EXTRA: Are you sure foreigners are taking over everything in this nation?

I spent my Saturday afternoon in the Pilsen neighborhood, checking out the set-up along 18^th Street and the Mole de Mayo festival.

McDonald's on a street named for Cesar Chavez, or ...

It’s an event intended to give various restaurants a chance to show off their special recipes for that uniquely Mexican dish – mole. That mix of the cocoa bean and assorted spices mixed into a sauce served atop chicken, turkey or other meats.

... mariachis playing in between Giordano's and Subway? Photos by Gregory Tejeda

IT HAPPENS TO be a personal favorite of mine, and I was anxious to try unique variations on the dish (which my mother often served atop chicken with rice).

But the part of the day that caught my attention was the ethnic and racial blend of people that turned out to what some people would want to believe is the ultimate Mexican neighborhood in Chicago.

Chato's for pasta, along with ...

Just as many white people of assorted ethnicities showed up and gave the mole a try. The fact that this one-time immigrant enclave that has been through so many ethnicities during Chicago’s history truly is going through gentrification.

... Memo's for hot dogs

For it seems there were so many mixtures of the old (being the Mexicans who have been a part of Pilsen since the 1950s) and the new (upper-scale individuals who like the idea of a city address not too terribly far from jobs downtown (it’s about a 15-minute ride from “the Loop” to the 18^th Street CTA ‘el’ train platform).

I’M STILL TRYING to figure out the most off-beat sight I saw – the stage on 18^th Street where I saw a female mariachi band perform, located in between Giordano’s and Subway franchise restaurants.

Or the McDonald's franchise located on Chicago's Cesar Chavez Street.

A faded Mexican mural on a barbecue joint

The conservative ideologues who would have you think that the foreigners, especially all those dreaded Mexicans, have “taken over” this country ought to see these sites. It would go a long way towards shutting them up – except that the ideologues usually don’t worry about having fact to back up their rhetorical trash.

I also couldn’t help but notice several restaurants in the neighborhood being operated – based on their names – by people of Mexican ethnic origins. But who are serving up most definitely un-Mexican foods.

Still sights w/in Pilsen ...

PASTA AND HOT DOGS, to be exact. Assimilation at work. Perhaps somebody figures that even Mexican-Americans are anxious for something else to eat, even though the ideologues might have inane thoughts about serving up burritos.

Now I know some people see these sights and they get scared. They’re afraid the white people are going to drive up the rents and make it too expensive for others to afford to live there.

Although there has to be a mid-ground we can reach between a neighborhood remaining an ethnic enclave and becoming the latest version of Lincoln Park – which itself was once a Puerto Rican neighborhood back in the days when Pilsen had an overflow of Czech immigrants and it made sense the neighborhood was named for one of the largest cities in what is now the Czech Republic.

... that I'm sure will manage to offend ...

It was pleasing to see so many interacting with good behavior.

I DIDN’T SEE any bad incidents, and in fact there wasn’t even a heavy police presence.

I saw two lone officers walking along 18^th Street, and they said it was a pleasant afternoon. Which is something I'm sure the ideologues will refuse to believe can occur in an ethnic enclave in Chicago. We are, after all, the "murder capital" of the country -- even though it's really St. Louis, with Baltimore and New Orleans close behind.

... the ideologue idiots amongst us

Not even the presence of $5 beers got people to misbehave. Perhaps it was the presence of all the food that kept people from acting up. Or at the very least, kept us all stuffed to the point where none of us would have felt compelled to start up any trouble.

Although I have to admit to one thing – despite not being displeased with anything I ate or drank, I still have to say; none of the moles compared to the way my mother use to make them.

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How has this “Age of Trump” impacted the U.S/Mexico foreign relations?

Most of us who have any interest in Mexico Independence Day got our celebrating done last weekend – in Chicago, parades were held in the South Chicago and Little Village neighborhoods. Yet the actual holiday Saturday will be acknowledged in the Pilsen neighborhood with yet another parade.

