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Vietnam War memorial dog tag display

ARCHIVE ID: FIC-0000-027-1

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Mexican-American
Journeys

A story told through Museum objects saved by Southeast Chicago residents

BEGIN

Vietnam Memorial
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
South Chicago

1910s

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This display was donated to the Museum by members of the Mexican-American community in Southeast Chicago. It contains replica dog tags of 12 young men who attended Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and who were killed during the Vietnam War. Across the street from the church is a mural and stone memorial dedicated to their memories.

“I know what it’s like to lose a life and somebody that you loved.”

PRODUCED BY: Christine Walley, Chris Boebel

CREATIVE DIRECTOR & UI/UX DESIGNER: Jeff Soyk

STORY NARRATIVE: Chris Boebel, Christine Walley, Jeff Soyk

PROJECT MANAGERS: Christine Walley, Jeff Soyk

RESEARCH: Christine Walley, Rod Sellers

PROJECT ARCHIVIST: Derek Potts

FRONT END DEVELOPER: Jeff Soyk

OPENING AND CLOSING VIDEOS: Chris Boebel

DRONE FOOTAGE: Hannah Welever

VIDEO EDITING: Paige Mazurek, Chris Boebel

UI/UX DESIGN SUPPORT: Paige Mazurek

SOUND DESIGNER: Billy Wirasnik

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS: Maya Rodriquez, Lauren Kapsalakis

 

Thanks to the Southeast Chicago residents who donated artifacts relating to the Mexican-American immigrant experience to the Southeast Chicago Historical Museum. We are grateful to Mary Flores and her family for their generosity in discussing the commemorative OLG/Vietnam display. Thanks also to Our Lady of Guadalupe parish for allowing us to record a service, and to the Claretian Associates and Rita Jirasek, co-author of Mexican Chicago, for lending several items for use in the archive and storyline. Our gratitude to the extended Martinez and Valadez families for multiple donations to the Museum over many decades. Oral histories were conducted by Rod Sellers and his Museology students from Washington High School as well as Dominic Pacyga with the Southeast Chicago History Project.

 

SOURCES USED:

Alter, Peter T.
2001Mexicans and Serbs in Southeast Chicago: Racial Group Formation during the 20th Century, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, pgs. 403-419. Winter issue.

Flores, John H.
2018The Mexican Revolution in Chicago: Immigration Politics from the Early Twentieth Century to the Cold War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Innis-Jimenez, Michael
2013Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago 1915-1940. New York: New York University Press.

Jirasek, Rita Arias and Carlos Tortolero
2001Mexican Chicago. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing.

Kanter, Deborah E.
2020Chicago Catolico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican. Campaign: University of Illinois Press.

Kuenster, John
2004How Saint Jude Came to Chicago. Chicago: Claretians Publications.

McCarthy, Malachy
2002“Which Christ Came to Chicago? Catholic and Protestant Programs to Evangelize, Socialize, and Americanize the Mexican Immigrant, 1900-1940. Dissertation, Loyola University - Chicago. 2009“Competing for the Mexican Immigrant in Chicago: The Catholic and Protestant Battle, 1900-1940.” Talk given at the Chicago History Museum, Urban History Seminar, Feb. 12th.

Rosales, Francisco A. and Daniel T. Simons
1975Chicano Steel Workers and Unions in the Midwest, 1919-1945. Aztlan, 6(2):267-275.

Taylor, Paul
1932Mexican Labor in the United States, Berkeley: University of California Press.