Curious City listener Mario Rueda grew up in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood in the 1970s.

And while Mario's family is Mexican, he says many of his neighbors were from somewhere else.

Our neighbors were Cuban. All our family friends were Cuban.

The first person I met in grade school who translated for me was Cuban.

Mario remembers passing Santa Ita Church with its large Cuban congregation.

And going to La Plaza, a grocery store owned by a Cuban family.

They weren't very supportive of our family.

They gave my parents credit at the store.

The owner actually wrote a letter from my parent for immigration.

But when he goes back to Edgewater today,

Mario says the Cuban community he grew up with seems to have banished.

And overall, Chicago's Cuban community just doesn't feel as visible as it did back then.

I was just wondering, like, how did edge water become so despoulated with Cubans?

How did that happen?

And where did they go?

I'm Curious City Digital and Engagement producer Maggie Sivitt.

On today's episode, we'll look at the jobs, family connections, and government programs

that once drew thousands of Cubans to Chicago neighborhoods, including Edgewater, and learn

what happened to the communities they built.

That's coming up after the break.

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