Barrio: Photographs from Chicago's Pilsen And Little Village

In 1988 photographer Paul D'Amato was driving around Chicago with his camera when be decided to follow Halsted Street into Pilsen, the city's largest Mexican neighborhood. Intrigued by the barrio and neighboring Little Village, he began to take photographs and would continue to do so off and on for the next fourteen years. D'Amato started with the public life of the neighborhood: women and children in the streets, open fire hydrants, and graffiti. But later - after he got to know the area's Mexican residents better - he was allowed to take more intimate photos of people at work, families at weddings and parties, and even gang members.
Barrio collects ninety of these striking color images along with D'Amato's fascinating account of his time photographing Mexican Chicago and his acceptance - often grudging, after threatened violence - into the heart of the city's Mexican community.

Paul D'Amato is professor of photography at Columbia College Chicago.