), which forcefully removed Mexicans and Mexican-American citizens from the US -the rise of the Chicano movement, the Young Lords, and the Brown Berets in the 60s

Check out the website for the exhibition on Latino Chicago at the Chicago History Museum here:

https://www.chicagohistory.org/aqui-en-chicago/

And here's the link to historical Spanish-language newspapers in Chicago:

https://www.nicolemarroquin.com/harrison-and-froebel/2019/12/4/latinx-newspapers-of-chicago

And here's a link to the book Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s by Francisco E. Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez: https://www.unmpress.com/9780826339744/decade-of-betrayal/

Our expert guests are Dr. Elena Gonzales and Dr. Lilia Fernandez.

Elena Gonzales is Curator of Civic Engagement & Social Justice at the Chicago History Museum where she is curating Aquí en Chicago (2025). She is author of Exhibitions for Social Justice (2019) in Routledge’s Museum Meanings Series.

Lilia Fernandez is Professor of History at University of Illinois-Chicago. She is the author of _Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago _ (2012).