Tag Archives: Chicago

Puerto Rican Liked the Polish Establishments in Little Village Chicago

He moved out in 1989. Moved to Arizona. He keeps in contact with a few friends in the old neighborhood. He can’t believe how bad it has become in the Chicago Little Village neighborhood. He says that there was trouble before, but not like today. There used to be a lot of Polish and other European descent people in Little village by the 1980s, but it was mostly white with little bits of Latin Americans moving in. He loved the food. He remembers all the Polish delis and bakeries. He would name off a few foods that he liked. “Man, your don’t know what you’re missing if you haven’t tried it. I miss those places. The food was so good back then”.

He said that the white kids would sometimes pick on him. He had friends there, but sometimes he would run into the white gangs that would sometimes be around. “The two-two boys, the cobras,…” and others. Although he still misses the old neighborhood and how it used to be.

Being in the little village neighborhood before it became all Latin, it was a very safe neighborhood. He said that they didn’t call it little village, it was North Lawndale. It was a very safe and clean neighborhood.  He missed the food and the people there, but not the trouble makers of the area.

I started speaking with an older Mexican woman that lived in the same neighborhood. She agreed that the food was really good and that the neighborhood was really nice. But she didn’t agree with the first guy I spoke with. She said that Little Village was mostly Polish in the 60s and part of the 70s when Mexicans started to take the area, pushing the European neighbors out.

She said she misses the old neighborhood and good food there. Her aunt worked at the furniture store that’s in the picture attached to this document. She opened a Mexican restaurant in the 70s with her husband in the area.

She said it was a nice place. But in the 60s when they first moved in, the white gangs burned their garage down, because they didn’t want the Mexicans to move in. The Mexicans moved in anyways, and all the European types moved out.

26th Street

Gun Shots Are Easily Ignored in the Austin Neighborhood

Shirley is almost 51 years old. She grew up in the Austin neighborhood. A couple of her daughters live with her. She says that the neighborhood is not what it used to be. She advises me not to walk around the Austin neighborhood without backup with me.

I asked her how she liked living there now. She said she can’t wait till she moves. She was hearing gunshots last night. She says that she thinks they were gunshots but nowadays she doesn’t really listen for them because they’re so often. She said that she’s numb to it already. She can’t wait till she moves out of the neighborhood I’m going to a safer neighborhood.

She says that people aren’t as respectful as they used to be. Kids are dangerous now and very disrespectful. She just wants to move out of the area. Says that she’s been there too long.

I told her that I had heard from a few old timers that the Austin neighborhood was really beautiful back in the 1950s and ’60s. Shirley agreed with me. But I told her that the neighborhood was coming up and getting better especially north of Chicago avenue. She once again agreed with me.