U.S. acknowledgement of Mexico independence

So on this 217^th anniversary of the date on which Spain’s North American colonies officially declared their independence as a free and sovereign nation, it intrigues me to wonder of the state of relations between our two nations.

PARTICULARLY SINCE OUR current president has gone out of his way to bash about Mexico every chance he can get so as to enhance his status amongst the nativist nitwit segment of our society.

It was right after Donald J. Trump was sworn into office at the beginning of this year that The New Yorker published its own commentary under the headline Donald Trump blows up the U.S.-Mexico relationship. While the Washington Post published a commentary by the former Mexico ambassador to the United States under the headline The U.S.-Mexico relationship is dangerously on the edge. Just a couple of examples – I’m sure you are aware of many more.

Now I don’t doubt the xenophobes amongst us could care less about this. The fact that we shouldn’t want the most significant nation with which we share a border to think of us as a hostile presence seems to allude them.

Mexican cry of Independence

Yet that seems to be a reality, according to a new Pew Research Center study.

SOME 65 PERCENT of Mexicans surveyed now think negatively toward the United States – that’s double the amount compared to two years ago and most-definitely an all-time high.

Yes, this is attributable to the presence of Trump as president – it seems only 5 percent of Mexicans surveyed have confidence that Donald J. will do the right thing with regard to world affairs Admittedly, most foreign nations think the U.S. president is a boob, but Pew surveyed people from 37 foreign nations and the Mexican perception of Trump is the lowest of them all.

It also seems that only 55 percent of Mexicans think that economic ties between their nation and the United States are beneficial – down significantly from 73 percent back in the Obama presidential days of 2013.

It’s not a pretty picture. Trump’s trash talk has created an environment that interferes with the ability of business to get done. Which is ironic, since Trump backers always like to claim (foolishly, I’d argue) that Trump’s business background and leanings supposedly give him an edge in achieving the bottom-line of success.

YET WITH THE activity of recent days where Trump is supposedly willing to consider backing off some of his rash trash talk on immigration policy and consider serious negotiation on issues such as DACA (that childhood arrival policy), it could be a positive step.

Except that Trump has our nativist nitwit segment of society all riled up into thinking that mass deportations of everybody not exactly like themselves are imminent any day now. They could wind up turning on him.

Whereas there are people who think that serious efforts between Mexico and the United States to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement ought to end because Mexico should not negotiate with such a political crackpot as Trump.

A move that truly would hurt interests in both countries – since we should keep in mind that the people most inclined to hate the concept of NAFTA are the ones who have ideological hang-ups about doing business with Mexico. They value their alleged Aryan purity over the almighty dollar.

SOMETHING THE NATIVISTS ought to keep in mind. That for all the hostility they want to spew toward Mexico, the sentiment is similar on the other side of the border. All because of the trash talk.

Mexico Independence celebrations, such as this 1957 parade through South Chicago neighborhood, have become Chicago traditions in their own right

Something we should keep in mind on this date when people in Mexico celebrate their independence, and the Spanish-speaking enclaves of this country also make their efforts to acknowledge el grito – the cry of independence first heard just over two centuries ago.

Something to think about just in case you happen to be amongst those out in the Pilsen neighborhood celebrating the holiday. Or maybe you're celebrating U.S. District Court senior Judge Harry Leinenweber, the Ronald Reagan era-appointed judge (and real Republican, rather than these ideologue-tainted and racially-motivated nitwits who run the GOP today) who on Friday issued the ruling that favors cities declaring themselves to be sanctuary cities and goes against the Trump-era government's threats to cut off their federal funding.

We really are better off as a nation if we manage to co-exist with our neighbors in a peaceful situation. Or at least don’t have them thinking our economic downfall would somehow benefit their interests.

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Long-time ethnic enclave turning white and wealthier, but is that a plus?

Gentrification is a label with negative connotations to some people, usually those whose long-time home neighborhoods get improved to the point where they can’t afford to live there any more.

Proximity to downtown makes Pilsen attractive to all

Some want to say there’s nothing wrong with upgrading a neighborhood. It ought to be desired.

