originally south lawndale, better known as little village. - - was five years old when she moved to southawndale in 1958. by then, her family had lived in chicago for two generations. ever since her grandfather had been accrued by the railroad to come work. when they first arrived, the neighborhood could be a hostile place for them. she remembers as she put it, older people would call the police on us because we were in the back alley playing ball. indeed, she and many other mexican-americans at this time remember people in the neighborhood would often, as they struggled to figure out where these brown people fit in our racial order, they would refer to their red them with the n-word because that seemed the logical thing to call them. this was said and not a little ironic because south lawndale was in deep trouble. it prospered initially as a place for immigrants. first from germany and then from bohemia and poland. because they could find work in the factories. you had the mccormick works and international harvester to the east. in the middle you have lots and lots of affordable housing.