The peoples' own houses: Hungary, and the House of Friendship

1916 - 2024

The Hungarian parish: South Bend's factories recruited in Europe, and the peoples who came built institutions the city still uses. Hungarian immigrants who worked in the Studebaker factory worshipped at Our Lady of Hungary, which began in 1916 as a mission of St. Stephen's Hungarian parish, moved in 1923 to make room for the expanding Studebaker foundry, and dedicated its present church at Christmas 1949. Its annual July parish festival is the ethnic story of the whole city in one churchyard: Hungarian and Mexican families now share the parish, and its festival serves Hungarian and Mexican food, music and games side by side, with the Michiana Polish Singers singing at the festival Mass. Three of this section's peoples in one parish festival is not a melting pot slogan; it is a South Bend parish calendar, printed in the diocesan paper. The parishes themselves stand in the parish material; the cultural fact is the succession, one immigrant congregation's house becoming the next immigrant generation's house too.

La Casa: The Latino community built its institution in the same decade the factory closed. La Casa de Amistad, The House of Friendship, was formed on 17 October 1973 by Father John Phalen, C.S.C., and Latino community leaders as a youth outreach programme for Latino teenagers, many from migrant worker families; it took nonprofit status in 1975, settled on Warren Street, and from 1980 spent forty years at 746 South Meade Street on the west side. Its mission, in its own words, is to empower the Latino and Hispanic community "by providing educational, cultural and advocacy services in a welcoming, bilingual environment." In 2021 La Casa completed a $3.25 million capital campaign to buy and renovate a 40,000 square foot building on South Michigan Street, and in March 2024 MacKenzie Scott's Yield Giving awarded it $2 million. The community it serves was about 3 percent of South Bend's population in the 1980s and close to 20 percent in 2020. Between Our Lady of Hungary in 1916 and La Casa in 1973 runs the whole argument of this article: South Bend's peoples have never waited for the city's culture to include them. They have built the houses themselves, and the city's culture is largely the sum of those houses.

Sources:

1. Today's Catholic, diocesan newspaper, 2016 and 2017 (Our Lady of Hungary begun in 1916 as a mission of St. Stephen's Hungarian parish; the 1923 move for the Studebaker foundry; the present church dedicated at Christmas 1949; the annual July festival shared by Hungarian and Mexican parishioners, with the Michiana Polish Singers at the festival Mass).
2. Indiana Historical Society, Hoosiers and the American Story, chapter 6 (Studebaker and Oliver recruiting Hungarian workers; Hungarian immigrants in the factory worshipping at Our Lady of Hungary).
3. La Casa de Amistad, the organisation's own About and News pages (formed 17 October 1973 by Father John Phalen, C.S.C., and Latino community leaders; nonprofit status 1975; 746 South Meade Street from 1980; the mission statement; the $3.25 million campaign and the 40,000 square foot Michigan Street building of 2021; the $2 million Yield Giving award of March 2024).
4. Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies and Today's Catholic, 28 April 2022 (La Casa's founding and growth; the Latino share of South Bend's population, about 3 percent in the 1980s and close to 20 percent in 2020).