Pilsen Underground

There comes a time in our undocumented lives when we can become overwhelmed living in Amerika, the land of our ancestors. We can feel we are going in circles and don’t see it until they connect, a new cycle begins. That is how my early teens through now have felt like. Fighting and giving up and then realizing why we fought to begin with and fighting back again. Well, if 12 years ago someone would have told me I was going to be raising a 44ft long banner to block of a street in front of the Georgia State Capitol I would have brushed off the thought. But 12 years ago is when I began my artistic adventure in Chicago. I began volunteering in the gift shop at the National Museum of Mexican Arts, stocking things here and there and cleaning. Later I started taking art classes at Yollocalli, a local art center run by the museum that focused on helping youth in the community that saw me grow, Pilsen.

My political ideologies began to evolve. I became aware that some of the things I learned while growing up had to be unlearned and rebuilt to better myself in my hood, Pilsen. The teachers I had, the smell of culture down 18th street, my friends and family including those who came into my life and are now gone. Those are the things that have kept me rooted to my community and Mother Nature. The first protest I went to was post 911, at 15 yrs old. I walked out of school along side hundreds of students from Benito Juarez high school chanting and screaming “End The War Now!!!” We later made our way towards downtown where hundreds and thousands of students and activists met. The night before, I stood up making hundreds of stickers with a stencil I made that read “Stop war now.” This was my first time seeing police beating innocent by standers, later blocking us off unable to go anywhere. Helicopters over head and police making mass arrests. Some years after protesting the war at 17 I began doing art therapy with a local domestic violence group, Casa Segura. This is when I realized how being undocumented makes our communities suffer because living in the shadows is living in fear, not only of the government but even our spouses/partners. Fear limits our access to resources, and the help one can get regardless of our status. We see success in our communities through first time high school/college graduates but also through the efforts of people who make their community a whole. From the corn lady in front of the church, to the old man who owns his corner store, and the factory and field workers who work hard everyday for themselves or their families. Despite these successes, we continue to witness discrimination around the nation. A nation erasing its history of what it was once known for being “The Melting Pot of the World.” That is why we cannot sit back and watch how members of our communities are slowly disappearing. While gentrification seeps through the cracks we begin a new venture into an artistic underground world of visual and auditory stimulation from local DJs, Artists and those who love them.

Coming to Pilsen....!

*UNDOING BORDERS: queer discussions on im/migration & criminalization
Friday Sept 30th from 6pm-9pm
1921 Blue Island, Chicago IL

*9th annual 18th Street Pilsen Open Studios
October 15-16,
http://pilsenopenstudios.wordpress.com/