Tony Figueroa
Waukegan community leader, interviewed 2022
Tony Figueroa describes his parents’ lives in Puerto Rico and their arrival to Waukegan, Illinois in the 1940s. The Figueroas were among the earliest Puerto Rican migrants to the Chicago area.
Tony Figueroa describes his father’s experience working in foundries in Waukegan. He remembers the vibrant African American neighborhood where he and many other Puerto Ricans lived.
Tony Figueroa describes the founding of the Puerto Rican Society in the 1950s and its development into one of Waukegan’s most important organizations under the leadership of Edwin Montano and others.