Something to think about: A day without Mexicans in Chicago
Something to think about: A day without Mexicans in Chicago
Copyright by The Chicago Tribune
By John P. Koval and Rob Paral
Published April 27, 2006
How will Chicago, and the country, answer the Mexican question? Will Mexican immigrants ever learn English and become "real" Americans? As two third-generation Eastern Europeans we know the same question was asked about our grandparents. Now we are hearing some immigrant-descended parents asking the same things about current immigrants.
One of us is the grandson of an immigrant Slovak who worked as a butcher in Chicago's stockyards; the other's grandfather was an immigrant Bohemian carpenter. We are especially sensitive, therefore, to the historical fact that the major impetus for the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 was the eugenics movement of that time. Eugenicists, characterized by one historian as fearing that "the American gene pool was being polluted by a rising tide of intellectually and morally defective immigrants--primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe," played a significant role in ending the greatest era of immigration in U.S. history. Evolution performs miracles, apparently. Through some highly improbable genetic mutation--possibly a recessive or airborne gene--the Slovak grandson is now teaching college classes to another group of questionable immigrants, Mexicans; the Bohemian grandson is a researcher of Latino immigration. Fitting careers for Slovak and Czech descendants since, after all, Eastern Europeans were the Mexicans of their day.
So, what would a day without Mexicans be like for Chicago--and, more to the point, what does such a day tell us about what life would be like if there were no Mexicans in Chicago at all?
- When you wake up in the morning think twice about indulging in the luxury of someone else making your coffee and cooking your breakfast at a neighborhood cafe or restaurant. Almost all kitchen help, food-prep workers and cooks in Chicago are Mexican.
- If any of you reading this are business travelers staying in Chicago for a couple of days, you had better get used to the idea of making your own bed Thursday morning; the hotel housekeeping staff is almost entirely immigrant and largely Mexican.
- You'll have a slow day if you sell meat or poultry; close to 100 percent of Chicago's packing-house cutters and meat packers are Mexican.
- On construction crews the "Mexican work" will have to be done by other guys, since there will be a severe shortage of drywallers and roofers.
- City landscaping crews engaged in the ongoing beautification of Chicago parks, parkways and public spaces will need to pull a few weeds today; no trees or shrubbery will be on hand since the suburban nursery workers who dig, burlap-wrap and load trees and shrubbery for planting are, yes, you've guessed it, Mexican.
- And if you think you deserve a break tonight to think over your position on "the Mexican issue" and eat Japanese, you may experience a bit of a wait for your food since nearly a third of all Chicago sushi chefs are Mexican.
The inconveniences experienced by Chicagoans as the result of only one day without Mexicans carry a simple but powerful message. Think of the inconvenience to the owners of the businesses who cannot find enough workers, or to the consumers who must pay much higher prices for services (if they can find them), or to the citizens whose states must make do with fewer congressional seats because their populations have fallen. Who would keep Chicago's housing market afloat if Mexicans were no longer buying houses of whites who have been leaving the region? Or ... you fill in the rest.
It is because of events that occurred in Chicago 120 years ago that the rest of the world adopted May 1 as International Workers' Day, which is still celebrated almost everywhere--except in the United States. Chicago (and the country) blew it on May 1, 1886, when it could have been a national and international leader in recognizing workers' rights. Instead, Chicago's participation in the May 1 national strike to promote an eight-hour workday culminated in such violence that organized labor was cowed by the public and political repercussions and the eight-hour workday movement became inextricably linked with riots and brutal conflict in the minds of the city and the nation. It wasn't until the passage of the Adamson Act in 1916, 30 years later, that the eight-hour day was federally mandated. Not until nearly half a century later did workers gain the legally recognized right to organize and engage in collective bargaining.
Let's not make the same mistake twice. This time around these workers are asking for no more than our immigrant grandparents did; that is, they want the rest of us to recognize the dignity and importance of their work and, perhaps, embrace them as the living embodiment of our own forefathers--coming to America to make a better life for themselves and for their families.
----------
John Koval and Rob Paral are visiting fellows at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Koval is also an associate professor of sociology at DePaul University.
