Mexican Mutual

Reinaldo Contreras III. Aztec Calendar. 2025. Lorain.

Mexican Mutual Society at the end of National Hispanic Month (mid October) celebrated with a new mural on their building.  The mural is interrupted.  It depicts elements of pre-Colombian Mejico:  an Aztec warrior, pyramid, sun (sun god Huitzilopochtli) worship...

...and the prophecy which led to the founding of Mexico City:  settle where you see an eagle on a cactus capturing a snake.

Further along the wall is an older mural with the Virgin.

The next property over had a two story, and a one story buildings.  They are gone.  Next to that is an abandoned building, which had a restaurant on the first floor.   I remember seeing many of this style of signs,  perhaps they peaked in the 1950s.  Michelin began a guide  in 1900 to show motorists where good mechanics, and restaurants were.  In 1936 one star restaurants were listed, in 1933 two and three star restaurants were listed.  One is very good, two is excellent, and three "exceptional cuisine that is worth a special journey".  The 1925 guide has 156 three star restaurants, 14 are in the United States, and naturellement, France has more than double that number.

Across the street is this building, and its entrance.  It is the office building of the Lorain steelworks.  The  Johnson Steel Company began work in 1895.  Tom Johnson would later become the best mayor in America (Cleveland).  He made steel rails for streetcars.  His factory was in Johnstown Pennsylvania, the flood of 1889 took it away. Eventually he decided on Lorain.  This steel works had reorganisations, name changes, and sales. In 1903 it became the National Tube Company, part of US Steel.  In 2022 it closed as Republic Steel. There has been talk of re-opening.

They needed labor, and they gathered immigrants to much of it.  These buildings above all are on East 28th.  Very nearby, there were churches built by European immigrants of several Catholic, and Orthodox nations.  Some of the Catholic parishes were eliminated by Richard Lennon in 2009-10.

National Tube recruited over 1,300 hundred Mexicans from Mexico, and Texas in 1923.  Five years later, Mexican Mutual was formed.  They bought their current building in 1941.  

 

On the corner next to building, at the intersection with Pearl is this banner, and behind it some of the steel mill.