ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the effects of the 1990 general election campaign on the Pilsen community of Chicago. It looks at those aspects of the campaign that positively or negatively affected the participation of the Mexican American community of Pilsen. The chapter determines if this community saw itself as an important political actor in Chicago and focuses on Mexican American participation in the electoral arena. A meaningful example of the kind of activity that marked Pilsen as a major Latino political actor was the role it played in demanding that the Chicago Board of Education build a high school, Benito Juarez High, in Pilsen. Community-based organizations have been historically important to Latino communities because of the leadership and services they provide, a characteristic that remains true of the many community-based organizations in Pilsen. As the machine grew in power, it was able to control and minimize the struggle by ethnic and racial groups for political control of the city.
