'Rails and Roots' shows how Mexican railroad workers built Chicago

CHICAGO - Chicago has long been called the railroad capital of the country. Tracks still run through neighborhoods on the South and West sides. Freight trains still cut through the city day and night.

What many people do not know is who lived alongside those tracks and, in some cases, inside them.

What we know:

A new exhibit at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen documents how Mexican and Mexican American railroad workers helped build Chicago’s rail system and how many of their families lived for years inside boxcars parked within city limits.

The exhibit is called Rieles y Raíces, which translates to Rails and Roots. It traces more than a century of railroad labor across Chicago and the Midwest, beginning in the 1800s and moving through the present day. Visitors walk through a clear timeline marked by maps, photographs, tools and family keepsakes.

At the center of the gallery is a detailed scale model showing railroad lines, boxcars and surrounding neighborhoods.

"That model stops people," said Cesario Moreno, the museum’s visual arts director. "Because it shows that these communities were not on the outskirts. They were inside Chicago."

Dig deeper:

Moreno said research by the exhibit’s curators identified boxcar settlements within the city itself, not just in far suburbs or rural rail yards. Families lived in boxcars originally built to transport freight. They cooked meals there. Children slept there. Life happened just feet from active rail lines.

The exhibit was curated by Ismael Cuevas and Alejandro Benavides.

Cuevas, who grew up in Chicago and works in public service, said the project started with a simple realization: there is no single archive that holds records of Mexican American railroad workers.

Instead, the history is scattered.

Families were asked to share photographs, letters, pay stubs and personal documents. Many of those items now line the walls of the gallery.

"These are not abstract stories," Cuevas said. "These are family records."

Census documents helped confirm what many families had passed down through memory. Some records listed railroad intersections instead of street addresses. When matched with historic maps, those locations placed boxcar communities inside neighborhoods that still exist today.

The exhibit also shows the conditions families lived through. Winters without heat. Dangerous work environments. Limited housing options.

"This was the only housing many families could access," Cuevas said, citing discrimination and proximity to work.

Despite that, families built community. Churches formed. Weddings and funerals were held. Children grew up along the rails.

Big picture view:

The exhibition does not stop at labor history. It also documents moments when Mexican communities in Chicago were targeted by federal deportation campaigns, including in the 1950s, when some workers were removed from the country on the same rail lines they helped build.

Cuevas said that history gives the exhibit added weight today.

"When people say you do not belong, the records say otherwise," he said.

Moreno said the goal is not to speak for the families represented, but to make their records visible.

"A lot of the people whose families worked on these rail lines went on to become doctors, lawyers, artists and educators," he said. "Those seeds were planted here."

What's next:

Rieles y Raíces is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. now through April. Museum officials encourage visitors to take their time with the exhibit and follow the timeline from start to finish.

The museum said the exhibition is meant for everyone, whether their family history is represented on the walls or not.

The National Museum of Mexican Art is located at 1852 W. 19th St. Admission is free.