7 Minutes SW of the Loop
1996 - 2012

“It takes roughly 7 minutes to ride a bike to the Loop in downtown Chicago from the eastern edge of Pilsen,” retrieved from an entry in 2000 from journal #10.

Chicago’s near southwest side has been a port of entry to the city for generations. In the early 20th century the neighborhood was inhabited by European immigrants from Czechoslovakia, Ireland, Lithuania, and Poland. By the late 1960s Pilsen evolved into a Spanish speaking neighborhood inhabited predominately by new arrivals from Mexico. In recent time, due to cheap rents, the ability to convert large industrial spaces into live/work environments and proximity to the downtown, artist and musicians have taken up residency in this section of the city. Presented here are portraits of inhabitants and the place these creatives call home.