This dissertation is a case study of one midwestern city and its Latinx inhabitants. It explores the intertwined pursuit by ethnic Mexicans and Puerto Ricans of inclusion in union and electoral politics. The world of machine politics offered ethnic Mexicans and Puerto Ricans an avenue for inclusion. Central to this pursuit is the willingness of these communities to engage corrupt practices. The narrative traces the transition of Latinos from cogs in the pre-existing political machine, to eventually becoming the machine itself. During this transition, these communities engaged in unethical political behavior, including kickbacks, patronage politics, and vote tampering. Journalists across the United States framed East Chicago in the 1970s as “the last political machine in America.” However, U.S. historians primarily focus on corruption within the framework of ethnic ward bosses in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. I extend the discussion of machine politics, labor’s influence, and corruption in the mid-to-late twentieth century, to explore how a community pursued inclusion in a system notorious for backroom dealing. Through decades of legal proceedings involving corruption, newspaper articles, and archival material, I argue that Latinos strived for inclusion (and gained representation) in a corrupt system. For the ethnic Mexican and Puerto Rican community, participating in machine politics - and to a lesser extent resisting - provided them tangible benefits in exchange. Whether elected or appointed, Latinos actively engaged in silencing dissent, patronage politics, kickbacks, and numerous other unethical and, in some cases, illegal behavior. These individuals who paved the way for representation became silent and complicit members of the machine or actively corrupt agents themselves.

Creator

• Aguilar, Emiliano

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-a336-2q03

Subject

• History

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:16207
• etdadmin_upload_926417

Keyword

• Political History
• Urban History
• Latinx History
• Corruption

Date created

• 2022-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright