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2 | TheGateNews Jan/Feb 2019

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

3 Students host 15th ward aldermanic forum 4 Youth receive free shoes in Back of the Yards 5 A book review of Pale Yellow Moon 6 Agencia Y Notaria Cadena: A message to the community 7 Taking care of each other and ourselves

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Dependable Community Journalism Serving Back of the Yards, Little Village, Pilsen, Brighton Park, Archer Heights, Bridgeport, Stockyards, and West Englewood since 2010.

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The Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council Craig Chico, BYNC President cchico@bync.org Edwin Garcia, BYNC Director of Finance egarcia@bync.org Gloria Talamantes, editor editor@thegatenewspaper.com

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tJan/Feb 2019

Students host 15th ward aldermanic forum

11th and 12th grade students filled the seats at the BOYCP gymnatorium (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)

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(The Gate/Marlen Gongora) Students askcandidates and the incumbent questions about the 15th ward (The Gate/ Gloria Talamantes)

By Gloria Talamantes Students from the Back of the Yards College Preparatory (BOYCP) high school organized an aldermanic forum at the school’s gymnatorium on Tuesday, Jan. 29. In attendance were incumbent Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) and the four candidates hoping to take his seat in the 15th Ward, Otis Davis Jr., Berto Aguayo, Joseph Williams and Rafa Yañez. Forum timekeeper and moderators, Gerardo Chacon and Robert Padilla kept each speaker accountable for respecting the time and staying on topic. Chacon said that students spent a portion of the quarter studying the Nov. election voter turnout in the 15th ward. He is also a Youth Council member at Mikva Challenge, an organization that helps empower youth to become civically engaged citizens. During winter break, the students also polled 350 people in order to find out what some of the most pressing issues are in the ward. After going through poll results they learned that education, health, violence, and public safety were amongst some of the most pressing issues that are impacting the lives of residents of the 15th ward. They framed their questions around these topics to hear what each one of them had to say. In turn, the two BOTYCP Civics teachers, Jackson Potter and Alexander Rolnick helped support the students in organizing the aldermanic forum. After students took their seats, Padilla and Chacon shared the house rules. Upon introductions, each candidate was given the opportunity to share a few words about themselves and speak on what each one was planning to do if they were to get elected. Candidate David Otis Jr said he was looking to work on making sure that youth

are safe and have jobs. “Because of the onslaught of violence and guns and things that we’ve experienced in our neighborhood, for the most part, it has affected you guys more,” he said. “I think that in order for us to ensure safety we have to make sure that economically, you guys are working and make sure that jobs are available when you get out of high school.” Aguayo, Williams, Yañez shared similar sentiments and each had their three minutes to answer the same questions. Implementing participatory budgeting, safe spaces for young people and paid enrichment programs for youth who are wanting to work in the arts, sports and more, is what Aguayo spoke of doing. “If you like art and you want to be in an art enrichment program that pays you to do artwork that you can do that, if you like basketball or you like building race cars and you want to have an after-school program that pays you to do that and to enhance and develop your trade or your craft that [you] can do that,” he said. Williams who resides in the Englewood neighborhood said he plans to bring second-chance opportunities and keep money within the ward and its four neighborhoods, Englewood, Back of the Yards, Gage Park and Brighton Park. “We have to bring community wealth back to the community. Our resources and dollars have to stay within the community,” said Williams. Yañez voiced concerns about the resources that have left the community, like the mental health clinic that was once on 43rd and Ashland Ave. He said he is looking to change all of this. “We had the only mental health clinic that was closed in the 15th ward that had Spanish speaking personnel and also there’s been over 119 properties demolished and a lot of people are

struggling to find affordable housing,” said Yañez. Ald. Lopez said he knows that his work in the 15th ward is not done and is hoping to continue working as the 15th ward alderman. “I know that sometimes we disagree and that’s fine. Leadership is not supposed to be cookie cutter. There are serious challenges impacting all four communities which I represent, from West Englewood, Gage Park, Brighton Park to right here in Back of the Yards,” he said. Lopez said that when he took office there were a total of 700 abandoned buildings that were being occupied by gangs and drugs. “I demolished 200 because those were the threats that our children had to walk past every day to go to school. They were not salvageable.”

