Mike Amezcua in Conversation with Sarah Lopez

Join Sarah Lopez in conversation with Mike Amezcua about his new book, Making Mexican Chicago, which tells the story of how the Windy City became home to the third largest Mexican metropolitan community in the United States. The book recreates the texture of Mexican diasporic life in the aftermath of historic migration journeys to the north that supplied endless sources of labor to a changing economic order from a consumer economy to a service sector economy. It foregrounds the role of Latinx people in the city and how they engaged (and were engaged by) the forces of American capitalism and democracy. During the postwar years, Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans forged their own forms of urbanism to remake blighted neighborhoods into livable sanctuaries with familiar foods, goods, sources of mutual aid, and welcoming signage in Spanish, even as they battled segregation, redlining, and a predatory housing market.

 Amezcua and Lopez will discuss his research, his methods, and new directions for Latinx urban histories.

Mike Amezcua is Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University and the author of Making Mexican Chicago: From Postwar Settlement to the Age of Gentrification, which won the 2023 First Book Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society. His research interests include urban inequality, housing discrimination, histories of capitalism, US politics, and immigration. He teaches courses on these topics and more generally in US history and Latinx history. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Public Books, Zócalo Public Square, and elsewhere.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.