Hello everyone,
My name is Carolina Ortega and I am originally from a small town in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico; I only lived in Mexico for a few years. At the age of four, my family moved to Chicago, yet we only stayed a couple of years. When I was six, we moved to Green Bay, WI, which is where I grew up. I attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I received my Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science. I also minored in Chican@/Latin@ Studies and Gender and Women Studies. I will now be working towards my PhD in History here at UIUC.
My research interests deal primarily with the history of Latino immigrants in the Midwest, outside of Chicago. More specifically, I am interested in the smaller Latino communities that have grown in the last half of the twentieth-century in small Midwest towns. As an undergrad, I was part of the Ronald E. McNair Scholars research program where I started doing some research on Latinos in the Green Bay area. I became interested in Green Bay because of its large meat packing industry. Aside from Latino history, I am also interested in labor history and thus my connection between labor and immigration. I grew up just a couple blocks away from one of the largest meat packing plants in Green Bay, a plant where my father and brothers currently work at, yet it was not until my undergrad career that I became interested in the connection between early twentieth-century Latino immigrants in large cities and late twentieth-century immigrants in small towns. I want to look at the similarities and differences between the first-wave of Latino immigrants in the early twentieth-century, and what I like to call the “second-wave” of Latino immigrants in the late twentieth-century, with labor playing a large role.
I think this research is important because of the changing demographics in this country. It is also important because I believe Latino communities are no longer going to just be concentrated on the coasts, nor in large cities. These communities are now springing up in small towns all across the country, including the Midwest. Yet not much research can be found on Latinos outside large Midwest cities.
For my summer project, my mentor and I created a reading list that contains books that we both believe to be useful in building a stronger foundation and understanding of the history of Latinos in the Midwest. I am looking forward to immersing myself in these books because coming straight from undergrad to graduate school has left me with little time to explore books crucial to my research.
I look forward to meeting everyone and also to having a great summer!
Carolina O.
You make a very strong case for the work you are looking to do. The shifting demographics of a multicultural nation like ours makes investigation into discrete groups more necessary than ever if these groups are to be recognized in our discourse. The concerns that follow from the geographical migration and establishment of a group can have implications for entities beyond the group itself.
ReplyDeleteI'm exited to follow your research throughout your time at UIUC. As you already know, I grew up in the Back of the Yards neighborhood-the historical Chicago meatpacking district. It's fascinating how Mexican and Latino immigrants have branched out to small towns and cities all over the country usually following family members and job prospects. I'd love to learn more about the struggles that these communities face. Best wishes.
ReplyDeleteIn grad school I took a Chicago Renaissance course and read literature from that period in time, which correlated much to what was happening in Harlem, NY. Would you consider the use of literature as a form of evidence/support for your research/argument? Most of the literature I read dealt with the African-American experience, but finding literature on the Latino experience would also be an interesting place to look for more answers and questions. Aside from this, my father came from Mexico to Chicago and started working at a fish factory. Eventually, he began working in construction. That's extent of knowledge of my father's "rite of passage", but I'm sure that it's not too far from many Latin@s coming to the U.S. in search of economic opportunities and security.
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