Mexico’s Michoacán Culture Lives On In Chicago

By Antonio Zavala, Voxxi

At 27 years old Jose Luis Gutierrez left his home in Michoacán Central Mexico for the United States and became one of 250,000 Michoacán immigrants living in Chicago.

Desperate to pass on their traditions to their U.S. born children, Michoacán immigrants united through two organizations, Federacion de Clubes Michoacanos de Illinois
 (FEDECMI) and Casa Michoacán, to host a month-long celebration called Presencia Michoacana that offers educational programs, music, art, culture and civic participation to engage their youth.

“It hurts us and worries us,” Gutierrez told VOXXI in an interview. “This celebration is like a cultural offensive to rescue the identity of the Michoacán people.”

Presencia Michoacana began in 1997 as a week-long celebration and has steadily grown to an entire month held from mid-May to mid-June in Chicago suburbs

Michoacán– the ninth largest state in Mexico– is the world’s largest supplier of avocados, has the world’s largest Monarch butterfly sanctuary in El Rosario and was home to historical figures like Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla who taught college in the state’s capital of Morelia.

Many Michoacán immigrants have given back to their home state through Mexico’s “Tres por Uno” program in which the Mexican government pays two-thirds of the cost for projects such as remodel an aging civic plazas, rehabbing town churches or creating greenhouses in Michoacán.

Gutierrez said Casa Michoacán was founded in 2004. The organization “has become a very

important center for all immigrants,” Gutierrez said.

Last year local immigrants initiated 27 projects to help their towns back home. This year, so far, Gutierrez said there are 22 similar projects.

Dignitaries such as Fausto Vallejo Figueroa, the current governor of Michoacán, will participate in this year’s celebration and Mexican soccer player Pavel Pardo, who currently plays for the Chicago Fire, will receive the “Siervo de la
Nacion” award.

Presencia Michoacana, which began 15 years ago as solely a Chicago affair, “Now has crossed over into the suburbs where gigantic communities of immigrants from Michoacán live,” said Zoraida Avila, program director for Casa Michoacán.

“It helps us to get a new generation of young people to keep learning about the 
important things about our state,” Avila said.

This article first appeared in Voxxi.