Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago 1915-1940

Abstract

Michael Innis-Jimenez’s Steel Barrio challenges conventional narratives of Mexican migration to South Chicago between 1915 and 1940 by arguing that it was a deliberate, structured process driven by industrial recruitment rather than passive economic forces. The book emphasizes how Mexican communities actively resisted segregation while carving out their own political and physical spaces in an inhospitable urban environment. It fills a critical gap in Chicano and Mexican historiography by examining secondary migration to industrial Midwest cities, particularly through the systematic labor recruitment strategies of corporations like US Steel. While praised for its thorough documentation of corporate exploitation, the work is critiqued for lacking qualitative details on housing discrimination. Jimenez’s structuralist perspective highlights institutional forces shaping migration, while agency theory underscores community resistance and identity assertion. The book offers a nuanced understanding of industrial labor markets and urban segregation but calls for further qualitative research to fully capture migrant experiences.

(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)