BUT WHAT OF the situation where upgrade means creating improvements meant to attract newcomers, without any interest in improving life quality for the existing residents.

That seems to be the situation taking place in Pilsen, the long-time immigrant neighborhood whose character has evolved so much throughout the years and is undergoing yet another round of change.

Pilsen carries the name of a village now in the Czech Republic. Sure enough, it was once a Czech enclave in Chicago. It has been home to many ethnic groups as they first enter the United States. Since the 1960s, the neighborhood language has been Spanish – it has been a Mexican enclave.

But the DNA Info website reported on a University of Illinois at Chicago study of the neighborhood demographics – the Mexicans are moving out; being displaced not by other immigrants but by many white people.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD, ACCORDING to the study, is still majority Mexican-American in its composition; nearly 29,000, compared to about 4,300 white people. But that white figure is about 22 percent higher than it was in the year 2000.

While the number of families with children living in the neighborhood is down by 41 percent. Which brings about a drastic change in the neighborhood’s character.

Pilsen has the potential to become the kind of place where a young professional type of person lives for a few years (to gain some sort of Chicago street-cred, so to speak) before moving off to a suburb once they have their own kids.

And for those people whose lives depend upon being within a Spanish-speaking enclave (because their comfort level in English is lacking), they are the ones who could find themselves with minimal options for moving forward.

THAT’S ACTUALLY THE sad part. As a third-generation Mexican-American (albeit one with no ties to Pilsen nor its bordering community of Little Village), I’d like to think the reason Mexicans are moving out is because we’ve progressed beyond the ethnic enclave.

But as one who sees my own home neighborhood of South Chicago turn into a place for people with few other options, I know it’s not true.

I also know that the talk in recent years of turning the one-time U.S. Steel South Works plant into an upscale community of its own scared many South Chicago residents for the same reasons being expressed in Pilsen – the idea that this project was meant to chase out the existing residents.

I actually get why outsiders would be interested in Pilsen. It is fairly close in to downtown Chicago and has direct contact with the Loop through the ‘el.’ Someone living in Pilsen would have easy access to a downtown job, or to other places throughout Chicago through mass transit.

IT MAKES ME wonder if Pilsen is destined someday to become like Lincoln Park – which once upon a time ago was a Puerto Rican enclave, until developers saw that lakefront site and figured other people would benefit from it more.

Just as I’m sure some people probably think a place like Pilsen with good mass transit is being wasted on people who never want to leave the neighborhood.

The key to this situation is to comprehend that there are people already in the places where other people would like to live – if only they can get rid of what’s already there. The most drastic case of this may be the modern-day Cabrini-Green – whose near North location was always seen as wasted on the public housing that was built there back in the 1940s.

Now, many of those former public housing residents are scattered throughout the Chicago South Side and suburbs – where they are disrupting the decades-old routines of those communities. Which could easily happen with the Mexican ethnics whom the whites would love to move out of Pilsen – if things are not handled properly!

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September 16 just doesn’t have the same ring as Cinco de Mayo

For those of you who still haven’t figured it out yet, Monday night into Tuesday are the real dates of the holiday you thought you celebrated (mainly by consuming too many Coronas or cut-rate margaritas) back on May 5.

 

Those are the dates back in 1810 when Father Hidalgo climbed to the top of his church, rang his bell at midnight, and proclaimed a statement of independence from Spain that is as significant in Mexican history as the Declaration of Independence is to the story of the United States because of the way it inspired the people to take up arms against their colonial masters.

 

OF COURSE, IT wasn’t immediate freedom. It took some 12 years before the Spanish royal family acknowledged independence for the most significant of the American colonies that comprised “New Spain.”

 

By comparison, the British royal family virtually bent over backward to give the fledgling United States its freedom and sense of itself as a new nation on this planet.

 

If anything, I often wonder if the history of Mexico and its attempts to establish itself as a Democracy are a perfect example of the old saying, “If something can go wrong, it likely will.”

 

Mexico has had to do many things the hard way during its two centuries of existence. It ought to make those of us of the United States more thankful for the relatively easier path we have traversed to get where we are today.

