Over the years Chicago has been called home by many immigrant groups and cultures, the Welsh included.
Thomas Jefferson Vance Owen, [27] whose grandparents were from Wales, is considered "The True Founder of Chicago". He became the first president of the town of Chicago in 1833, and is responsible for sub-dividing the city into sections and towns. In early Chicago history, some of the city's mayors were of close Welsh heritage, including:
Chicago has a few street names which owe their heritage to Wales. They include Berwyn Avenue and Bryn Mawr Avenue. These streets in the city's Edgewater neighborhood were named for stations on the Pennsylvania Railroad's Main Line, located in towns named for Welsh places. [28]
Some Illinois towns are named directly after towns in Wales, for their Welsh founders or prominent Welsh Americans, including: Berwyn, Cambria, Cardiff, Edwardsville, Evanston, St. David & Swansea.
Aiming to match the grand scale of the World's Fair, the Welsh mounted an International Eisteddfod, a competitive literary and music festival, on the Fair grounds. Choral performances reportedly drew crowds of 6,000 to the Festival Hall. Clara Novello Davies took her Welsh Ladies Choir to Chicago and won the heat for ladies' choirs against competition from Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Salt Lake City and Ohio. [29]
Chicagoans of Welsh descent have made their presence known in many arenas of entertainment and public service. To name a few: Secretary of State Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, comedian and actor Robin Williams, Chicago news reporter and host of 190 North Janet Davies, actress Denise Richards and architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Chicago Alderman Brian K. Hopkins of the 2nd Ward, has Welsh paternal ancestry from both Aberdare, Glamorganshire and Llangurig, Montgomeryshire.
Chicago’s most infamous son of Wales is probably Murray the Hump, [35] Al Capone’s chief lieutenant. Once America’s Public Enemy Number One, he was born in Chicago to Welsh parents from Llanidloes, Mid-Wales.
Expatriated Welshmen continue to contribute to Chicago’s culture. Chicago is also home to three vibrant Welsh societies: The Chicago Tafia Welsh Society, The Welsh Women’s Club of Illinois and The Cambrian Benevolent Society of Chicago, catering to every facet of Welsh culture past and present. Welsh musicians often visit Chicago to perform; most recently: The Manic Street Preachers, The Joy Formidable, Marina and the Diamonds, Duffy, The Stereophonics, Jem, Cerys Matthews, Jon Langford, Bryn Terfel, Tom Jones, People in Planes, Future of the Left, Katherine Jenkins, Super Furry Animals, Funeral for a Friend, Goldie Lookin Chain, Here Be Dragons, David Llewellyn, Julian Jones & The Brit Bus Tour, numerous Welsh male voice choirs and authors Niall Griffiths, Fflur Dafydd, Aeronwy Thomas & Janet Quin-Harkin aka Rhys Bowen.
In 2007 the Illinois General Assembly signed into law Bill HR0149 that proclaimed March 1, 2007, and each year thereafter, as St. David's Day in the State of Illinois and recognizing the Welsh contribution to the state. [36]
In 2008 Chicago was chosen as the host city for the North American Festival of Wales, the largest Welsh festival in North America. [37]
On Saturday June 6, 2009 the United States national rugby union team played Wales in an international friendly at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois.
Since 2009, Chicago's iconic Wrigley Building has been illuminated on March 1 in the Welsh national colours (white, red & green) to honour St. David's Day. [38]
On Sunday June 6, 2010 the cult independent Welsh film A Bit of Tom Jones? received its North American premiere in Chicago.
On March 1, 2018, four Chicago area buildings (The Wrigley Building, Two Prudential Plaza, The InterContinental Hotel and the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier) illuminated red, white & green to celebrate St. David's Day. [39]
In 2019, members of The Chicago Tafia Welsh Society partnered with the Pleasant House Pub in Pilsen to paint a Cofiwch Dryweryn mural inside the pub. The mural has been featured in a Cofiwch Dryweryn book by Y Lolfa and in a documentary by S4C.
St. David's Episcopal Church in suburban Aurora contains a cornerstone of gray Cambrian limestone, shipped from Saint David’s Cathedral in Wales, which was laid and sealed on the eve of Saint David’s Day, February 28, 1959. A box inside the cornerstone holds, among other items, a note from the stonedresser in Pembrokeshire, Wales. [40]
Lithuanians in Chicago and the nearby metropolitan area are a prominent group within the "Windy City" whose presence goes back over a hundred years. Today the Chicago area possesses the largest Lithuanian community outside Lithuania, who have dubbed the city as Little Lithuania, and many Lithuanian Americans refer to it as the second capital of Lithuania. Lithuanian Americans from Chicago have had a significant impact on politics in both the United States and Lithuania. The population is currently declining.
