Mexicantown detroit events

Additionally, by immigrating as far north as Michigan, Mexicans avoided the overt and often violent discrimination of the American Southwest. With the establishment of an effective and US-connected railroad system, Mexicans began to use trains to flock to El Norte the North.

A railroad station located in Queretaro, a city in the heart of Mexico. In the new world, these immigrants faced the challenges of an extremely different climate, a new language, and an overall faster pace of life. At first, not speaking English was a great equalizer among the diverse community which had come to settle in Detroit. This changed gradually as the young children of these immigrants began attending school and assimilating into their new culture.

Some changes took longer, though, and the demand for bits of their home culture remained. A commercial district began to form around the growing needs of the Latin-American community and soon, La Bagley emerged. By the early s, a few Mexican restaurants had opened on Bagley Street in the neighborhood known as Corktown , just to the west of downtown Detroit. Throughout the decade, Mexican businesses began to emerge throughout the western neighborhoods of the city so that by the mids there were around 35 Mexican owned businesses on Bagley Street and Michigan Avenue.

By the s, tortilla factories, such as La Michoacana and La Jalisciense still in operation to this day , opened in Detroit. Today, Mexicantown is home to over Latino-owned businesses. La Jalisciense tortilla factory was one of the first in Detroit and is still in operation to this day.

The Honeybee Market was one of the first Mexican-owned grocery stores in Detroit and helped provide the Latin community with ingredients for traditional foods. In the s, plans to develop a new interstate eventually led to the bisecting of the Mexican district. Entire neighborhoods were bulldozed to accommodate the path of I and many Mexican locals sold their businesses and properties to the Michigan Department of Transportation in the ensuing construction.

More ruin was to come in the s when General Motors closed three of their major auto plants in southwest Detroit, substantially reducing the amount of well-paying blue-collar jobs. Though these events took their toll on many of the immigrant communities, Mexicantown and many others continued to survive throughout the Motor City. In the years since the economic and social turmoil of the 70s and 80s, the once small Mexicantown is now one of the most thriving communities in all of Detroit.

A sprawling oasis of Latin culture, the neighborhood is home to hundreds of Mexican-owned shops, bakeries, taquerias, and grocery stores — each with their own vibrantly-colored architecture and hand painted signs reminiscent of town squares throughout Mexico.

Despite the toxic political climate for Latinos in the US, this neck of Detroit spells a renewed faith in cultural acceptance and a reinvigoration of the once prolific American dream for immigrants. There is hope in the story of Mexicantown and communities like it for a more prosperous, progressive future. Like Like. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account.

Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Colombian favorites like pepusas served with fried plantains give people options beyond Mexican standards. So is dinnertime. And p. But who can blame them? You'll start seeing signs advertising Mexican Village as soon as you arrive in the vicinity: "a very fine place to dine" they read, modestly for such a big sign. The oldest restaurant in Mexicantown, this Bagley Street institution has grown into a veritable behemoth during the last 50 years.

Decked out in plush red carpet and white stucco walls, several expansions have created six separate dining rooms downstairs and a funky, Mexican-retro lounge-cum-waiting area and a for-rent event room upstairs. Locals rave about the Caldo Can-Cun, a spicey chicken rice soup topped with fresh avocado -- hold the cheese, which is for American taste buds.

Mexicantown residents boast about their shopping distict, but visitors also enjoy the merch -- be it fresh, pre-peeled prickly pear or a Lady of the Guadalupe statue. No place in Detroit brings a middle-age man with a sweet tooth to his knees like La Gloria bakery.

After being smacked in the face in a good way by the sugary smell of fresh pastries, grab a plastic tray and a set of tongs and go about your business. The serve-yourself, wall-length cabinets are filled with a drool-worthy selection of cookies, breads, empanadas, orejas ears , croissants, cupcakes, cookies, biscuits, churros and donuts -- each for about 50 cents a pop.

A refrigerated glass case displays cakes like tres leches , and a shelf of day-old breads offers discounts off to the side. Women in the know rave about the Mexicantown spot where they can buy Kiotis -- a skin care line made in Paris, sold in Mexico but hard to find in the United States. Algo Especial , which means Something Special , sells a sundry of cleaning supplies, foodstuffs, magazines, cards, housewares, CDs and bagged herbs.

Honeybee La Comena is where locals have been going for their meats and fresh veggies for the past 50 years. They stock finds like fresh cactus and mangoes, dried spices and a killer family-recipe salsa. The best part: it's expanding by four times the square footage this summer, with plans to add more meat to their meat counter, prepared hot food items for take-out and more range in their packaged goods. An adorable purple fixture on Bagley, the Matrix Theatre has been putting on original plays and puppet shows since An integral part of the neighborhood arts community, the theater company makes an effort to represent issues, playwrights and performers of the Southwestern Detroit neighborhoods.

Down the street, Bagley Housing, known foremost for its broad housing initiatives, also has a small but active art gallery inside its maize-colored home, marked by the eye-catching bouquet of white metal calla lilies made by the adjoining metalwork shop, Disenos.

Like the Matrix Theater, the gallery was created to showcase work from within the community. Mexicantown boasts the most culturally rich -- and many swear, most fun -- festivals in the city. Anne Posada. Set aside an afternoon for touring public art; the neighborhood is full of it, and much of it can be credited to local artist Vito Valdez.

His big, green fish sculpture, at eastern border of Mexicantown on Vernor, is symbolic of the land that was once pure and clean, and a life-sized metal sculpture of a dog mowing the lawn sits in the gazebo behind the BHA. His mural work includes the restoration of City Spirits, on the corner of Bagley and 24th. On the other side of Bagley another building bears his handiwork: the mural Cornfields, portraying the field workers lining up along the rows of corn under a beaming sun and glow of the moon.

Act like a tourist in Europe, and make the effort to see one of the most historic and stunning churches in the Midwest, Ste. The magnificent Gothic Revival structure was built in , making it the eighth home of the oldest Roman Catholic parish in the nation.