This pamphlet is based upon information gathered by Robert C. Jones in a survey of the Mexicans in Chicago during the years 1928-1931. The survey was carried out under the direction of United Religious Survey of Protestantism in Chicago and presented to a Sub-Committee of the Comity Commission of the Chicago Church Federation. This Committee recommended the publication of a pamphlet based on the findings of this survey and appointed an Editorial Committee to assume charge of the publication, consisting of M. N. English, R. H. Elliott, S. C. Kincheloe, Victor E. Marriott. Through the open windows of a second-story room opposite Hull House on a mid-summer Saturday evening come the jazz strains of a gospel hymn being lustily sung in Spanish. If we were to trace this music to its source it would lead us into the midst of a revival meeting of the Pentecostals. There in a crowded room we would find a Mexican Evangelist, eyes shining 2and face flushed by his enthusiasm, leading the singing, while an orchestra made up of a cornet, two drums, three triangles, and a piano beats out the rhythm with a will. But we do not wish to loiter long within its doors. There are other interesting things to be seen along South Halsted during this twilight hour. The strange Spanish signs upon the shop windows put us in the mood for exploration and we turn our steps southward along the Mexican Boulevard. First we pass a restaurant whose brilliant painted walls are covered by designs reminiscent of that Indian culture which Cortez and his followers so ruthlessly destroyed in their conquest of Mexico. In the next block we pause before the window of a music store and glance at the display of ukeleles, guitars, violins, and wind instruments. This little shop makes phonographic records of music as played and sung by Chicago's finest Spanish-speaking artists. And from here the records may find their way to the portable phonographs in the boxcar homes of Mexican railroad workers all over the United States, or even in the little far-away shacks which house the migratory laborers in the sugar-beet fields.

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Across the street a Mexican woman of middle age, straight black hair caught up in a knot at the back of her head, modestly garbed in a long brown skirt and green silk waist, stands beside her husband. They are looking at the primitive metates in the window of a grocery store - those crude ironing boards with their stone rollers for crushing the water soaked kernel of corn into the paste from which the Mexican bakes his thin cakes of unleavened bread, his tortillas. The woman is evidently considering a purchase. A well dressed young Mexican man passes by, escorting a Mexican girl who is smartly attired in the most modern fashion. They are probably on their way to a dance of the Aztec Club in Bowen Hall at Hull House. The older woman gazes after them in stern disapproval. Then she shakes her head. Such an immodest dress for a girl to wear in public! And to think of any young girl being out on the streets alone with herlover! Such things are never done in Mexico! The young man and woman are passing on up the street. As they go by a pool hall several other young Mexicans watch them enviously. Rubio always was a lucky dog! And to get such a pretty girl.

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The largest part of the Mexican immigration has been made up of single men or of men who have left their families in Mexico. This makes competition for the women very keen among the young men. However, the Mexican is such a graceful dancer that he can often overcome the barriers of difference and secure a partner from among other nationalities. Miss Anita Edgar Jones has even found some Mexicans taking wives among the Norwegian, the Polish, and the German girls.

Out on the street the fortunate Rubio and his companion are pausing before the window of a Jewish clothing merchant to admire the splendidly attired wax figures of a bride and groom. The Mexican temperament loves the color and gayety of any festive occasion - especially of a wedding. And these two are young and in love. But this is not the story of Rubio. Let us return and step inside the pool hall.

The Mexican pool hall, of which there are more than fifty in Chicago, is quite as much patronized as a social center, news dispensing agency, and mutual aid society as for its more obvious purposes.

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And although the Mexican is growing to do more business with the banks which are located in the immediate neighborhood of the colony, the proprietor of the pool hall remains one of his most trusted bankers. Here the newcomer to Chicago can most easily fraternize with his follow country-men; be informed of the ways of the city; secure such small, friendly loans as he may at first need; inquire about the best way to find work; and later leave with the proprietor for safekeeping such amounts from his weekly wages as he may be fearful of carring upon his person or of leaving in his room in the cheap lodging house where he stays. But let us end our leisure walk down Halsted now and complete our survey of this largest of Chicago's Mexican Colonies by swifter method of general description.

The colony centers around Halsted between Harrison and 15th Street. That is to say, it is located in the near West Side, a locality which has been receiving newly-arrived immigrants for the past half century and also, though scarcely by accident, a community which has some of the poorest housing in the city.

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Here where rents are cheap, where employment agencies are near at hand, and where numerous industrial plants are within easy reach, is a natural place for the immigrant to begin his life in Chicago. As the successive waves of immigrants have come into the city they have always settled in such communities and then pushed outward to occupy better residential districts as their economic status has improved. As newest arrivals in the immigrant flood the Mexicans are found living in the poorest quarters in the city. The Mexicans of this colony, however, though numbering between seven and eight thousand, do not wholly fill the districts.

Between Harrison and Polk Streets and especially on Halsted and Blue Island, the Mexicans are in the midst of a Greek settlement. Between Polk and Roosevelt Road there is a heavy concentration of Italians west of Halsted and of Poles to the east. North of Roosevelt Road a great many Jews and Russians are to be found. Along Halsted Street the north and south traffic jostles and bumps and clangs its way. Maxwell resounds with the din made by the vender on the curb market as they scream their strangely assorted wares and haggle 7over a difference of a few pennies on a sale. Up and down the treeless back streets dilapidated two and three-story houses elbow each other for room and struggle to give shelter to many families who overcrowd their interior.

On week days the Old Town Boys' Club of Newberry Avenue reaches out to serve more then two hundred Mexican Boys. Firenne House on Gilpen Place has its clubs for Mexican Mothers and their little daughters.

The Infant Welfare Society with headquarters at Hull House labors to teach the mothers of the neighborhood how to overcome the rickets-producing effects of the smoke-dimmed daylight. And Hull House itself opens its classes to hundreds of Mexican students. There they are to be found in the pottery shop, the studio, the musical organizations, the dramatic association, the English classes, and the Social groups.

The members of St. Mark's Presbyterian-Congregational Church hold their Sunday School and worship at 1213 Gilpen Place. The Methodist have a Church at Polk and Sholto and the Baptist at Monroe and Morgan.

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In addition there are a number of other missions of the Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal and other sects. But at the Church St. Francis on Roosevelt Road the predominant Catholic background of these immigrants reveals itself. There at special Mass conducted for the Mexicans nearly a thousand worshippers often kneel and are comforted by the beauty and upreach of the prayers offered in the universal language of the Church of Rome. There at a shrine at one side of the church their own national patron saint, Our Lady of Guadalupe, gazes upon them. From there they go out after the miracle of the Mass has been consummated, assured once more of their soul's salvation. Such, in brief outward view, is the picture of Chicago's largest and perhaps oldest Mexican colony in the city.

Reference to the map on the opposite page will reveal at a glance where the chief Mexican colonies are located. The two most important areas in addition to the one already described, are the Stock Yards district and the So. Chicago area. In the Stock Yards district there are three distinct colonies, the largest of which is concentrated around Ashland avenue and Forty-six Street.

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The University of Chicago Settlement has served as a center for the Mexicans in this community for a number of years. The Settlement has employed a part-time Spanish-speaking worker and several Mexican Societies have had headquarters there. This group is employed mainly in the Stock Yards. The smaller groups to the south and east of the Yards find employment with the several packing houses, the American Can Company and the railroads.