Students like Mayra Martinez are currently worried about corruption because she said that there have been many things going on that have to do with corruption with politics in the city. For her, it’s important to learn about all the candidates and she wants to know where their heart lies. “Right now we have the power to choose somebody to represent the 15th ward,” said Martinez. “The 15th ward residents can keep these elected officials accountable by reminding them who has the power.” The closing came with a poem recited by one of the BOYCP students and a couple final questions from students outside of the Civics classes. Many students who are within the voting age are planning to be at the polls on February 26.

The Back of the Yards College Preparatory’s Student Voice Committee representatives ask candidates and the incumbant questions (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)

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Youth receive free shoes in Back of the Yards

Accompanied by parents and school staff, students get ready to receive their free shoes during the giveaway (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)

BYNC staff and Ald. Raymond Lopez pose for a photo with Carmen DeCarrier and team (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)

By Gloria Talamantes Local McDonald’s owner and operators John and Carmen DeCarrier along with Martin Brower partnered with the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council (BYNC) on Monday, Jan. 14 to giveaway gym shoes to youth in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. BYNC President and CEO, Craig Chico, thanked everyone for being at the shoe giveaway and introduced Carmen DeCarrier, “I know that she is very shy about this and very humble about it but her and her husband have been doing this for years now and this is the fourth stop they made today.” Various agencies like Casa Central, Erie Neighborhood House and Erie Elementary Charter also received shoe donations.

“We do this from the bottom of our heart,” said DeCarrier. “We saw some smiling faces and some grateful faces at the other organizations. This one is always our favorite because it is our largest,” said DeCarrier. After applauding and cheering, the crowd turned to Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) who shared some remarks. “Something so simple as a pair of shoes is something that many of us take for granted but can mean so much to so many. I just wanted to say personally, thank you for helping the Back of the Yards children three years in a row.” In Back of the Yards, shoe recipients came from all areas of the community accompanied by parents and staff from local organizations and schools.

Ronald McDonald poses for a picture with the Back of the Yards College Preparatory Girls Basketball team (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)

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Youth were huddled around in groups as they waited to be handed their shoe boxes. A group of young boys from Daley Elementary School giggled and talked about basketball and shoes. “It’s a special moment that they chose to give us free shoes. I’m going to cherish them and treat them well. Shoes cost a lot,” said student Alphonso Kyles. A friend next to him joked about how he was going to put them in a safe to make them last longer. But Kyle said that he plans to make sure he takes good care of his shoes by cleaning them once a week. Ronald McDonald, the classic clown character from McDonalds restaurants walked around taking selfies and group pictures with various youth as the shoes were given away.

Julian Saucedo, an 8th grader at San Miguel said he was happy to see how people give back to the community. “I feel really happy because knowing that people are giving, I really appreciate it and I’m pretty sure everyone does too.” Saucedo plans to use his pair of free shoes right away. “I could really use these shoes because at my first game my shoes were ripping already and so I really appreciate this opportunity,” said Saucedo. He also had a message for those who might be in need. “It’s okay and sooner or later good things will come. It’s all in how you look at it and you have to be positive.”

Julian Saucedo ready to receive his shoes (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)

A book review of Pale Yellow Moon By Angelica Flores Antonio Zavala’s new collection of short stories, Pale Yellow Moon, may interest fellow Chicagoans because Chicago is the main setting for most of his stories while the rest take place in other states of the U.S., Mexico, and out of this world. This book reads almost like a biography of various distinct lives. It reports the lives of students, cabaret owners, an elderly woman, and a single mother. These are stories of all kinds of intensities, like a student in a crisis of what his future and career hold for him during the Vietnam war to a mother who is escaping the city she lives to find safety for her daughter and herself. This book has a direct form of dialogue as if we are reading these stories from a newspaper. It may seem fitting that this newspaper might be the right outlet to talk about these stories. Focusing on stories that take place in Chicago, the first story of this collection is “Bless you, Nelson Algren.” This story focuses on Julian Parra, a high school senior who is contemplating his future with his diverse group of friends. With the Vietnam War happening and fearing that he may be selected to fight in the war, Julian feels pressured to decide on a career that is both realistic and fulfilling. With these things in mind, he decides to

look for Nelson Algren in the Wicker Park neighborhood to ask him for advice. Another story with similar characters, a younger man having a meaningful conversation with his elder is, “The Days of Darius Client.” This story focuses on a supermarket guard and freedom rider named Darius Client. While he lives in Englewood, he talks to his colleague, Lorenzo Alcantara, a boy from Pilsen. They exchange a peaceful conversation about their lives despite their age, job title, and neighborhoods. I enjoyed the idea of this short story and was disappointed that it was not further developed. I would like to see this particular story as a film even. Some stories are set in Pilsen, like “The Cabaret Mambo,” and “The mornings of Galatea Cano.” In “The Cabaret Mambo,” German Reiguera was a cabaret owner in the 1950s who was in love with a Mexican movie star named Lilia Prado. He tells his story to Max, a younger and current resident of the neighborhood who is interested in the neighborhood’s past. In “The mornings of Galatea Cano,” an older woman enjoys the art of reading, to the point that an FBI agent knocks on her door when they discover that she’s been checking out books on Karl Marx. With the accompaniment of her cat, Toulouse, this story has a small twist for both its readers

