They offered domestic and foundry work contracts, and paid the airfare for Puerto Ricans coming to Chicago.
[5] Another factor behind Puerto Rican migration to Chicago was the unemployment and harsh economic conditions created by Operation Bootstrap.
But by the late 1960s, gentrification took hold in Lincoln Park, and working class Puerto Ricans were displaced by high property taxes and expensive housing.
[7] According to Felix M. Padilla, the systematic oppression that Puerto Ricans experienced in Chicago in the 1960s created a psychological climate for riot.
Puerto Ricans faced racial discrimination, class-related hardships, and lived on the margins of a city that only valued them for their cheap labor.
[11] Police alleged that Arcelis Cruz, a young Puerto Rican man, was armed and involved in a street fight.
As the riot began, a local Spanish-language radio personality, Carlos Agrelot, was broadcasting live, describing the scene on Division Street.
They discussed the displacement and discrimination in housing, discriminatory practices by the police and fire departments, and poor educational opportunities.
During the hearings, Puerto Ricans cited a lack of jobs, poor housing and education, little political power, union discrimination, inadequate city services, and police brutality.
[17] These include the Spanish Action Committee of Chicago (SACC), the Latin American Defense Organization (LADO), the Bickerdike Revedelopment Corporation, the ASPIRA Association and the Young Lords (in 1968); cultural centers such as the Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center and the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center; and a school, the Escuela Superior Puertorriqueña (which is now named Dr. Pedro Albizú Campos Puerto Rican High School).