Of all the neighborhoods that make up Milwaukee, the Historic South Side is the largest, the densest, and in terms of its population, one of the youngest. With a land area of four square miles and roughly 47,000 residents, many of them children, the community plays an oversized role in the life of the larger city. It is here, in this community of modest homes, corner taverns, and church steeples, that two of Milwaukee's major ethnic groups, Poles and Latinos, have grown to maturity.