Greektown is a social and dining district, located on the Near West Side of the United States' city of Chicago, Illinois. Today, Greektown consists mostly of restaurants and businesses, although a cultural museum and an annual parade and festival still remain in the neighborhood.
The South Side Irish is the large Irish-American community on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. After 1945, a large-scale movement to the suburbs occurred because of white flight and the steady upward social mobility of the Irish.Although their population has spread out, Irish Americans continue to make up the majority of the ethnic white American population on the south side of Chicago, especially in Beverly, Canaryville, Bridgeport, Scottsdale, Mount Greenwood, and parts of Morgan Park.
The history of African Americans in Chicago or Black Chicagoans dates back to Jean Baptiste Point du Sable’s trading activities in the 1780s. Du Sable, the city's founder, was Haitian of African and French descent. Fugitive slaves and freedmen established the city's first black community in the 1840s. By the late 19th century, the first black person had been elected to office.
Ukrainian Village is a Chicago neighborhood located on the near west side of Chicago. Its boundaries are Division Street to the north, Grand Avenue to the south, Western Avenue to the west, and Damen Avenue to the east. It is one of the neighborhoods in the West Town community area, and has one of the largest concentrations of Ukrainians in the United States.
Iraqi Americans are American citizens of Iraqi descent. As of 2015, the number of Iraqi Americans is around 145,279, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Both immigrant Poles and Americans of Polish heritage live in Chicago, Illinois. They are a part of worldwide Polonia, the Polish term for the Polish Diaspora outside of Poland. Poles in Chicago have contributed to the economic, social and cultural well-being of Chicago from its very beginning. Poles have been a part of the history of Chicago since 1837, when Captain Joseph Napieralski, along with other veterans of the November Uprising first set foot there. As of the 2000 U.S. census, Poles in Chicago were the largest European American ethnic group in the city, making up 7.3% of the total population. However, according to the 2006–2008 American Community Survey, German Americans and Irish Americans each had slightly surpassed Polish Americans as the largest European American ethnic groups in Chicago. German Americans made up 7.3% of the population, and numbered at 199,789; Irish Americans also made up 7.3% of the population, and numbered at 199,294. Polish Americans now made up 6.7% of Chicago's population, and numbered at 182,064. Polish is the third most widely spoken language in Chicago behind English and Spanish.
The Chicago Tafia Welsh Society is an expatriate Welsh group formed in Chicago, Illinois, USA, in 1999. As one of the youngest and most contemporary Welsh groups in North America, the society strives to provide a link between the present culture of Wales and the Chicago area.
There are at least three associations of people with Welsh origins in Chicago. These are the Chicago Tafia, the Cambrian Benevolent Society of Chicago, and the Women’s Welsh Club of Illinois.
Puerto Ricans in Chicago are people living in Chicago who have ancestral connections to the island of Puerto Rico. They have contributed to the economic, social and cultural well-being of Chicago for more than seventy years.
The city of Chicago, Illinois, includes the largest Bosnian-American population and the largest Bosnian population outside of Europe. The largest concentration of Bosnians in Chicago lives on the North Side.
Among the Japanese in the Chicago metropolitan area, there are Japanese-American and Japanese expatriate populations. Early Japanese began arriving around the time of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. During World War II, Japanese-Americans opted to live in Chicago rather than be interned, primarily in camps on the Pacific Coast. In the 20th century, Japanese and Japanese Americans formed local institutions that continue into the 21st century.
The Chicago metropolitan area has an ethnic Chinese population. As of 2010, there are 43,228 Chinese Americans who live in Chicago, 1.6% of the city's population. This population includes native-born Chinese as well as immigrants from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and also racially mixed Chinese.
At the end of the 20th century there were a total of 270,000 Jews in the Chicago area, with 30% in the city limits. In 1995, over 80% of the suburban Jewish population lived in the northern and northwestern suburbs of Chicago. At this time, West Rogers Park was the largest Jewish community within the city of Chicago. However, the Jewish population within the city had been declining and tended to be older and more well-educated than the Chicago average. The Jewish immigrants to Chicago came from many different countries, with the most common being Eastern Europe and Germany.
Chicago and its suburbs have a historical population of Italian Americans. As of 2000, about 500,000 in the Chicago area identified themselves as being Italian descent.
There is a very large Mexican American community in the Chicago metropolitan area. Illinois, and Chicago's Mexican American community is the largest outside of the Western United States.
Historically, Chicago has had an ethnic German population. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, 15.8% of people in the Chicago area had German ancestry, and those of German ancestry were the largest ethnic group in 80% of Chicago's suburbs. As of the year 1930, those of German ancestry were the largest European ethnic group in Chicago. However, as of today that number has decreased to 6%.
Swedes constitute a considerable ethnic group in Chicago, where a little over 15,000 people are of Swedish ancestry.
Chicago has a particularly large Czech population.
Luxembourgers in Chicago are an ethnic group in the Chicago area.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)