Hispanics

Hispanic presence in Indianapolis is recorded as far back as 1870 in the city’s federal census. Hispanic immigration to Indianapolis remained very limited before World War I, and the small increase in numbers during the interwar years was overshadowed by the thousands of Hispanic individuals who settled farther north in Lake County to work in the steel and railroad industries. By the 1930s, however, the Hispanic presence in Indianapolis was more evident. Many of these individuals were educated professionals or semi-professionals from various Latin American countries who worked for Eli Lilly and Company at a time when its operations had begun to expand into Latin America.

From World War II onward, Indianapolis has experienced a sharp increase in Hispanic immigration. For instance, at the time of the 1990 census, Marion County’s 8,450 Hispanic residents constituted the state’s second-largest concentration of Hispanic individuals among Indiana’s counties, an increase of 24 percent over the 1980 count. Only two Lake County cities (East Chicago and Hammond) surpassed Indianapolis in the number of Hispanic residents. Mexican Americans accounted for the majority of these people followed by Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans.

Hispanic citizens in Indianapolis have origins almost as diverse as their reasons for coming. Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans were attracted in the late 1940s and early 1950s by work on the railroads and by a variety of opportunities in the city’s expanding economy. At first limited in number, many of these workers settled as renters on the near eastside, close enough that they could visit, socialize, and support one another as they confronted the challenges of succeeding in a new environment. At about the same time, the city’s Puerto Rican population was expanding. The status of Puerto Rican individuals as U.S. citizens had enabled them to move freely from their island nation to the mainland in response to the abundant postwar economic opportunities. In addition, some were U.S. Army personnel drawn to this city by their work at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Cuban immigration to Indianapolis, steady but limited for several decades, intensified in the late 1950s as the Batista government gradually succumbed to revolutionary forces.

Indianapolis’ Hispanic population has been historically spread throughout the city. Its small numbers, diverse origins, and range of social and economic levels discouraged concentration in one geographical area and at the same time encouraged assimilation. Even though in later years population clusters did appear in the city (see El Barrio), an identifiable ethnic neighborhood characteristic of the city’s early German and Italian settlement never developed. This dispersed pattern of residence has affected the character of Indianapolis’ Hispanic community. Even as recently as the 1950s, Hispanic residents knew little about their fellows. Rarely did the press or media announce their presence to the community. There was no common work experience such as that provided by the steel mills in Lake County, and no Catholic services in Spanish to unite them through religious experience. Limited but vital informal networks had served the basic needs of employment, adaptation, and cultural maintenance. As their numbers grew, however, they gradually began to meet in the public arena—in the workplace, at worship, at occasional parties and dances. The formation of the Mexican Social Club in 1958, the first formal Hispanic organization in the city, reflected this increasing activity among a small population of Mexican descent concentrated on the near eastside.

The dramatic arrival in Indianapolis in the early 1960s of approximately 200 Cuban refugees fleeing Fidel Castro’s revolution had a transforming effect upon the Hispanic community as well as the city of Indianapolis. In a sense, this event marks the beginning of the Indianapolis Hispanic community’s public chronology. As the city’s churches, businesses, community groups and individuals reached out to help settle these new arrivals, a flood of press and television coverage contributed to a growing public awareness of the larger Hispanic community. The Cuban Association, established in the early 1960s, helped ease the transition of these new arrivals and maintained their national identity as the Mexican association had done some years before. In 1965 the naming of a Hispanic person to serve as detective in the Indianapolis Police Department became an occasion of some symbolic significance as the first to occupy a position in the public sector.

In 1967 St. Mary’s Church in Center Township began offering Sunday Mass in Spanish, evidence of a growing Spanish-speaking community. A year later the Hispano-American Society was formed to deal with special interests common to the Hispanic community. Members of this society, with support from city leaders, founded the Hispano-American Center (later El Centro Hispano) in 1971 to provide the Hispanic community with social services and cultural experiences. As its responsibilities grew, the center, located in the city’s downtown, became the most permanent and visible symbol of the Hispanic community in Indianapolis.

The 1970s and 1980s were decades of accelerated growth for the Hispanic community, both in terms of population and of institutional growth. The city’s increased media coverage of the Hispanic community reflected that growth. Several Protestant denominations organized Spanish-speaking congregations. The Greater Indianapolis Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was formed in 1984 to assist Hispanic-owned businesses. Several new activities and organizations appeared on the Indianapolis cultural scene. Fiesta Indianapolis, an annual community-wide event organized in 1981 by the Hispano-American Center featuring Hispanic food, music, dancing, singing, and other cultural activities, offered one of the few opportunities for this ethnically diverse and geographically dispersed community to interact. At about the same time, the formation of several new Hispanic national associations contributed to a growing awareness among Hispanic residents of their numbers and diverse national origins. A need for communication within this emerging community was reflected in the development of radio and television programs aimed principally at a Hispanic audience, and in the establishment of a monthly newspaper, Estrella Hispana, in 1985. Indianapolis’ hosting of the Pan American Games in 1987 highlighted the presence of the local Hispanic community and drew upon its resources.

By the 1990s, peoples of Hispanic origin, while limited in number and dispersed throughout the greater Indianapolis area, were nonetheless represented in all facets of the city’s life and constituted an important addition to the city’s rich ethnic composition.

*Note: This entry is from the original print edition of the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis (1994). We are currently seeking an individual with knowledge of this topic to update this entry.