Rough Draft: The White Hipster at the Corner

A white woman and her young daughter approach the counter at La Casa del Pueblo Taquería in Pilsen, a low-income Latino neighborhood just southwest of Chicago’s central business district. The woman taking her order of caldo de pollo with arroz and frijoles just finished serving three Spanish-speaking parties. She releases a thick accent when she initiates the interaction with, “Hello. What would you like?”

La Casa del Pueblo is a cafeteria-style restaurant that offers a selection of caldos, including menudo, pozole, and caldo de camarón, pescado, albóndiga and pollo. All entrees, like the carne de res, tamales, and guisado, come with the traditional Mexican sides, arroz and frijoles. All of the employees speak English, but judging from the dominating Spanish dialogue in the Taquería, they prefer Spanish. La Casa del Pueblo commands attention from Latinos mostly, but it’s been attracting a growing non-Latino audience for a while now.

If La Casa del Pueblo is grateful for the diversity of its clientele, it can thank the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA), the nation’s largest ethnic museum located a few blocks away on 19th street. Reception desk worker Sonia González recommends the taquería to most Museum visitors, mostly school groups and tourists. She directs them to restaurants, panaderías, and tortillerías on the busy 18th street, close to Museum-commissioned murals painted by local artists and high school students. A local favorite, Taquería El Milagro and its small-scale tortilla factory next door stand a block from the “Declaration of Immigration” mural. Five columns of black-and-red-painted statements read:

WE ARE A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS
NO INHUMANE TREATMENT, DEPORTATION, FAMILY SEPARATION,
DETENTION
NO WALL
NO HUMAN BEING IS ILLEGAL
NATIONAL SECURITY IS USED TO FOSTER INTER ETHNIC TENSIONS

Two days after its completion in 2009, the spray-painted words, “LIES LIES LIES” and, “MEXICANS ARE RACIST” covered the last statement.

One street over, Panadería Nuevo Leon bakes fresh conchas everyday around 4pm. Even among the dozens of other panaderías on its street alone, Nuevo Leon stands out for its quality conchas, bolillos, and other breads and pastries.

The people of Pilsen don’t frequent chain restaurants because they don’t exist here. No McDonalds or Subway, and not one Starbucks. And most of the unique local businesses, like La Cebollita, Mundial Cocina Mestiza, and La Casa del Pueblo, cater to the Mexican palate.

González, who grew up in Pilsen, knows the neighborhood better than most Museum employees. She prides herself in her back-of-the-hand knowledge of the neighborhood. That’s why coworkers leave her with the task of directing visitors to Pilsen’s best attractions. But her life-long familiarity with the area also makes her one of the best judges of Pilsen’s changing demographic, and the rising threat of gentrification. More importantly, though, is the perspective of an NMMA employee like González on neighborhood changes.

The young white man with a trendy messenger bag standing on the same corner as the champurrado vendor and his traveling cart is a tip off: the ethnic composition of Pilsen is different and has been since the first signs of a diminishing Latino population around 1990. The NMMA has a lot to do with how this non-Latino audience got here. Everyday tourists from all over the country and other parts of Chicago ask González the same question: Where should I go next? It’s other Museum employees, media outlets tied to the Museum, and informational brochures given by the Museum that send outsiders into the community.

Development Coordinator Anel Ruiz explains, “It's likely you have businesses that spring up with a business plan that relies on the people who are leaving the Museum." She adds, “I see more higher end businesses going up, I see businesses similar to those in Near North, where they have the fancy delis, sandwich shops, coffee shops. And some of them survive but most of them don’t. They haven’t been able to feed that type of clientele yet. People still want their ethnic foods. I’m always surprised to see that they don’t last. But you put up a taco joint and those type of places still hang in there.”

She says that business owners in the area are trying to attract a different type of clientele now, and it’s not “our people”. Even among the Mexican restaurants in Pilsen are smaller restaurants with higher end Mexican food. “They’re trying to attract the higher income Latinos,” explains Ruiz.

Even though these higher-end businesses and business plans don’t always last, a trend is emerging that reflects the changing demographic and the changing nature of Pilsen’s economic development.

Ruiz and her Development coworkers agree that gentrification is a threat to Pilsen and its residents, and it’s unstoppable. Ruiz has heard several cases of NMMA visitors coming back to the neighborhood looking for permanent residence.

“Some individuals may say, ‘I like Pilsen’, and it doesn’t take long for them to realize that Pilsen is in the ideal spot,” says Ruiz. It’s ideal because of its access to public transportation, its proximity to the major expressways, Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, a big university, its housing stock, the numerous churches, restaurants and bakeries. “And then people who are trying to gentrify the neighborhood are starting to realize that these rents are not your typical depressed rents. The property values are still very good there so that draws in more affluent people, and people who want to invest in properties because they’re seeing an opportunity to make money,” she adds. What results is higher rents and, eventually, the displacement of existing community members.

That’s why, Ruiz believes, Pilsen residents feel conflicted about the NMMA’s existence. In a sense, it’s a prized possession as the largest Latino museum in the country and the only one accredited by the American Association of Museums. It brings in people who bring in revenue to places like La Casa del Pueblo. But there comes a point when the Museum stops being a beacon of culture and ethnic pride and turns into a commodity of locality and neighborhood identity.

The NMMA falls, maybe unwillingly, into a package of tourism that uses Pilsen’s unique Mexican culture as a marketing tool. So when the Mexican woman behind the counter at La Casa del Pueblo takes the order of this young white woman and her young daughter, it should be an innocent interaction between a business and its clientele. But in Pilsen, meaning runs deep.

(Sidenote: I intend to make this piece at least another 800-1000 words--I just ran out of time to add all of my descriptions and explanations!)