Poles in Chicago
[1][self-published source][2] 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.
[8] A number of Poles contributed to the history of the city together with Captain Napieralski, a veteran of Cross Mountain[clarification needed] during the November Uprising.
Along with him came other early Polish settlers such as Major Louis Chlopicki, the nephew of General Józef Chłopicki who had been the leader of the same insurrection.
Polish Downtown- (Pulaski Park, River West, Bucktown, Wicker Park, East Village, and Noble Square) Lower West Side Bridgeport Back of the Yards South Chicago Later as Poles grew in number and advanced economically, they migrated further out into outlying areas.
[10] On the far Southeast Side, the South Chicago "steel mill settlements" spilled over into Pullman, Roseland, East Side, Hegewisch and Calumet City as well as into Lake County in Northwest Indiana, where thriving Polish communities were found in North Hammond, Whiting, the Indian Harbor section of East Chicago and several neighborhoods in the newly built industrial city of Gary.
The current Cathedral and Cemetery complex on the city's periphery by Rosemont remains active and is still independent from the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
One of the most celebrated painters of religious icons in North America today is a Polish American Eastern Orthodox priest, Fr.
[11] While large numbers of Jews from the former lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth immigrated to the Chicago area, they faced a historical trajectory far different from that of their Christian counterparts.
The Lira Ensemble, the only professional performing arts company outside of Poland that specializes in Polish music, song, and dance is Artist-in-Residence at Loyola University Chicago.
Chicago celebrates its Polish Heritage every Labor Day weekend at the Taste of Polonia Festival in Jefferson Park, attended by such political notables as President George H. W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Hadassah Lieberman, Congresswoman Melissa Bean, and Tipper Gore.
The Almanac of American Politics 2004 states that "Even today, in Archer Heights [a neighborhood of Chicago], you can scarcely go a block without hearing someone speaking Polish".
This may be anachronistic because, although once true, today the Archer Heights neighborhood is predominately Mexican-American and Mexican, with many of the Polish former residents having died or moved to the suburbs.
Ponglish is a common (to greater or lesser degree, almost unavoidable) phenomenon among persons bilingual in Polish and English, and its avoidance requires considerable effort and attention.
