Pilsen, Chicago and Mexicans

As far as I know this neighborhood Pilsen in Chicago started as a Czech neighborhood, and as a matter of fact, it was named after the fourth most important city in the Czech republic: Plzeň.

Over the time, neither the Czech people remain within the zone nor the influence they could have exerted over the place. Now Pilsen as far as I can tell, is synonym of Mexican food, National Museum of Mexican Art, Latin american coffee houses and Mexicans overall. The starting point of Pilsen as a Mexican icon in the city of Chicago was the construction of the UIC (University of Illinois campus at Chicago) which took over the land in which a large Mexican population used to live. Therefore, such a community moved towards the south, a couple of blocks and settled themselves in what now is Pilsen.

The place, I have to admit, seems to me like a mixture between a northern-Mexican city, an industrial city, and a Midwestern village. The Latino flavor flouts in the air though. The rent apparently is pretty affordable, the food is excellent, and the main thing that motivated me to write this up are the coffee houses!. As for today, I can certainly say that the coffee houses over the neighborhood fit into the romantic idea of a not-very-quiet kind of place where you can sit down and think.

I'm becoming a fan of Pilsen (not to mention I bike around and about there quite often) I like it...Chicago.