 

I FEEL THE need to think about this because I’m sure most people not only don’t give it a thought, they’re not even aware it is something they ought to consider relevant.

 

But our two nations are so intertwined in so many ways, and not just because of those Southwestern states that once were the northernmost outposts of the Spanish colonies/Mexico itself. If anything, I wonder if the exception to our nation are those far northeastern states who have a significant international border with Canada.

 

Which is why I’m not particularly interested in hearing from those people who are going to complain about the many celebrations that took place in this country related to Mexico’s Independence Day.

 

In Chicago alone, I’m aware of two parades – in the South Chicago and Pilsen neighborhoods – along with various parades in outlying areas including Cicero, West Chicago and East Chicago, Ind.

 

THE SOUTH CHICAGO parade has been ongoing for more than 75 years, while the Pilsen parade is the one that has garnered the public attention.

 

Candidates for the Nov. 4 and Feb. 24 election cycles all felt compelled to show up and march through the one-time eastern European enclave that turned Mexican and now threatens to become a place for artsy people to live near downtown Chicago.

 

After all, those people vote. Both Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bruce Rauner were there, along with mayoral hopefuls Karen Lewis and Bob Fioretti – with Mayor Rahm Emanuel making an appearance at an Independence Day breakfast event prior to the parade.

 

Although that threatens to trivialize the event, if it winds up that Mexico’s Independence Day becomes nothing more than a chance for political people to pander for the Latino vote.

 

BUT WITH ONE out of six Chicago residents being of Mexican ethnic origins, this becomes too big of an event to brush aside. Chicago is now just as significantly Mexican as it is Irish or Polish – the two other ethnicities that like to think they’re almighty and dominant in the city.

 

And yes, it’s a bit odd to have all these public celebrations on Sunday; a day early before the actual event – which could become an afterthought.

 

Except for those of us who are desperate to take what already has become a two-day celebration in Mexico (think Christmas the way some people just can’t wait until Day and feel the need to go all-out on Eve) and make it a three-day fest.

 

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‘Way of the Cross’ just not the same walking along Michigan Avenue

I don’t mean to bash the roughly 100 people whom I saw Friday morning partaking in the “Way of the Cross,” an attempt to replicate (sort of) the crucifixion of Jesus Christ for having the nerve to say that he was the Son of God.

Site of one of the 'Stations' of the cross

But there’s just something about the event that loses so much flavor when it basically becomes a walk along Michigan Avenue.

SOMEHOW, I DOUBT that Jesus in his final hours of life as a mere mortal was thinking anything close to what the typical “Magnificent Mile” marcher has running through his (or her) mind.

But that is what occurred when people attempted to replicate the events celebrated by Good Friday, one of the holiest days in the Christian faith. For those of you who are celebrating Passover this weekend, this may all sound like superstitious hooey.

Then again, I’m sure there are devout Christians who don’t get the whole thing about opening the door for Elijah. Perhaps if we tried to comprehend each other better (and that also includes Christians and Jewish people trying to understand Muslims), we’d all be better off.

Part of my problem with what happened in downtown Chicago is that my mind compares the event to the similar events that were staged in neighborhoods like Pilsen (or Spanish-speaking enclaves across the United States, for that matter).

SOMEHOW, LATINOS REALLY seem to get into the spirit of Good Friday more than what I saw Friday morning, although I'm sure the denizens of Michigan Avenue probably think what happened Friday afternoon in Pilsen is downright uncouth.

How else to explain the difference between a couple of people leading this particular procession (which had Chicago Catholic Archdiocese backing) being led by a couple of people bearing a cardboard cross, and a Latino-oriented production where the Jesus “impersonator” is literally lugging around the cross that he will be crucified on later in the day in Humboldt Park?

Add in a couple of portly Latinos (yes, I’ll admit to falling in that category myself) dressed as Roman soldiers who are flogging Jesus all the while, and it just makes the downtown version seem so tame.

