Who owns this neighborhood? The struggle for home in Latino Pilsen, Chicago

This paper discusses the actions and structures of resistance that held off displacement in the neighborhood of Pilsen, Chicago against the renewed efforts of the Democratic Machine and growth coalition to expel them. While most studies of resistance focus on visible, organized actions, this paper examines both overt and covert structures, practices, and relations that, together, explain the success of Latino Pilsen against displacement and gentrification for nearly five decades. While the united efforts of Pilsen organizations and residents kept gentrification and displacement away up to the mid-1990s, the growth coalition through an appointed alderman and the neutralization or cooptation of Pilsen’s largest nonprofits opened the doors to them since that time. But new organizations and leaders continue the fight keeping gentrification on check to date.