José Luis Arroyo
Oral History Transcript
Oral History Audio
Name of Interviewer: Xóchitl Bada
Date of Interview: April 11, 2016
Location: Chicago, IL
Interview Language: Spanish
José Luis Arroyo was born in 1956 in “El Potrero”, Guerrero, Mexico. He began his elementary school in “El Potrero” and then moved to the town of Iguala, Guerrero in 3rd grade and finished his elementary school there. In 1974, Jose Luis arrived in Chicago motivated by the wish of reuniting with his parents who had left him behind in Guerrero and were working without documents in Chicago. At that time, he started to work as a carpenter in a Wood Factory in Roosevelt and Laramie. When he had only one week in the city he was arrested by “La Migra” and deported to Mexico. After two months in Guerrero, José Luis Arroyo came back to the U.S. crossing the Tijuana-San Diego border. Once he arrived in San Diego, he traveled to Los Angeles and then went back to Chicago. During his second stay in the city, he worked in another Wood Company and then began to work in a car dealer. He has 36 year of experience working in car dealers, has a second job working as a janitor for a charter school in Chicago, and he also has his own family business selling shoes and clothes in Swap O Rama, a flea market on 4100 S. Ashland. In 1986, Jose Luis obtained his permanent residency through the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). Ten years later, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He is married and has three children. In 1992, Jose Luis Arroyo cofounded the “Club El Potrero” with the main goal of implementing several social projects in “El Potrero” to provide basic infrastructure such as paved roads and electricity. His club was one of the pioneers that demanded the creation of a 3X1 matching fund program to finance basic infrastructure in communities of origin in the state of Guerrero. At the time of the interview, Jose Luis Arroyo was president of the “Club El Potrero” and lived in the suburb of Forest Park.
