This work was inspired by starting to read Michael Innis-Jiménez's book "Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago, 1915-1940". I came to the book not for a sociological study but for family history -- not something seen in the impersonal aggregate but in the very personal individual stories of those ancestors' experiences, not the accounts of others unless those accounts really did echo the ancestors' experiences. I sought to understand the context of those stories. What was the impact of the Mexican Revolution on them? How many Mexican men registered in Chicago and nearby in the World War I US draft? When and where and how and with whom did the ancestors cross from Mexico into the US? What did the 1920 US Census show for them and the context within which they lived? What were their lives like?

How many Mexicans were already in Chicago in the earliest years of the formation of a community in South Chicago? Who were the Mexico-born men in Chicago and vicinity who registered for the World War I draft? Where did they live? What did they do? Were they all single?

Searching Ancestry.com's World War I draft registrations for Mexico-born men living in Illinois and Indiana found these counts (after eliminating "hits" that did not belong in the group).

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Illinois - 2,105 men 825 - Cook County, Illinois 636 - Chicago 189 - County 147 - Will County, Illinois 90 - Joliet 57 - County 112 - Peoria County, Illinois 63 - County 49 - Peoria 103 - Bureau County, Illinois 98 - LaSalle County, Illinois 94 - Rock Island County, Illinois 76 - Madison County, Illinois 57 - St Clair County, Illinois 46 - County 11 - East St. Louis 54 - Henry County, Illinois 54 - Knox County, Illinois 48 - Montgomery County, Illinois 34 - Dupage County, Illinois 32 - Tazewell County, Illinois 28 - Lake County, Illinois 26 - Grundy County, Illinois 23 - Marshall County, Illinois 22 - Carroll County, Illinois 20 - Warren County, Illinois 19 - Winnebago County, Illinois 18 - Rockford 1 - County 17 - Whiteside County, Illinois 16 - Adams County, Illinois 16 - Quincy 16 - Kane County, Illinois 14 - County 2 - Aurora 16 - Livingston County, Illinois 14 - DeKalb County, Illinois 14 - Lee County, Illinois 13 - Kendall County, Illinois 13 - Miscellaneous, Illinois 12 - Cass County, Illinois 11 - McHenry County, Illinois 9 - Champaign County, Illinois 8 - Sangamon County, Illinois 7 - Springfield 1 - County 7 - Jo Daviess County, Illinois 7 - McDonough County, Illinois 6 - McLean County, Illinois 6 - Ogle County, Illinois 5 - Stephenson County, Illinois 4 - Fulton County, Illinois 4 - Union County, Illinois 4 - Vermilion County, Illinois 2 - Danville 2 - County 4 - Woodford County, Illinois 3 - Boone County, Illinois 3 - Greene County, Illinois 3 - Piatt County, Illinois 2 - Henderson County, Illinois 2 - Macon County, Illinois 1 - Decatur 1 - County 1 - Bond County, Illinois 1 - Clinton County, Illinois 1 - Coles County, Illinois 1 - Douglas County, Illinois 1 - Effingham County, Illinois 1 - Ford County, Illinois 1 - Iroquois County, Illinois 1 - Kankakee County, Illinois 1 - Macoupin County, Illinois 1 - Marion County, Illinois 1 - Perry County, Illinois 1 - Pike County, Illinois 1 - Putnam County, Illinois 1 - Williamson County, Illinois 1 - Herrin

Indiana - 175 men 128 - Lake County 64 - Gary 55 - East Chicago 9 - County 12 - Marion County 11 - Indianapolis 1 - County 9 - Porter County 4 - St. Joseph County 3 - South Bend 1 - County 4 - Vigo County 3 - Terre Haute 1 - County 3 - Fort Wayne, Allen County 3 - Hendricks County 2 - Montgomery County 1 - Benton County 1 - De Kalb County 1 - Delaware County 1 - Howard County 1 - La Porte County 1 - Miami County 1 - Tippecanoe County 1 - Evansville, Vanderburgh County 1 - Warrick County 1 - Wayne County

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