Ethnic Chicago

The thing about Chicago is that once you leave the predominantly White and Rich North side, there are amazing pockets of ethnicity in the west and south. As part of one of my school projects, I am now researching some of these pockets. Last weekend, our visit was to the Pilsen, Little Village area known for a prominent working class Latino population. Combining a visit to a great Mexican restaurant and The American Museum of Mexican Art, we hopped off the 18th st station on the L and was flabbergasted to find an entire train stop covered in art.


Murals of mexican artists, Jesus Christ and Mary, Aztec, Mayan, Olmec art styles and copies of Frieda Kahlo's art covered every inch of the station and my team ran around for 20 minutes taking pictures of the murals on the train station alone. Once we poured out onto the streets we found that the colorful murals were everywhere you can find an open wall.



Who authorizes this? Who sets this up? We asked as we also noticed that every manhole cover on the main street looked like an Aztec treasure.


We walked into store after store, shooting pictures and looking around. Even without the "school" factor of the work, we were completely enjoying our explorations. The neighborhoods you never explore inside your own cities. Without doing this project, I would probably be thinking that Chicago is only about the north side only. Six months after I've moved here, I'm finally exploring a little bit.


At the Mexican art museum, we saw a collection of high quality Pre-Columbian, Mexican, Mexican-American and Contemporary art. The Latin love for color is simply amazing and attention to detail and craftsmanship amazed us. Painting below addresses the Chupacabra, a mythical goat-like devil creature that appears in Latin American culture. Contemporary art addresses the creature and American culture today.

When we encountered this piece of art, it covers an entire wall. At first we thought it was weaving or painting. We eventually found out that they were a million seed beads and out jaws dropped. Other pieces of art included paintings of Diego Rivera's, recreated using feathers.

If you ever find yourself in Chicago's 18th street area. Check out Nuevo Leon. It is a great Mexican restaurant with cheap prices and good food. The store front is really pretty too. Although it probably sounds gross to most, the beef tongue -mexican style is really tender and yummy.