White, Black, Brown

Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago

Michael Staudenmaier

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9781469689272
• Print ISBN:
  9781469689265
  9781469689258
• Subtopic: North American History

Facing persistent exploitation, discrimination, and marginalization in the second half of the twentieth century, generations of Puerto Rican organizers and activists drew on multiple competing versions of nationalism to challenge the racial order in Chicago, one of America’s most segregated cities. Initially, both supporters and opponents of Puerto Rican independence promoted the assimilation of fellow migrants as white citizens. The three-night-long Division Street Riots marked a fundamental pivot point in 1966, ending the pursuit of whiteness and opening the door to waves of nationalist militancy during the 1970s. By the 1980s and 1990s, Puerto Rican nationalists in Chicago had entered electoral politics, building a broader notion of Latinidad even as they softened its radical edges.

Drawing on an extraordinary array of archival material, much of it previously inaccessible, Michael Staudenmaier highlights cultural and political projects profoundly informed by nationalist sentiments, from beauty pageants and parades to protests and bombings to elections and legal battles. Revealing how nationalism became a key site of racial formation for Puerto Ricans in Chicago, White, Black, Brown shows how they understood themselves and demanded to be seen by their neighbors and the world.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I · Organizing
• 1 Two Paths to One Goal: Nationalism and Race in 1950s Chicago
• 2 We Have Arrived: Organizing for Puerto Rican Inclusion
• Part II · Uprising
• 3 The 1966 Division Street Riots: Rage and Revelry Between White and Black
• Part III · Emerging
• 4 Organizing Welfare Recipients and Constructing Latinidad: The Rise of the Latin American Defense Organization
• 5 We Are Latins, We Are Different: The Culture and Politics of Insurgent Nationalism
• 6 The Electoral Turn: Mainstreaming Nationalism and Latinidad
• Epilogue: ¡Bienvenidos Patriotas!
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index