Detroit — So much has been made of Metro Detroit’s voting blocs: the Islamic voters of Dearborn, energized suburban women, apathetic white working-class males, and the black voters whom both political parties pander to like groveling fools.
But no one ever talks about another large and economically vibrant Detroit group: Hispanics.
Detroit’s Hispanic residents have quietly built up and sustained a large cross section of southwest Detroit, unofficially but ubiquitously referred to as Mexicantown. Even more extraordinary is that while Detroit’s population as a whole has drastically declined during the last four decades, Mexicantown’s population hasn’t.
To outsiders, Mexicantown is the hub of restaurants and shops in and around Bagley St. and Vernor Highway near 24th St. But that’s only the tourist trap where suburbanites land after Red Wing or Tigers games for dinner. I strongly recommend Xochimilco, but all the restaurants are outstanding.
Mexicantown actually stretches from the Hubbard Pritchard neighborhood northeast of the Ambassador Bridge, through the restaurant district, continuing past Clark Park along Vernor for several miles to Dix at the border of East Dearborn. It’s pretty much all of southwest Detroit. Michigan Central Station looms above it from Corktown. The building’s lights blaze a trail into the heart of southwest Detroit.
There is a distinct culture here that doesn’t exactly track with prevailing narratives. While there is certainly crime in the area, there are virtually no visible signs of gang activity. The streets and homes are well cared for and maintained. Economic activity is vibrant and ongoing. There are few abandoned buildings or storefronts.
Traditional American aesthetics are also quite visible. Hispanic men over the age 40 regularly wear cowboy boots and hats, American flags dot many porches and storefronts, and residents turn out for perhaps the most American tradition of all: baseball. Mexicantown’s Clark Park is home to arguably the second-most beautiful baseball diamond in Detroit after Comerica Park, and it’s packed every non-winter weekend for local games and tournaments.
But those visual markers only tell half the story. Census data shows twice the rate of married households and more than twice the rate of married households with children in southwest Detroit, compared with the rest of the city. However, the statistic that jumps furthest off the page is the size of the family households. The average family household in Mexicantown is 7.1 members. In an era of declining birthrates among white and black married couples, Hispanic families stand out.
Dare I say it? The American vibe feels stronger in Mexicantown than it does in Livonia, Northville, or Canton, where you’re more likely to see wine mom décor and rainbow flags than baseball mitts and American flags.
Southwest Detroit stands out, given the radical multiculturalism taking over the rest Metro Detroit. Blacks with economic mobility and means leap out of Detroit like passengers on the Titanic and have diversified Warren, Farmington Hills, and Novi. The Arab Muslims in neighboring Dearborn have moved west into Dearborn Heights, Garden City, and parts of Livonia, while simultaneously moving further northeast into Detroit and taking political control over Hamtramck, yet they haven’t been willing to move beyond Dix Road into Mexicantown.
I spoke with a Metro Detroit Arab-American real-estate agent who coaches baseball in Mexicantown to understand why.
He says that, first, Hispanic Detroiters are traditionally Catholic, socially conservative, and extraordinarily matriarchal. They cling to the traditional roles of men working to support their families, but mothers and grandmothers rule the roost. Those opposing this norm might be not be very welcome.
Second, he alleges Hispanic Detroiters are simply more patriotic. They have retained their own culture while also assimilating into American cultural norms to a high degree, as opposed to Arab Muslims who chafe at assimilation, oppose many cultural norms, and “don’t really give a shit about America.”
Lastly, he said that Hispanic Detroiters are keen to cultural invasion in a way that white suburbanites are not. White people are extremely tolerant and acceptable to multiculturalism and pluralism. Muslims can move more easily into predominantly Caucasian areas and be embraced by them open arms. In contrast, Hispanic Detroiters are far less tolerant. Their community seems tighter and, in a lot of ways, more familiar.
A late-30s bartender at Xochimilco, a longtime resident of Mexicantown and a Trump supporter to boot, described the cultural difference between Dearborn and Mexicantown this way: “A Muslim-American family will have three or four generations all living in one house. A Mexican-American family will have three or four generations all living on the same street, along with their cousins, aunts, uncles.”
I view Mexicantown and the Hispanic community in southwest Detroit with awe. They’ve retained who they are, bolstered their community with small businesses unique to their culture, preserved the traditions, rejected the call to join the progressive coalition, and denied attempts by white leftists to redefine them (Latinx) with invented academic language.
And did I mention their food is great?
J.Z. Delorean is a writer for Michigan Enjoyer and has been a Metro Detroit-based professional investigator for 22 years. Follow him on X @Stainless31.
