Mayor Daley’s efforts to engage neighborhoods and embrace diversity presented Chicago as a city where people from different cultures and backgrounds lived, worked, did business, and built communities together.
img: [Image: box 7-169, folder 16, date on folder says Oct. 31, 1998, but should be Oct. 13, 1998]: 

…it is very fitting that a Mexican eagle will now stand proudly in the heart of Chicago's Mexican-American community. For all of us, I hope that it will serve as a lasting symbol of our special relationship with Mexico and Mexico City. And that it will express the very nature of Chicago's diverse ethnic heritage, as well as the unity that keeps us together. We may be sons and daughters of immigrants from many countries, but we are all Chicagoans.

--"Remarks by Mayor Richard M. Daley: Pilsen Bronze Eagle Monument Dedication," October 13, 1998, Richard M. Daley papers. Box 3-125, folder 31. 

As the following sections will show, that image helped demonstrate Chicago’s suitability as a global city, willing and able to thrive in a world where international visibility and connections became increasingly important.