i was looking for home today, in chicago. for a place that felt more familiar than all the unknown faces, or streets. so i went to little italy, which may be incredibly naive, but after visiting chinatown i had my hopes up. chinatown is bustling with chinese stores, and people, speaking chinese and english, hanging out, feeling a sense of belonging, i imagine.
so i come out of the subway train, and i am greeted by nothing. rows of houses, deserted streets. i head for as close as i can to my map’s little italy location, right under the letters, and i find 2 Italian restaurants, crowded with middle aged wealthy white couples, a snowcone store, with a long line of latino families from nearby Pilsen, and that is about it. no Italians, not even flags. a whole lot of nothing.
it made me feel so empty and homesick. for italy, for bloomington, for no place to call home. and it puzzled me that what is described as little italy is nothing more than an anonymous residential neighborhood.
after some research i found out that there used to be a thriving italian neighborhood, prior to 1959 that is, when it was purposefully destroyed by the city of chicago and the father of the current mayor, richard daley. in 1959 the city decided to built the university of illinois where little italy is, even though there was many other options where people did not live.
florence scala, a local woman, became an activist against the city’s plan to destroy the neighborhood, but was ultimately unsuccessful. little italy was razed to the ground to make space for the university of illinois, and most of the italians that had been living there for decades were scattered throughout the city.
i feel so betrayed. how can i live to a city that was so unwelcoming and destructive towards my kin. i know minorities feel this way all the time, everywhere, and i am not wanting to play the victim. still, i am disappointed, angry. it’s hard to see all kinds of people of all kinds of nationalities having a centre, a place to meet, and being denied that.
