15 Growing Up Latino in Chicago

Chicago, one of the most diverse cities in America is home to many different races and ethnicities. Many of them being Asian, African American, Hispanic, and Latinx. Many of those of the Latinx culture have resided in Chicago, as that is their home and where they have grown up in. Growing up Latino in Chicago comes with many blessings, as well as consequences that Latinx people face. This could be dealing with alienation, immigration, and struggles to keep their culture and their roots alive. Growing up as a Latinx person in Chicago comes with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Let’s first start looking at the Day in the Life of Armando, a five-year-old boy who was being interviewed by David Banzer, Christina Delgado, Kathleen M. Sheridan, and Gayle Mindes, who are authors of the article for Childhood Explorer. is growing up in Humboldt, Chicago Illinois., Armando’s parents are immigrants from Mexico. Armando has three brothers and one sister and lives fairly close to their grandparents whom they visit on the weekends. Armando’s family comes from a low-income background, but thanks to a program called Erie Neighborhood House, it assists in childcare and early starts in state-funded preschools, so children like Armando can have the daily experiences that other children have that live in the city of Chicago. On school days, Armando attends preschool from 8am – 3:30pm, where his father drives him to school, and his mother picks him up at the end of the day. The family usually gets a snack after school and plays at the local park before heading home, where Armando and his siblings will play with each other, and watch television before getting ready for bed and the next day ahead.

One of the authors interviewing Armando asked what he does in the morning before going to school, he stated, “In the morning, I sleep and I wake up and drink water. I eat cereal for breakfast or have milk and bagels, but my favorite breakfast is sausages. I like to eat food before I go to school. Then I brush my teeth.” Armando also told the authors of the article for Childhood Explorer, that while he is at school; he enjoys playing with Magna-tiles and drawing about food and his family in his journal, before his mother picks him up from school. If Armando does not go to the park, then he is at home playing with his toys, his hermanos, and eating super-hot food like chili and hotdogs. Armando states, “I like to eat huevos (eggs) con salsa. And I like tacos and chili (peppers). All the chili! They’re hot! I eat chili with hot dogs.” A child with a bright soul.

Many children like Armando grow up in the city of Chicago in much of a Latinx/Hispanic community. Although most people do not get the insight of a child that grows up in a Latinx/Hispanic neighborhood in the city of Chicago, it is nice to see how the lifestyle is viewed from children like Armando, and how it affects their childhood.

Fernanda Ponce, a Mexican American who was born in Chicago to Mexican Immigrant parents did a TedTalk titled, “What Being Hispanic and Latinx Means in the United States” where she talks about the identity-addressing stereotypes and assumptions that are placed upon the Latinx and Hispanic community. Ponce talks about the Latinx people and how they shape the culture of America, because in 2016; a Hispanic woman was accused of cutting in line of another woman and was called a “nobody” and that she should return to wherever she has come from. The insults did not stop there, and the people that were in the back of the line, nodded in agreement that the woman was saying, and did nothing to defend the Hispanic woman that was being accused, and demeaned in a public store.

Ponce states that, “The United States cannot deny that Latinos play an important role in our country. We cannot allow them to be disparaged by the misconception we create about them” (timestamp 5:38-5:53). Ponce then talks about differentiating the definition of Latino and Hispanic, as there are often misconceptions between the two, as she does state about Judge L Gonzalo who was mislabeled by the United States and was deemed as being hostile. Ponce clarifies that being Latino, or Hispanic is not a term that is used to define face, like many other race terminologies that are used around the world. The term Latino and Hispanic are terms that belong to ethnicity, which states that, “the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition” (clip 7:04). Ponce finalizes her Ted Talk that people should reach out to one another, learn something about each other, in order for society to become as one as human being.

Fernanda Ponce’s Ted Talk demonstrates the societal differences that many Latinx and Hispanics face, in culture, politics, and the economy as a whole. Although Ponce does not refer to these issues only happening in her hometown of Chicago or talks about her experience growing up around this, it is important to see how these circumstances can be widespread to not only Latinx/Hispanic communities in Chicago, but across the country.

Lastly to finalize this discussion of Growing up Latino in Chicago, this will shift focus to the issues of Immigration and Citizenship of those who live in metropolitan Chicago. According to a study conducted by the Institute of Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, many were asked why they chose to come to Chicago, and they stated mainly because of work, and presence of family. However, despite the large migration of Latin Americans and Mexicans in Chicago, they are only slightly more than half that have arrived in Chicago in recent years. “67 percent of Chicago-are Latinos are citizens, while 31 percent of foreign-born Latinos are naturalized citizens”, according to the Institute of Latino Studies. It is also stated that about 400,000 of those who live in Illinois, are undocumented immigrants. Even if that is a high number of undocumentation, it should still be considered that the estimation of size is inconclusive, because of the unofficial nature of their arrival. The Institute of Latino Studies also states that, “With or without documentation, more than 20,000 new Latino immigrants, primarily from Mexico, take up residence in metropolitan Chicago each year. As will be described below, most are very hard working but earn exceptionally low wages. Without them many employers would have difficulty keeping their businesses profitable.” Even those most Latino Immigrants enjoy economic success, many of them lack basic rights and protections that other residents receive because of their citizenship, which forces those without documentation to have an ‘underground’ existence, with the possibility of workforce exploitation that the study states. In the book Citizen Illegal, one of the Mexican Heaven poems talks about how ‘Saint Peter’ let’s Mexicans into heaven but that they only work in the kitchens. It states, “they dream of another heaven, one they might be allowed in if they work hard enough” (loc. 334). This poem pairs with the struggles of many Mexicans who come to the United States who experience work exploitation, and hope that if they work hard enough, they can experience better future.

Many of the stories and videos that have been studied, have shown how it is growing up in Chicago as a Latino. Some of these may have taken the view of an everyday life of a five year old child, or a speaker that was born and raised in Chicago, that speaks on what it means being Latinx and Hispanic in the United States, and breaking the misconceptions and stereotypes that are placed upon them, and the issues of immigration and citizenship in Chicago. Some of these outcomes relate to a book called “Citizen Illegal”, which is a composition of poems that talk about the life of Latinos/Hispanics in how they grew up, their culture, and their struggles with immigration in the United States. Some of these views may be innocent and heartwarming, and some of these views can be heartbreaking and eye-opening to the experiences that may have been studied so far.

Works Cited

Banzer, David, et al. “Day in the Life of Armando.” Childhood Explorer, www.childhoodexplorer.org/armando.

Ready, Timothy, and Allert Brown-Gort. The State of Latino Chicago. “PDF.” 2005.

“What Being Hispanic and Latinx Means in the United States | Fernanda Ponce | TEDxDeerfield.” What Being Hispanic and Latinx Means in the United States | Fernanda Ponce | TEDxDeerfield, Tedx Talks, 10 Apr. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1A4Vsh5Qas.

Olivarez, Jose. Citizen Illegal. Kindle Edition, Haymarket Books, 2018.