History
Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and early 90s Humboldt Park was considered an economic dead zone by city planners and developers and became motherland to gangs like the Latin Kings, Maniac Latin Disciples (MLDs), Young Lords, and the Insane Spanish Cobras. Despite the fact that there was a vital community of families, property owners, and businesses, many people from both the inside and out saw little opportunity.
But in 1995, Division Street found new life when city officials and Latino leaders offered a symbolic gesture to recognize the neighborhood and the residents' roots. They christened it "Paseo Boricua" and installed two metal Puerto Rican flags—each weighing 45 tons, measuring 59 feet (18 m) vertically and stretching across the street—at each end of the strip.
Under the flags, the struggling neighborhood transformed into one of the most vibrant Latino neighborhoods in Chicago, uniting the once fragmented Puerto Rican community. Since the community banded, the occupancy rate of the neighborhood rose to about 90 percent, home prices stabilized and Chicago's 650,000 Puerto Ricans have a place they call their own.
Over time, Paseo Boricua became a place where Puerto Ricans could go to learn about their heritage. A culture center was established, and the offices of local Puerto Rican politicians relocated their offices to Division Street. Recently, the City of Chicago has set aside money for Paseo Boricua property owners who want to restore their buildings' facades.
Visitors can hear salsa, reggaeton, bomba, plena, and merengue music pulsating through the streets and smell the mouth-watering carne guisada puertorriqueña. A couple of grocers have set up shop to help buyers find those hard-to-acquire products from home, such as gandules verde, sazón, and naranja agria.
The area is visually stunning, having many colorful and historically important murals as well as two affordable housing buildings with facades and colors mimicking the Spanish colonial styles of Old San Juan. A tile mosaic of Puerto Rican baseball slugger Roberto Clemente greets visitors at one end of the street, near the high school that bears his name.
Several times a year, Paseo Boricua is fashioned in gala to celebrate important Puerto Rican holidays, such as the Three Kings Day, the Puerto Rican People's Parade, Haunted Paseo Boricua, and Fiesta Boricua with an estimated 650,000 attendees.
It is the only officially recognized Puerto Rican neighborhood in the nation. New York, with its vast Puerto Rican population, does not have an officially designated Puerto Rican neighborhood.
The strength of the Puerto Rican Community is so Prevalent that they have recently created their own Humboldt Park, Paseo Boricua flag as a show of their strength and dominance in the Puerto rican enclave of Humboldt Park.
Read more about this topic: Paseo Boricua
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