El Barrio en Suburbia: A Diasporic History of Puerto Ricans in Elgin

• In Event: Barrio Dreams, Diaspora Memories

Abstract

Home to the fourth largest Puerto Rican community in Illinois, Elgin, a suburb of Chicago, has a long history of Puerto Rican migration. Made up of a community with deep ties to Aguada on the island as well as recent waves of people priced out of Chicago, these migrations reflect the multiple homes that the Puerto Rican diaspora in Chicagoland claim. Drawing on local historical society archives and oral interviews, this essay examines the increasingly suburban nature of the Puerto Rican diaspora, the ways in which notions of belonging and place are contested and reimagined by this community and the solidarities and tensions forged in interaction with Elgin’s larger Mexican community.

Author

• Daniel M Strom, University of Illinois Chicago