Puerto Ricans in Illinois

This is not a history of Puerto Ricans in Illinois; however, it is an indispensable volume for historians and other scholars interested in the Puerto Rican experience in Illinois, Latino immigration in the Midwest, and regional ethnohistory. The authors are not historians. Maura Toro-Morn is a professor of sociology at Illinois State University and director of that institution's Latino Studies program, while Ivis Garcia, former cochair of the Puerto Rican Agenda Chicago, is an assistant professor of city and metropolitan planning at the University of Utah. The coauthors’ approach to their subject is very much grounded in social science analysis, yet social historians and policy analysts may find invaluable quantitative and qualitative date in this work.In recent years there have been several informative monographs published by Midwestern university presses on both regional immigration experiences and Midwestern Latino experiences. Among these titles published by the University of Illinois Press has been Sergio M. Gonzalez's Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (2024); Rita D. Hernández, Leticia Villarreal Sosa, and Elena R. Gutiérrez's Chicago Latina Trailblazers: Testimonios of Political Activism (2024); and Delia Fernández-Jones's Making the MexiRican City: Migration, Placemaking, and Activism in Grand Rapids, Michigan (2023). In fact, the recent literature in Midwestern Latino studies and history is as diverse as the topics in the field, including diasporas, ethnic/racial heterogeneity, immigration policies and politics, and other topics.Toro-Morn and Garcia's study provides a needed starting point in comprehending the Puerto Rican historical experience in the Prairie State. The authors willingly admit to the limitations of their work. In their introduction, the authors confess: “As a first attempt to document the experiences of Puerto Ricans in the state of Illinois, this book does not offer an exhaustive analysis of the totality of the experience of Puerto Ricans in the Land of Lincoln. We have relied on networks of friends and professional connections to find and interview Puerto Ricans throughout the state, but some communities were beyond our reach due to time, access, and other limitations” (p. 6). While such an admission may reveal weaknesses in the analysis—geographical bias, topical incompleteness, and historiographical shortcomings, it does provide a refreshingly honest communication by scholars as to the newness, complexity, and potentiality of the field they are investigating.In contrast to Chicano immigration to Illinois, Puerto Rican movement, settlement, and cultural negotiation has been more recent and geographically constrained. What the authors posit in their introduction is the nature of Puerto Rican migration in relation to the nature of post-1965 movement to the United States stemming largely from the 1965 Immigration and Nationality (Hart-Cellar) Act, which transitioned US national demography beyond the racially biased 1924 Immigration (Johnson-Reed) Act. Unique to Puerto Rican northward movement compared to that of other Latinos and those from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East was the conflation of race, ethnicity, and citizenship.Organized topically, Puerto Ricans in Illinois combines personal and policy analysis with historical narratives. Following a lengthy introductory chapter on Puerto Ricans and the colonial history that has so profoundly shaped their mainland experiences, the authors turn to the migration of Puerto Ricans to Illinois, which, they aver, began in earnest in the mid-twentieth century. The preponderant majority of migrating Puerto Ricans arrived in Chicago, which meant that their experiences in Illinois would be largely affected by urban life as well as the negotiation of ethno-realities among the diverse population of Black, Chicano, Eastern European, and other groups living in the metropolitan area. Subsequent chapters focus on the nature of community-building among Illinois's Puerto Rican citizens, particularly in urban settings, such as Chicago, and focus on education, politics (including activism, such as the Young Lords), family, work, and commerce. Particularly compelling is the map and discussion of Chicago's Paseo Boricua commercial district that represents the intersection of community and economic life.Puerto Ricans in Illinois is a problematic book but, paradoxically, in a positive way. It is certainly not a historical monograph, but historians of race, ethnicity, urban life, immigration, and community development, especially in the Midwest and Illinois, will find this valuable. While narrowly focused on Puerto Ricans in Chicago for the most part, the authors demonstrate not only that this has been the primary experience for Illinois Puerto Ricans but also that additional and broader stories of rural and downstate populations are needed to develop this particular ethno-racial narrative.