Little Village is a part of the South Lawndale community area. The small Village neighborhood is overflow with Mexican-American culture. Before it had been referred to as “La Villita,” Little Village saw an influx of Polish, Czech, and German immigrants following the great Chicago Fire of 1871.

On the southwest side of Chicago, there is Little Village which is also familiar as South Lawndale, one among the 77 Chicago Community Areas. In 1869, Chicago occupied the world that was to become Lawndale from Cicero Township. After the Great Fire in 1871, Edwin J. Decker and Alden C. Millard, two stationery business owners, gave up their business to create an affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of the town for largely Anglo-Saxon residents. They chose this location because the land was affordable and therefore the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad, which was raised in 1908 to make the viaduct that currently exists, ran through the world. Homes were advertised as made only of brick and ranged from $2,500 to $8,500. Millard was developed as the main street, with stores, churches, a hotel, a park, a post office, and other facilities. Their business project failed in May 1876, but this placed the groundwork for the longer-term development of Little Village.

In the 1970s, Little Village began to become referred to as the “Mexico of the Midwest,” as more Mexican-Americans moved into the community. Today, a terracotta arch towering over 26th Street greets people with “Benvenuto’s a touch Village.” The arch, designed by Mexican architect Adrian Lozano, was built in 1990 to recognize the influence of Mexican culture in Chicago.

Little Village has been a center for politics since its development. it's the house of Anton Cermak, who became Chicago’s mayor in 1931 with the support of a various coalition. He brought representatives from Jewish, German, Czech, Polish, and eventually African-American communities into leadership positions. Due to the strategies that he wants to consolidate power, he's often considered to be the originator of the Democratic machine. Little Village is additionally the house of Rudy Lozano, who was well-known locally as an activist and an organizer with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and with tortilla factory workers.

Every year Little Village hosts Lollapalooza, an annual music festival promoting culture, arts, and community engagement. Every September, the neighborhood also hosts an outsized annual parade in honor of Mexican Independence Day with mariachi bands, colorful floats, and dancing.

Little Village is additionally home to Cook County Jail, one among the most important jails within the United State, where most prisoners are awaiting trial. The jail first opened in 1929 when it had been only one building. The 96-acre property now has 11 different divisions.

The neighborhood also houses the small Village Lawndale high school Campus, four small schools that are the results of a 19-day fast held by community residents to pressure the board of education to satisfy their commitment to creating a replacement local high school; the Jorge Prieto clinic, a community-based Cook County Clinic named in honor a Mexican immigrant who worked to bring family-oriented preventative health care to communities in need; Second Federal Savings, a bank that broke from normal discriminatory lending practices by offering fair mortgages to Mexicans and opening bank accounts for the undocumented; La Villita Park, the results of over 20 years of community organizing to wash a contaminated “Superfund” site and make much needed green space on the side of the neighborhood; and several community-based organizations, clinics, churches and community projects that make Little Village the flourishing Mexican and Mexican American community that it's today. If you’re looking for an authentic slice of Mexican-American life in Chicago, Little Village has it all delicious restaurants full of locals, traditional bakeries, plenty of Mexican-American culture, and a literal warehouse crammed with Mexican candies and treats.