: Sanctuary or Strategy?: Catholic Parish Schools and Mexican Educational Agency in Chicago, 1920–1980

• In Event: Latinx Student Activism, Institutional Power, and Cultural Resistance v2

Abstract

This paper offers a historiographical examination of Chicago’s K–12 parochial school system,
focusing on how these institutions served immigrant communities—particularly Mexican and
Mexican American families, 1920–1980. Since the founding of the republic, the public school
system was designed to create what James Fraser has described as a “(Protestant) civic religion
for the nation.”1
Its broader goal was to establish a “centralized American culture in a nation of
diverse regional culture changed daily by the arrival of new immigrants.”2 This enmeshment of
Americanism and Protestantism made the public schoolroom a vital site for “cultural conformity
and educational uniformity,” with assimilation as the ultimate aim.3
In contrast, scholars like
Marvin Lazerson argue that the growth of Catholic schools was a response to the “rapid
development of a Protestant-based public school system” highlighting how the “influx of
non-English speaking Catholics… [led to demands] that the Church support efforts to preserve
ethnic cultural values.”4 While parochial schools in the Southwest are often seen as more
responsive to Mexican cultural and linguistic needs, this paper examines how Catholic schools in Chicago addressed—or failed to address—the needs of Mexican and Mexican American
communities in the urban Midwest. This historiography explores how Chicago parish schools
approached cultural affirmation, bilingual instruction, and community-specific curricula. It maps
existing scholarship to lay groundwork for further inquiry into the educational agency and
institutional navigation of Mexican families in Chicago.
What has it meant to belong—or be excluded from—Catholic institutions and the U.S.? How
have Catholic schools leveraged immigrant vulnerability to appear benevolent, and what is
exchanged for that refuge? Using historical and decolonial methods, this paper interrogates
narratives of Catholic parish schools as sanctuary sites. Tracing the Church’s colonial legacy, it
examines how that history shaped Catholic education for Mexican communities in Chicago
through archival analysis of parish schools.

Author

• Sylvia Rosillo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign