Humboldt Park Riots: Chicago Puerto Ricans Stand Up Against Violence
Chicago Puerto Ricans Stand Up Against Violence & Injustice
On June 12th, 1966, 20-year-old Aracelis Cruz was shot by police on the corner of Damen and Division in the wake of celebrations following the city’s first Puerto Rican Day parade. The shooting was the catalyst for a series of riots over the next two days that destroyed thriving businesses, injured 16 and led to various reforms and community organization.
Chicago Puerto Rican’s marching peacefully against violence and injustice. | Photo: Chicago Tribune Archives
Brief Backdrop:
As a result of harsh conditions in Puerto Rico and incentives to come to mainland America, Puerto Rican migration to Chicago set off during the 1950s and 60s. Puerto Rican communities in the city were then displaced by developing public housing projects. The Puerto Rican population moved from the Near West Side and the Near North Side to West Town and Humboldt Park, areas of white working-class neighborhoods, populated by European immigrants and their children.
New Puerto Rican arrivals joined the new Puerto Rican enclaves in West Town and Humboldt Park. By 1960, 25% of the city's Puerto Rican population lived in West Town. Most Puerto Ricans faced racial tensions with their white neighbors and especially with white authorities. They encountered police brutality, high unemployment, housing discrimination and poor housing conditions, and poverty.
Although a handful of Puerto Rican’s moved to Chicago from New York in the 1930s, the first significant wave of Puerto Rican migration to Chicago began in the late 1940s. Unlike other newcomers, Puerto Ricans did not face legal barriers in moving to the United States. The Jones Act of 1917 conferred U.S. citizenship to all island and U.S.-born Puerto Ricans, which facilitated the large migration of Puerto Ricans to cities such as Chicago beginning in the late 1940s.
Beginning in 1946 a private Chicago-based employment agency, Castle, Barton and Associates, recruited Puerto Rican men to work as unskilled foundry laborers and Puerto Rican women to serve as domestic workers in Chicago and suburbs such as Waukegan. Generally, single men and women moved to Chicago and sent for family members once they established stable jobs and residences.
2011 Puerto Rican Day Parade with Family — Paseo Boricua | Photo: More Than Champions Legacy (MTC)
These early migrants lived in various neighborhoods, including Woodlawn, the Near North Side, Lake View, Lincoln Park, Uptown, West Garfield Park, East Garfield Park, and the Near West Side. By the 1960s most Chicago Puerto Ricans were concentrated in Lincoln Park, West Town, and Humboldt Park and shared these neighborhoods with Mexican and Polish immigrants as well as African Americans. In Lincoln Park, Puerto Rican residents established a small, ethnic enclave along Armitage Avenue that included small successful grocery stores and healthy businesses providing goods and services for Puerto Rican neighbors.
By the mid-1960s, however, Puerto Rican and other low-income residents of Lincoln Park were displaced by city programs and the redevelopment of Lincoln Park. Puerto Rican residents relocated to West Town and Humboldt Park, where their concentration facilitated the creation of Chicago's first Puerto Rican barrio, or neighborhood, along Division Street, or, as residents frequently refer to it, la Division.
For Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Division Street plays a prominent role in the history of the development of their community. The annual Puerto Rican Parade, celebrated every June, ends with a procession down Division Street and is an important celebration of Puerto Rican cultural and national pride. Originally, this celebration commemorated El Día de San Juan (St. John's Day), an event organized by Los Caballeros de San Juan (the Knights of St. John), one of the first Puerto Rican religious and social organizations in Chicago. Los Caballeros de San Juan was a key religious institution which, like the office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, promoted integration of Puerto Rican migrants into mainstream Chicago life while maintaining cultural pride and integrity. In 1966 El Día de San Juan celebrations were renamed the Puerto Rican Parade and included new community institutions in the organizing of the annual festivities.
1966 Division St. Riots
It was during this first unofficial Puerto Rican Parade on June 12, 1966, that one of the first Puerto Rican riots in the U.S. began, on Division Street. The riot, one of many urban disturbances across the nation in the 1960s, was a response to the shooting of a young Puerto Rican man by Chicago police. Rioting continued until June 14. A key moment in the history of Puerto Ricans in Chicago, the Division Street riot drew attention to poverty and to strained relations between Puerto Ricans and Chicago's police department.
Unrest & Injustice on Division Street: A 1966 police shooting was a tipping point for Puerto Rican Chicagoans. | Photo: Chicago Tribune Archives
At the same time it facilitated the creation of Puerto Rican community organizations such as the Spanish Action Committee of Chicago (SACC), the Latin American Defense Organization (LADO), the Puerto Rican Cultural center (PRCC) and, in the early 1970s, ASPIRA Association and the Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center. A month after the riot, the Chicago Commission on Human Relations held open hearings which provided a forum for Puerto Rican and other Spanish-speaking residents of Chicago to discuss problems facing these communities such as discrimination in housing, hiring practices by the police and fire departments, and poor educational opportunities.
As a result of these meetings, specific policy recommendations were proposed and implemented in the Puerto Rican community. The Puerto Rican community organizations which emerged from the riots also ensured that community concerns such as education, housing, health, and employment would be actively addressed and that Puerto Ricans would maintain a presence in city politics.
In the aftermath of the 1966 riot, new community organizations and community leaders more actively engaged in city politics to work to improve conditions for Puerto Ricans in Chicago.
According to a University of Chicago study, in the years following the 1966 riot, Puerto Ricans ranked police relations as their second biggest problem after unemployment. Although community members spent a decade working for better conditions, in 1977, Puerto Ricans in Chicago still faced abundant issues. They experienced displacement, housing discrimination, racism, unemployment, poor housing, poverty, and police brutality.
The 1977 Humboldt Park Riot
The Humboldt Park riot was the second major conflict between Puerto Ricans in Chicago and the Chicago Police Department. The riot began on June 4, 1977 and lasted a day and a half. Following the shooting deaths of two innocent Puerto Rican men, locals (mostly young Puerto Ricans) stood up against violence in Humboldt Park and in the streets surrounding.
Chicago Puerto Rican’s uniting to fight against violence and injustice. | Photo: Chicago Tribune Archives
The 1977 riot led the community to hold the Division Street Puerto Rican Day Parade, which started officially in 1978.
The details of the beginning of the riot are disputed. It began in Humboldt Park on June 4, 1977, after the Puerto Rican Day Parade. The festivities are misattributed in some print news as a celebration for "Puerto Rican Independence Day". Violence began around 6 o'clock in the evening and lasted until around midnight. The riot began in Humboldt Park itself, near the intersection of Division Street and California Avenue. (Lowe, Frederick; Blakley, Derrick (June 6, 1977). "2d day of Humboldt riots". Chicago Tribune – via Proquest.)
According to inconclusive reports by the Chicago Tribune, on late Saturday afternoon, police arrived to Humboldt Park to break up gang-related fighting. When police were arresting one of the combatants, the young man resisted, and "picnickers became angry and began hurling objects." (Casey, Jim, and Larry Weintraub (June 15, 1977). "Rochford backs cop who shot 2 in riot". Chicago Sun-Times.)
Were the Chicago Riots of 1966 a Turning Point? | Photo: Chicago Tribune Archives
City Officials confirmed that Sergeant Thomas Walton shot and killed unarmed Julio Osorio, 26. Rafael Cruz, 25, was also unarmed and killed by a bullet from Sgt. Walton's gun. According to preliminary autopsy reports showed both Osorio and Cruz were shot in the back. (Ziomek, Jon, and Jim Casey (June 7, 1977). "Humboldt Park gets a cleanup". Chicago Sun-Times.)
The family of Rafael Cruz recounted that Cruz came to Humboldt Park with his mother and brother, where they walked arm in arm. Later, Cruz was running out of the park, to a car where his niece was waiting, when police shot him in the back. (Miner, Michael (June 6, 1977). "Mother bewails slain son". Chicago Sun-Times.)
The New York Times printed that following the shooting of Osorio and Cruz, the police tried to close the park and "were met with a barrage of bricks, bottles, stones, sticks and chairs, but Hispanic witnesses charged that policemen stormed the park with nightsticks and attacked many picnickers, including families with children." (Delaney, Paul (June 6, 1977). "Looting, Vandalism Follow Chicago Riot". The New York Times. Retrieved March 28, 2017.)
The account continues to state that the riot escalated because police were outnumbered (Chicago police officers were stationed in large numbers at Soldier Field for a rock concert that day). Another account describes police arriving to respond to reports of gang activity in part of Humboldt Park, to find a park full of peaceful Spanish-speaking people congregating and enjoying time at the park with family.
The presence of police, and perhaps some provocation by police, started the riot.
Humboldt Park: The Aftermath
While the 1966 Division Street riots were seen as a turning point in Puerto Rican community action, according to community leader Rev. Jorge Morales, the Humboldt Park riot made the community more apathetic about civic involvement. The increased media attention and coverage of Puerto Rican community issues following the riot did not result in changes or improvements. (Suro, Roberto (June 4, 1978). "Humboldt Pk.: 'Community without dreams'". Chicago Tribune – via Proquest.)
Puerto Rican celebration mural down the street. | Photo: Señor Codo
Michael Rodríguez Muñiz, on the other hand, argued years later that the aftermath of the riot created "a radical consciousness" among Puerto Ricans in Chicago.
Division Street continues to be an important part of Chicago's Puerto Rican community. The area remains a primary port of entry for new Puerto Rican migrants. It is also an ethnic enclave known as Paseo Boricua (Puerto Rican Road) with Puerto Rican stores, shops, and restaurants situated between the two 50-ton Puerto Rican flags that cross Division Street near the intersections with Western and California Avenues. Because no legal barriers prevent migration between Puerto Rico and the mainland, first- and second-generation migrants move freely and frequently between Chicago and Puerto Rico. The 2000 census counted 113,055 Puerto Ricans, 15 percent of Chicago's Latino population and second only to Chicago's Mexicans among the city's Latino communities.
Pa’ Lante, Siempre Pa’ Lante! — Division Street (Paseo Boricua), facing east from Mozart Street, one-half block west of California Avenue. | Photo: More Than Champs Legacy
While new migrants continued to settle in the Division Street area, Logan Square, Belmont Cragin, and Hermosa became increasingly popular neighborhoods for Chicago Puerto Ricans in the 1990s. That decade also witnessed the growth of Puerto Ricans living in Chicago suburbs such as Naperville and Schaumburg as companies began to recruit highly skilled, bilingual employees to work in information technologies and consulting. This new migration of white-collar workers, however, contrasted sharply with the skills and employment opportunities of most Puerto Ricans in Chicago. In 1990, 60 percent of hard working Puerto Rican men and women continued to work in manufacturing industries, as laborers, and in the service sector of the Chicago economy.
Despite their long history in the city, Chicago Puerto Ricans continue to maintain cultural, political, and economic links with Puerto Rico.
For all of those who are from Humboldt Park know:
“¡Palante Siempre Palante!”