Copyright by The Chicago Tribune
By John P. Koval and Rob Paral
Published April 27, 2006
How will Chicago, and the country, answer the Mexican question? Will Mexican immigrants ever learn English and become "real" Americans? As two third-generation Eastern Europeans we know the same question was asked about our grandparents. Now we are hearing some immigrant-descended parents asking the same things about current immigrants.
One of us is the grandson of an immigrant Slovak who worked as a butcher in Chicago's stockyards; the other's grandfather was an immigrant Bohemian carpenter. We are especially sensitive, therefore, to the historical fact that the major impetus for the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 was the eugenics movement of that time. Eugenicists, characterized by one historian as fearing that "the American gene pool was being polluted by a rising tide of intellectually and morally defective immigrants--primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe," played a significant role in ending the greatest era of immigration in U.S. history. Evolution performs miracles, apparently. Through some highly improbable genetic mutation--possibly a recessive or airborne gene--the Slovak grandson is now teaching college classes to another group of questionable immigrants, Mexicans; the Bohemian grandson is a researcher of Latino immigration. Fitting careers for Slovak and Czech descendants since, after all, Eastern Europeans were the Mexicans of their day.
So, what would a day without Mexicans be like for Chicago--and, more to the point, what does such a day tell us about what life would be like if there were no Mexicans in Chicago at all?
- When you wake up in the morning think twice about indulging in the luxury of someone else making your coffee and cooking your breakfast at a neighborhood cafe or restaurant. Almost all kitchen help, food-prep workers and cooks in Chicago are Mexican.
- If any of you reading this are business travelers staying in Chicago for a couple of days, you had better get used to the idea of making your own bed Thursday morning; the hotel housekeeping staff is almost entirely immigrant and largely Mexican.
- You'll have a slow day if you sell meat or poultry; close to 100 percent of Chicago's packing-house cutters and meat packers are Mexican.
- On construction crews the "Mexican work" will have to be done by other guys, since there will be a severe shortage of drywallers and roofers.
- City landscaping crews engaged in the ongoing beautification of Chicago parks, parkways and public spaces will need to pull a few weeds today; no trees or shrubbery will be on hand since the suburban nursery workers who dig, burlap-wrap and load trees and shrubbery for planting are, yes, you've guessed it, Mexican.
- And if you think you deserve a break tonight to think over your position on "the Mexican issue" and eat Japanese, you may experience a bit of a wait for your food since nearly a third of all Chicago sushi chefs are Mexican.
The inconveniences experienced by Chicagoans as the result of only one day without Mexicans carry a simple but powerful message. Think of the inconvenience to the owners of the businesses who cannot find enough workers, or to the consumers who must pay much higher prices for services (if they can find them), or to the citizens whose states must make do with fewer congressional seats because their populations have fallen. Who would keep Chicago's housing market afloat if Mexicans were no longer buying houses of whites who have been leaving the region? Or ... you fill in the rest.
It is because of events that occurred in Chicago 120 years ago that the rest of the world adopted May 1 as International Workers' Day, which is still celebrated almost everywhere--except in the United States. Chicago (and the country) blew it on May 1, 1886, when it could have been a national and international leader in recognizing workers' rights. Instead, Chicago's participation in the May 1 national strike to promote an eight-hour workday culminated in such violence that organized labor was cowed by the public and political repercussions and the eight-hour workday movement became inextricably linked with riots and brutal conflict in the minds of the city and the nation. It wasn't until the passage of the Adamson Act in 1916, 30 years later, that the eight-hour day was federally mandated. Not until nearly half a century later did workers gain the legally recognized right to organize and engage in collective bargaining.
Let's not make the same mistake twice. This time around these workers are asking for no more than our immigrant grandparents did; that is, they want the rest of us to recognize the dignity and importance of their work and, perhaps, embrace them as the living embodiment of our own forefathers--coming to America to make a better life for themselves and for their families.
----------
John Koval and Rob Paral are visiting fellows at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Koval is also an associate professor of sociology at DePaul University.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 8:39 AM
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