Paseo Boricua

Paseo Boricua (loosely translated as "Boricua (Puerto Rican) Promenade") is a street section in the West Side of Chicago. It is located on Division Street, between Western Avenue and California Avenue, in the neighborhood of Humboldt Park. Paseo Boricua is microcosm of the Puerto Rican community. [ [http://www.prcc-chgo.org/paseo_boricua.htm Paseo Boricua: Un Pedacito de Patria en Chicago] ] [ [http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/usa/chicago/sights/1000317553?list=true Paseo Boricua] . Lonely Planet.]

Flanking this very flavorful strip on both sides are these fifty-nine feet tall Puerto Rican flags made of steel, 2 gateways that are the bookends of Paseo Boricua. [ [http://www.hispaniconline.com/magazine/2003/may/Cultura/ Paseo Boricua] . Hispanic Magazine. May 2003.]

Driving down this strip is like taking a trip to the Caribbean "Island of the Sun" without paying for a plane ticket.Fact|date=April 2008 Many businesses are named after Puerto Rican towns. The façades of some buildings look like they belong in old San Juan with its Spanish Colonial architecture.

This street is dedicated to Puerto Rican pride including a walk of fame with the names of many outstanding Puerto Ricans.

The Humboldt Park Paseo Boricua neighborhood is the political and cultural capital of the Puerto Rican community in the Midwest and some say in the Puerto Rican Diaspora.

History

Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and early 90s Humboldt Park was considered an economic dead zone by city planners and developers and became motherland to gangs like the Latin Kings, Maniac Latin Disciples (MLDs), Young Lords, and the Insane Spanish Cobras. Despite the fact that there was a vital community of families, property owners, and businesses, many people from both the inside and out saw little opportunity.

But in 1995, Division Street found new life when city officials and Latino leaders offered a symbolic gesture to recognize the neighborhood and the residents' roots. They christened it "Paseo Boricua" and installed two metal Puerto Rican flags—each weighing 45 tons, measuring 59 feet vertically and stretching across the street—at each end of the strip.

Under the flags, the struggling neighborhood transformed into one of the most vibrant Latino neighborhoods in Chicago, uniting the once fragmented Puerto Rican community. Since the community banded, the occupancy rate of the neighborhood rose to about 90 percent, home prices stabilized and Chicago's 550,000 Puerto Ricans have a place they call their own.

Over time, Paseo Boricua became a place where Puerto Ricans could go to learn about their heritage. A culture center was established, and the offices of local Puerto Rican politicians relocated their offices to Division Street. Recently, the City of Chicago has set aside money for Paseo Boricua property owners who want to restore their buildings' facades.

Visitors can hear salsa, reggaeton, bomba, plena, and merengue music pulsating through the streets and smell the mouth-watering carne guisada puertorriqueña. A couple of grocers have set up shop to help buyers find those hard-to-acquire products from home, such as gandules verde, sazón, and naranja agria.

The area is visually stunning, having many colorful and historically important murals as well as two affordable housing buildings with facades and colors mimicking the Spanish colonial styles of Old San Juan.Fact|date=April 2008 A tile mosaic of Puerto Rican baseball slugger Roberto Clemente greets visitors at one end of the street, near the high school that bears his name.

Several times a year, Paseo Boricua is fashioned in gala to celebrate important Puerto Rican holidays, such as the Three Kings Day, the Puerto Rican People's Parade, Haunted Paseo Boricua, and Fiesta Boricua with an estimated 250,000 attendees.Fact|date=April 2008

It is the only officially recognized Puerto Rican neighborhood in the nation.Fact|date=April 2008 New York, with its vast Puerto Rican population, does not have an officially designated Puerto Rican neighborhood.

Chicago Puerto Rican community

The Puerto Rican community in Chicago has a history that stretches back more than 70 years. The first Puerto Rican migration in the 1930s to Chicago was not from the island but from New York City. Only a small number of people joined this migration. The first large wave of migration to Chicago came in the late 1940s.

Starting in 1946, many people were recruited by Castle Barton Associates as low-wage non-union foundry workers and domestic workers. As soon as they were established in Chicago, many were joined by their spouses and families.

By the 1960s, the Puerto Rican community was centered in West Town and Humboldt Park on the Northwest Side and in Lincoln Park on the North Side. There were also many Puerto Ricans in Lawndale on the city's West Side. Gentrification in Lincoln Park in the late 1960s displaced the community, forcing people to move to the west.

The events of June 12 through 14, 1966, constituted the first major Puerto Rican urban rebellion. The uprising happened at precisely the point when the Chicago Police Department began taking "precautionary measures" to head off potential rebellions of the type that had already occurred in Harlem, Watts and Philadelphia by the Black masses.

The 1966 Division Street Riots

On June 12, 1966, Aracelis Cruz was shot on the corner of Damen Avenue and Division Street after officer said he was carrying a gun. The shooting set off a series of confrontations between Puerto Ricans and police officers that many people said had been festering for years due to poor housing conditions, educational opportunities, racism, and feelings of neglect.

At the time, police said, the shooting was justified due to extreme gang activity in the area, but witnesses said it was an unprovoked reaction by police -- something that was commonplace at the time. Eighty-one policeman with 58 squad cars were called in to respond to the riots. They used tear gas and night sticks to try to quell the disturbance. The National Guard was also called in, along with six K-9 units.

After a few days of rioting, peace was restored.

The Rev. Dan Headley was in the crowd during the riots. He believes the disturbance has had a long-lasting effect. It is said that the 1966 Division Street Riots marked the beginning of a Puerto Rican political consciousness in Humboldt Park and Chicago. Many social, political, economic, and educational institutions were founded after the riots, including the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School, The Young Lords, Aspira, among many others. Also after the riots, Puerto Ricans began to be elected to governmental offices, such as the State Legislature, City Council, and even the U.S. Congress.

Eleven years later, similar riots in Humboldt Park killed three people and injured hundreds more, Sambolin reported.

Placing blame for the 1966 riots remains unclear, but Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline said that today there is a greater representation of Hispanics in the department.

Future

The Puerto Rican resurgence is also being viewed as an important step in teaching the next generation of Chicago Puerto Ricans about the area's past.Fact|date=April 2008 With the support of the community, Puerto Rican leaders in Chicago leased the historic Humboldt Park stables near Paseo Boricua that will house the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. About $3.4 million was spent to renovate the exterior of the building and another $3.2 million for the interior.

The facility is scheduled to open in late summer 2008.

Other events

The Puerto Rican Parade Committee of Chicago has been serving their community for over 40 years. Now in its 23rd year, the six-day festival in Humboldt Park has become the largest attended Latino festival in the city of Chicago and in the Mid-West, with an estimated draw of 1 million attendees.

Gallery

References