Francisco Figueroa

2024

By Nicole Martinez-LeGrand

Francisco Manriquez Figueroa, known to many as Frank, was born in Mexico in 1896. He spent his early adulthood in Mexico, and at 28, he joined his older brother Benjamin in Indiana Harbor in 1924. His formative years were spent through the Mexican Revolution peppered with civil unrest, a seismic class shift and anti-Catholic rhetoric.

Ultimately, these events shaped him and others who were taking part in the Midwestern Mexican diaspora of the late 1910s, propelled by a United States departmental order in 1918 that increased allotment of foreign workers from Mexico to work in industries related to war relief, notably in steel production.

Due to the after-effects of the Mexican Revolution coupled with this departmental order, areas such as Indiana Harbor and Gary saw a dramatic increase of Mexican-born population and the demographic shift from mostly single, unmarried male laborers to middle-class families and individuals.

From 1920 to 1930, the population of Mexican Nationals expanded from about 300 to more than 5,300 people in Indiana Harbor alone. The attraction of well-paying industrial jobs drew many from Mexico and the American South to the Midwest, establishing the highest concentration of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Calumet Region of Northwest Indiana and Chicago. This societal shift that Figueroa was a part of cemented his family’s legacy, not only in history but in the long and tenured history of Indiana journalism.

Benjamin, the older of two Figueroa brothers, began to work in the United States after the issuance of the 1918 U.S. departmental labor order. He later settled in Indiana Harbor with his family in 1923, and Frank followed in 1924, the same year as his marriage to Consuelo Carrillo in Jalisco, Mexico.

In 1925, Consuelo reunited with her husband in Indiana Harbor with their newborn son, Francisco “Frank” Jr. She herself left Mexico as an exile. Given her family affiliation as Hacienda owners, she and her family were publicly targeted. Consuelo witnessed the execution of her brother while they were in school. Her father would place dishes filled with coins in open windows of their home to avoid harassment.

The year of Consuelo’s arrival in the United States was the same year that the Figueroa brothers, who initially worked for Inland Steel Company, established Figueroa Printers at 3604 Deodar Street in Indiana Harbor. This marked a new beginning for the Figueroa brothers and their families, but more so for the local Mexican community. Aside from more families and middle class arriving to northwest Indiana, they were also religious and political exiles. Frank and Benjamin saw the need of support among the community, but more importantly the need for a voice.

Benjamin and Francisco became founding members of an Indiana chapter of a Catholic men’s group called Circulo de Obreros Catolico, with the Indiana chapter called Circulo de Obreros Catolico “San Jose” (Catholic Workers Circle “Saint Joseph”). The group’s motto was “For God, for Country, and for the Worker,” establishing itself as a mutual-aid society whose overall service was aimed toward uplifting the working class.

The group provided insurance benefits and outlets for entertainment and education. Benjamin Figueroa would serve as this organization’s inaugural president in 1924.

The Catholic Workers Circle group was a part of a larger movement that began in Argentina in the late 1800s. The Catholic Social Action movement model was to uplift the working class through the formation of a mutual-aid society or an insurance group and a newspaper.

In 1925, Figueroa Printers published the first Spanish-language newspaper in Indiana, El Amigo del Hogar (“a friend of the home”), distributed weekly. Editorial members of El Amigo del Hogar were also members of Circulo de Obreros, including Frank. This firmly established Figueroa Printers as the first Latino-owned newspaper publisher and El Amigo del Hogar as the first Spanish-language newspaper in Indiana.  

Frank and some of the men who were members of Circulo de Obreros Catolico served as staff writers for El Amigo. The wellspring of new voices, ideas and energy signified the 1920s in Indiana Harbor.

Figueroa Printers became a location of the first library for the Mexican community and at times a meeting place for the Circulo de Obreros. This space supported a budding arts and literary group. Consuelo Figueroa was a performer with Cuadro Drámtico, a dramatic arts group that held its residency in Indiana Harbor’s Auditorium Hall and performed full- scale theatrical performances.

All of this was supported by the Obreros mutual-aid group and was heavily promoted in El Amigo del Hogar. Proceeds from Cuadro Drámtico were used to establish the first Mexican Roman Catholic Church in Indiana, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in 1926. This was not the only means of fundraising for this church. The newspaper promoted events and the importance of community philanthropy and sanctioned fundraising groups and events.

Consuelo served as one of the newspaper’s unnamed copy editors, doing a final review of content before the moveable type was set before printing. She was educated, and her intellect was solicited for literary events, documented in a 1931 letter from the Circulo de Obreros Catolico requesting her to serve as a juror for its essay contest.

Frank and his (soon to be) son-in-law were performers with the music group called Obreros Mexicanos that regularly performed on Sundays at Adler Park in Indiana Harbor. Frank and members of the Figueroa family were key participants of these expressions of art and culture.

The economic depression hit at the end of 1929 and the start of the Mexican Repatriation movement in the Midwest soon followed. Benjamin and his large family returned to Mexico, while Frank stayed. Eventually, the newspaper ceased publication, but Figueroa Printers continued under the guidance of Frank, providing commercial and personal printing services, all while remaining as a pillar of the community. Frank died in  1951 after a brief illness.

Frank’s contribution to journalism lasted into the next generation. Frank and Consuelo had nine children: Frank Jr., Gus, Connie, Carmen, George, William, Louis, Lupe and Irene. While everyone in the family worked at the print shop in some capacity, Frank’s sons revived their father’s legacy of advocacy and serving as a community voice. In 1956 they started another long running Latino news publication called The Latin Times, a bilingual newspaper providing a voice for a more ethnically diverse Latino population, including a Puerto Rican community.

Like their father, mother and uncle before them, the brothers served as the newspaper’s writers, editors, publisher and printer. A young Harbor native, Edward “Eddie” Medina, served as photographer and political cartoonist. Like its predecessor, the newspaper documented perspectives that were under-reported in local mainstream news.

Frank’s sons and their newspaper recorded the Viva Kennedy movement, key perspectives during the era of urban renewal, and facilitated the support and the rise of Indiana’s first Latino elected officials.

The Times ceased publication in the late 1970s. The print shop provided municipal printing support until the retirement of two of the five Figueroa brothers in the 1980s.

Frank Figueroa was forged by the fires of a revolution, exodus and activism. His commitment to journalism was encapsulated by the print shop but lives in on in a community whose roots run deep in Indiana.   

Photo courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society.