Pool Room, 3221 East 91st Street

This South Chicago pool hall was a gathering place for Mexican-American men. It was located at 3221 E. 91st Street behind La Superior Tortilleria where Vicenta and Tony Bravo made and sold tortillas and masa. Pool halls were more than simply a place to play pool. They were also places where Mexican men could freely congregate and socialize and where social and even political networks might form. Pool halls served much the same function as saloons did in Chicago’s industrial neighborhoods. The pool hall proprietor also often acted as a neighborhood banker. In the Millgate area of South Chicago, there were thirteen pool halls out of a total of thirty five businesses.