Chicago altars offer refuge and recreate home for Mexican-Americans
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In Chicago, Illinois, Mexican-American communities are building altars to La Virgen de Guadalupe outside their homes, turning public spaces into areas of protection and belonging.
These altars appear as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increases its focus on migrant neighborhoods. The practice reflects a tradition of artesanía, or craft, where skill and necessity combine, and where work is seen as an art form. The altars aren’t just decorative.
Makers use their hands, skilled in both labor and craft, to rebuild a sense of home when displaced from their original communities. This craft aims to abarcar, or encompass, more than just appearance, integrating symbols, skills, and inherited knowledge into each creation. These devotional altars, found on porches, in gardens, and along streets in neighborhoods like South Chicago and Pilsen, differ from those displayed in institutions like the National Museum of Mexican Art.
While the museum has exhibited Día de Muertos displays for 40 years, the everyday altars created by residents receive less formal recognition. One researcher has spent nearly 15 years documenting these public displays, seeing them as an archive of a uniquely American craft tradition born from the experiences of migrants recreating home.
