[1] Formerly a Polish Jewish neighborhood,[2] it was settled by a wave of Mexican immigrants beginning about 1910, and was recognized as Little Mexico by 1919, becoming a center of a Mexican-American community life in the city that lasted into the early 1980s, with a peak of population in the 1960s.
Pike Park and a few structures are the remnants of the historic neighborhood, redeveloped as Uptown, including the Arts and West End Districts.
Many houses were quickly built with scrap wood and tar paper, and the city left the streets unpaved.
[7] According to the 1940s United States Census, 50% of homes lacked running water, and 65% burned wood, kerosene and gasoline for heat.
Francisco Pancho Medrano (1920–2002) tells of cutting his foot as a boy and his mother sending others for cobwebs from under the house to help stop the bleeding.
In April 1955, Travis Elementary burned to the ground, and all students were transferred to Cumberland Hills, also in poor condition.
As most Mexican Americans were Catholic, many parents sent their children to St. Ann’s, where the Church kept tuition was low for the working-class neighborhood.
It was the site of the first Dieciséis de Septiembre festivities in Dallas in September 1926, and grew to be the cultural and holiday celebration center of the neighborhood.
[11] The Mexican Consul worked with the city of Dallas to arrange for limited access to the Pike Park swimming pool.
A gazebo, styled similarly to one in Monterrey, Mexico, was added, as was a Mexican-style tiled roof and stucco façade to the park building.
It was cold then, and it was before the pool was drained from the previous day and refilled with fresh water, reserved for White swimmers.
[16] The Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was originally established in this neighborhood in 1939 with the purpose of developing, promoting, and creating local businesses.
Miguel 'Mike' Martinez Sr., immigrated to Dallas from Hacienda del Portero, Nuevo Leon, Mexico in 1911.
[18] He worked as a railroad laborer and later a dishwasher at the Oriental Hotel in Dallas, which was located at the corner of Commerce and Akard streets.
[20] Mr. Martinez died in February, 1956, while he was visiting his hometown in Mexico and working on civic improvements to the city.
Maria Luna was a young widow who came to the U.S. from San Luis Potosi with her two children,[20] and became an early entrepreneur in the Barrio.
With a handful of recipes, they started making a name with their now-famous tamales, along with other Mexican favorites, such as menudo (beef tripe soup), barbacoa, lengua and freshly made tortillas.
In 1953 in the basement of the Pike Park building, Mike “Nino” Rodriguez started training boys to box.
[25] The Dallas North Tollway began construction in 1966, and cut straight through the middle of Little Mexico; the Woodall Rodgers Freeway bounded the neighborhood on the south side.
The end of segregation, combined with highway construction and suburbanization, led to wealthier Mexican Americans moving to improved housing in "better" areas of Dallas.