In my case, I saw the procession as it made its way past the Thompson Center state government building. It had just started one block south at the Daley Plaza, where a cross was erected in the shadow of the Picasso statue and even after the crowd moved on, a woman was present handing out prayer cards to all passersby.

THE GROUP WAS was later to make stops at the Veterans’ memorial at State Street and Wacker Drive, the Tribune Tower, the Water Tower, then work its way west a couple of blocks to Holy Name Cathedral – the church that still has a couple of pock marks in the front steps from when gangster Dion O’Banion was shot to death after attending services there.

It may be somewhat sacrilegious to dismiss Holy Name’s significance to Chicago with the organized crime reference.

Then again, there is a part of me that is pleased they included a stop (meant to replicate the stops made along the route to Christ’s place of death) at Tribune tower.

Although I wonder what needed more of a blessing – the Chicago Tribune itself to use its still-ample resources to publish a better newspaper, or for some sort of miracle so that the nearby Marilyn Monroe statue quits showing off her undies to passers-by on Michigan Avenue!

WHILE I BELIEVE the people who participated were sincere, I couldn’t pick up any sense that they were gathering the attention of those people whom they passed by. Just another crazy day in the Second City!

I doubt the masses took to the event as literally as can occur in a Latino neighborhood, where the guy who gets to play Christ will literally go around showing off the scars (and, in some cases, nail holes in his palms) he received from playing the Son of God.

Although my favorite story resulting from a “Way of the Cross” celebration isn’t even from this country. It came out of a town in rural Mexico where police had to be called in to break up a bar fight.

For it seems the fight was between two men – one of who had played the part of Jesus Christ and the other filled the role of Judas Iscariot. When the other bar patrons figured out who the two were, they quickly sided with Christ.

“JUDAS” WOUND UP getting beaten severely by the other bar-goers. Then, when police arrived, he was the one who got hauled away and wound up facing criminal charges for starting a fight with “Jesus.”

The day that a downtown “Way of the Cross” celebration can inspire that kind of enthusiasm and energy will be the day I stop thinking of it as a superficial way of remembering our religious faith.

And for what it’s worth, they plan to be back out there on March 29, 2013. Just so you can get yourself ready.

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Freaky week for Chicago Public Schools

All within the confines of a single business day, the Chicago Public Schools learned earlier this week they were the losers in a legal dispute against their teachers union, while also having to engage in totalitarian tactics against parents who want to think of themselves as trying to preserve their neighborhood school.

In short, the public schools system had a freaky Monday.

IT WAS ON that day that a U.S. District Judge ruled that the school district blew it when they tried to lay off more than 700 teachers – all of whom had been with the schools long enough to qualify for that unique educational job protection known as tenure.

The Chicago Public Schools had laid off 1,300 teachers, about 700 of whom had tenure – which should have protected their jobs from such cuts. School officials have said the district’s financial situation is so severe that the cuts are necessary.

U.S. District Judge David Coar disagreed. His ruling gives the schools 30 days to work with the Chicago Teachers Union to come up with a process by which those tenured teachers can be rehired.

Although it should be noted that the Chicago Tribune reports that the schools had managed to find ways to rehire some of those teachers – even before the federal court ruling. Of the tenured teachers who had lost their jobs, 417 of them had already been rehired for different jobs within the Chicago Public Schools system.

OF COURSE, THAT is not stopping the school district from considering an appeal of Coar’s ruling. It’s not like they don’t want the tenured teachers back. They don’t want a court ruling that says they did something wrong. They want to be able to portray any re-hires as something they’re doing from the goodness of their collective heart – not because they have to.

This seems to be a procedural question. Attorneys for the teachers union have argued that the problem lies with the way the school district handled the layoffs. They were just dumped. There were no hearings that theoretically would give them a chance to argue the merits of keeping them on the payroll. There was no “due process.”

There also were questions over severance pay, which public schools officials argued was not necessary in this case because the cuts were being made for economic reasons.

There also was the fact that Chicago Public Schools officials had argued that some of the layoffs were due to bad performance on the job, although it was never made clear which teachers were being let go for job flaws and which for budgetary reasons.

