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Humboldt Park, a bustling cultural hub on Chicago’s West Side, has been the heart of the city’s Puerto Rican community for more than 70 years.
Until the 1950s, the Humboldt Park area was mainly populated by immigrants from Europe, especially Poland and Germany, as well as Scandinavian countries. During the “white flight”—when many white residents moved to the suburbs—the neighborhood’s demographics shifted.
Chicago’s Puerto Rican community began to grow in the 1920s, becoming more established when Puerto Ricans arrived both from New York and directly from Puerto Rico in the 1940s and 1950s.
Following the displacement of Puerto Rican residents from Lincoln Park due to urban renewal and rising housing costs in the 1950s and 1960s, Humboldt Park became a primary center for the community through the latter part of the 20th century.
A Central Point
The main thoroughfare in the neighborhood is a strip on Division Street known as Paseo Boricua. The name originates from the Indigenous Taíno word for Puerto Rico, Borikén, often interpreted as “Land of the Valiant Lord.”
Paseo Boricua is bookended by two 59-foot, 30-ton Puerto Rican flag structures. Made of steel and concrete, the monuments symbolically honor both Puerto Rican identity and the contributions of Puerto Ricans in industrial trades such as welding and steelwork.
Monuments and murals throughout the neighborhood highlight the Puerto Rican roots in Humboldt Park, which became the base for one of the largest and most organized Puerto Rican communities in the United States.
Mayor Harold Washington marches in the Puerto Rican Day Parade, 1987 (Chicago Public Library, Special Collections)
A history of activism
There was strong involvement in civil rights and social justice movements in the area during the 1960s. In Wicker Park in June 1966, a young Puerto Rican man was shot in the leg by a police officer after attending the first Puerto Rican People’s Parade in Chicago. The incident sparked two nights of unrest on Division Street, often referred to as the “Division Street Riots.”
This represented a turning point for Puerto Rican political mobilization in Chicago and contributed to the eventual founding of community institutions such as the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in 1972.
The culture of activism in the neighborhood has continued through the decades. Leaders in Chicago’s Puerto Rican community consistently advocated for the release of political prisoners linked to the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), a Puerto Rican paramilitary organization that sought independence for Puerto Rico from the United States.
Members of the group were arrested in 1980 in Evanston, Ill., and were sentenced to terms as long as 90 years for acts of protest that caused property damage. Under the Clinton administration, presidential clemency was ultimately granted to 14 incarcerated FALN members, many of whom had ties to Humboldt Park.
Sustaining culture in a changing community
The proportion of the Humboldt Park population identifying as Puerto Rican has declined since the turn of the century, in part due to gentrification and rising housing costs. There are now significant Puerto Rican communities in Hermosa and elsewhere on the city’s Northwest Side. However, deep roots remain in Humboldt Park.
After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, a temporary resource center was opened in the Humboldt Park field house and operated into May 2018 to aid evacuees.
Humboldt Park’s Puerto Rican community has created visibility and honored history through the creation of a variety of cultural spaces in the area.
The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture in Humboldt Park is the only museum dedicated to Puerto Rican art in the continental United States, while the Puerto Rican Cultural Center serves as an important community-based organization.
Watch history
A video documentary, Chicago’s Puerto Rican Story, was produced in the early 2000s to share the lived experience of Puerto Ricans in Chicago. An extract of that documentary is available on YouTube.