Little Mexico

Little Mexico is a former neighborhood in Dallas, Texas, encompassing the area bordered by Maple Avenue, McKinney Avenue and the MKT (Missouri, Kansas, Texas) Railroad. Formerly a Polish Jewish neighborhood, it was settled by a wave of Mexican immigrants beginning about 1910, and was recognized as Little Mexico by 1919, becoming a center of a Mexican-American community life in the city that lasted into the early 1980s, with a peak of population in the 1960s. Pike Park and a few structures are the remnants of the historic neighborhood, redeveloped as Uptown, including the Arts and West End Districts.

Established as an area of Polish Jewish immigrants, who arrived beginning in the late 19th century, the neighborhood began to attract Mexican immigrants, who arrived after the defeat of President Porfirio Diaz and his government and the start of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). Mexicans from all walks of life came to the Dallas area to take jobs in factories, agriculture, and the railroads. In a process of ethnic succession, as the former mostly Jewish population moved out, Mexicans replaced them. They had a continuing immigration and increased in population. By 1919, the area was known as "Little Mexico." A Dallas Morning News article defined the area as "[t]he entire district bounded by Cochran and Payne streets and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas tracks and taking in the vast districts on lower Ross and McKinney avenues."

Housing became scarce in this area in the 1920s and 1930s as more Mexicans poured into Little Mexico. Railroad workers were allowed to set up house in abandoned railroad cars, and houses were built on all available land. Yards and play areas were luxuries which the new residents could not afford. Many houses were quickly built with scrap wood and tar paper, and the city left the streets unpaved. According to the 1940s United States Census, 50% of homes lacked running water, and 65% burned wood, kerosene and gasoline for heat.

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