COAR, WHO HEARD arguments last month from attorneys for both sides, issued his ruling in favor of the teachers union earlier this week, and included a segment in his written ruling saying that many of the teachers who were let go from their jobs actually had never received unsatisfactory reviews of their on-the-job performance.

It would be nice if this could be settled within the next few weeks. But this is likely to be an issue that will linger in the courts for far too long, and likely will increase the amount of tension that exists within the administration of the Chicago Public Schools.

I’d like to think it was not that “tension” being put on display when schools officials gave the order to cut off heat to the field house of an old school building in the Pilsen neighborhood that is being occupied these days by area residents.

Whittier Elementary School, near Wolcott and 23^rd streets, has been the site of a sit-in since mid-September. People want the field house structure preserved and converted into a library. School officials say they don’t have the money to do anything with the structure – except tear it down.

WHICH THEY ARGUE is necessary on the grounds that the structure is no longer safe. They argue the land could then be turned into a park or some other form of “green space” that area children would be able to use.

The same school officials who that day had lost in court against their teachers claim they’re not being vindictive against the parents who are refusing to leave the field house. They say having Peoples Gas cut off the heat is a precautionary measure so that inspectors can make one last inspection of the structure before they begin demolition.

But the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the parents in the building see this as an attempt to freeze them out – particularly since the overnight temperatures were dropping to as low as the mid-40 degrees.

For what it is worth, there haven’t been individuals holed up in the old field house every single moment since the sit-in began on Sept. 15. The parents are working in shifts, giving each other relief while ensuring that someone is in the building at all times so as to create an obstacle – should someone actually try to proceed with demolition,.

THOSE PEOPLE ARE managing to cope with the autumn temperatures by using electric heaters – which has me concerned more than anything else because I, as a reporter-type person, have written (and heard) way too many stories throughout the years of people suffering carbon-monoxide poisoning or of fires starting because of heater accidents. I only hope this sit-in situation does not take on tragic overtones.

But I do get my chuckle over the studies that have been done of the field house’s structural integrity. The Chicago Public Schools has an engineering firm that says the building must come down, while the parents came up with their own engineering study that says the roof could be rebuilt to allow the structure to survive.

So how does 25^th Ward Alderman Danny Solis respond to this? Perhaps with the ultimate political solution.

He wants to hire a third engineering firm to study the structure – thereby adding to the amount of time in which this field house remains an issue, which might ultimately make losing in the federal courts the least of the problems experienced this week by the Chicago Public Schools.

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Pilsen is anything but fashionable

My news chuckle for the day came from a New York Times account of the Pilsen neighborhood and Chicago’s other Hispanic influences. Specifically, I find humorous the reference in the story’s lede to Pilsen being the “fashionable Latino neighborhood.”

Trust me when I tell you that any person of Latin American ethnic background who chooses to live in a Spanish-oriented neighborhood (In reality, we are scattered across the Chicago area in all types of communities) is not the least bit concerned with being “fashionable.”

AS FOR THE artsy types who in recent years have moved there because of the perception of cheap rent (it’s nowhere near as cheap as it used to be a couple of decades ago), many of them probably view the Mexican orientation of Pilsen as a drawback overcome by its close proximity (about a 15-minute elevated train ride) to downtown Chicago.

Anyway, here’s the link (http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/travel/29next.html) to the story, which is an interesting account of a continuously evolving neighborhood continuing to evolve.

Seriously, Pilsen is a one-time Bohemian community (Did you think a bunch of crazy Mexicanos named their neighborhood for the one-time capital of West Bohemia?) that throughout the years has been home to just about every eastern European ethnicity when they were immigrants.

Now, it is a neighborhood oriented to newcomers from Mexico.

THE REAL QUESTION is to wonder if the neighborhood will retain a Spanish-speaking flavor, or will it continue to evolve with some new immigrant group? Or will those artists come in, price everything out of range of lower-income Latinos, and turn the neighborhood into an artsy community.

In short, will they turn it into something truly fashionable? And does that make “fashionable” synonymous with “dreadful?”

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