The sister blogueras, Rebecca Dailey-Wooley and Raquel Dailey-Parham, launched the website Boriqua Chicks in 2012 to share the perspective and lifestyle of modern, urban Afro-Latinas. Then, to better acquaint Chicago with their mixed roots and heritage, Dailey-Parham opened an Afro-Latino eatery, Maracas, on June 25 of this year. It exemplifies the Afro-Latino presence in Chicago.

Born to an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother, Dailey-Wooley and Dailey-Parham were raised with both cultures brimming in their homes. Reggaeton, bachata, salsa, menudo, arroz con habichuelas, platanos and avocados were mainstays (or are favorites now) in their household as much as was anything available in the African-American neighborhood in which they were raised.

"My father's people lived in Ida B. Wells [public housing], which is closed now, but near here," said Dailey-Parham, whose Bronzeville-based restaurant "borrows heavily from her mom's recipes." "My mother is from Puerto Rico. I grew up in two cultures."

In Chicago, where the Latino population is predominantly Mexican and, to a much smaller degree, Puerto Rican, Latinos with African roots are not represented or acknowledged. The government's system of ethnic and racial labeling enables this, and makes it nearly impossible to offer Latinos an identity that makes cultural sense to them. The terms "Hispanic" and "Latino" are often pitted against one another, and both are pitted against nation-based labels, such as Mexican, Cuban and Puerto Rican. For this reason, clarifying one's ethnic makeup can be an additional complication.

The historically segregated Chicagoland area doesn't always lend visibility to those who are the product of integration. It's unclear how many Afro-Latinos, or Afro-Puerto Ricans, are in Chicago. However, "according to the 2008-12 Puerto Rican Community Survey, about 70 percent of the island's population self-identifies as white, 8 percent embrace black and the rest are of 'some other race' or of 'two or more races,'" the Sun-Times wrote.

"More slavery came to Latin America than the United States," Dailey-Wooley told the newspaper. "The black diaspora is larger than people think."

The Boriqua Chicks' decision to create a site where they can speak on the subject of the Afro-Latina subculture, and Dailey-Parham's decisions to introduce Puerto Rican cuisine to the decidedly African-American neighborhood, helps shed light on Chicago's hidden diversity: black Chicagoans with Latin roots and Latino Chicagoans with African roots.

Humboldt Park is the neighborhood normally home to Puerto Rican-style cuisine in Chicago, but as the Puerto Rican population disperses and the Afro-Latino identity becomes more familiar in black neighborhoods, it makes sense that the South Side neighborhoods embrace Puerto Rican food and culture.

"I've been waiting for it to open," said Yelitza Rivera, a 26-year-old of Mexican descent who works at a nearby community center. "We needed something else here. Somewhere else to eat."

Dailey-Parham, 35, left her job as an educator in 2009 to have children and develop her business plan, the Sun-Times reported. Now she is at Maracas, at 4317 S. Cottage Grove Ave., which offers a full menu of homemade chuleta (marinated pork), carne asada, maracas mango or buffalo wings, beans and rice, bistec/grilled steak in onions and much more. Colorful paintings by local artists decorate the walls, and the restaurant employs local teens. The restaurant has already become a part of the community.

"It's about educating and exposing people because there are people out there who are like us," Dailey-Parham told the Sun-Times. "This restaurant has been quite the journey."

Check out the Maracas Facebook page and look at the restaurant on Twitter.

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