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and the FBI agent. I found this book’s vocabulary to be easy enough for the English learner to read and understand. When it comes to Zavala’s style of writing, I would have been more drawn into this book if it was a biographical account of the real lives that have resided in the Chicago area. Zavala is already qualified to do this due to his extensive experience as a journalist for the Latinx community and an activist in the Chicano movement. One can respect the writer’s intentions of writing an inclusive short story collection but I do highly recommend him to take a fiction writing workshop and to also hire an editor. In the back of the book, it refers to Zavala as the “author of this interesting book,” and while his topics are interesting, his fiction still needs to live up to that expectation. His stories are in need of development and he needs to follow the simple rule of showing, not telling. Zavala may struggle writing fiction due to many years of writing in a journalistic style. Other journalists who want to attempt writing fiction may be interested in reading his book because they may recognize the style of writing. If Zavala decides to put more effort into his work, hopefully, he will one day reach the same status as Sandra Cisneros, Stuart Dybek and other famous fiction writers who are known for having their stories set in Chicago.

6 | TheGateNewstJan/Feb 2019ckyards . West Englewood

Agencia Y Notaria Cadena: A message to the community

BEFORE: Agencia Y Notaria Cadena facad (Google View Photo)

The Back of the Yards neighborhood is home to many family-owned businesses like Agencia Y Notaria Cadena, an income tax agency that has been around for more than 50 years. In July of 2017, Mayor Rahm Emanuel awarded 51 businesses with more than $5 million in grants through the Retail Thrive Zone (RTZ). The initiative targets areas in the South, Southwest and West Sides of Chicago with financial assistance for businesses and entrepreneurs looking to start or upgrade their business. Amongst one of the award recipients who went through the process of renovating their business with a full gut rehab is Agencia Y Notaria Cadena. Hoping that others in the neighborhood get motivated to take advantage of the services that the city of Chicago offers for small businesses, the Cadenas wanted to share a message with the community. Here’s what they had to say. Ever since our inception, the business efforts and ideals of our father, Mr. Michael Cadena, has instilled pride for our family name that we are trusted amongst

our community. The principle notion of our goals is to build a brighter future for our neighboring communities. In hindsight, we’ve always had this goal among our priorities, though economic and unexpected adversity had hindered our quest in times past. However, now that we have had a significant boost to our business via the SBIF grant, we are currently hard at work, instilling the programs we feel are paramount in bringing back both economic and community prosperity to our township. Our business is based on services that cater to specific needs for individual and family-oriented clientele. These services come in the form of tax services and notary services, as well as an increment effort to utilize immigration projects to which we already had some previous success. We aim to provide more programs and collaborative projects that keep our goal of community aid near other venues in the Back of the Yards. In the time since our business began in the old neighborhood, we have seen a

A look inside Agencia Y Notaria Cadena after the gut rehab (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)

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AFTER: Agencia y Notaria Cadena business facad after remodel (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)

myriad of various changes, many which some view as negative impacts in the community. As other neighborhoods had experienced before, the Back of the Yards has gone through times of economic hardship and perilous bouts of uncertainty regarding education and fiscal renovations. However, there have always been those who have been willing to “stick-it-out” and remain positive, never yielding to negative changes. This form of community pride has bolstered and stabilized both business and family unity. The SBIF program can provide a wealth of opportunity to credible businesses that adhere to a principle of contributing to the community. For entrepreneurs, such an advantage could create both aid and productivity among already established businesses, as well as an incentive for new and innovative business ventures. We truly appreciate the opportunity SBIF has given us. During the application process, determination and organization were instrumental. There was also the prospect of trusting that our initial funding

would be reimbursed and our work validated. Many thanks to the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council and Sonya Eldridge for informing us about the program and assisting us through the process. With our new renovations, we look forward to implementing our services in ways we could not do so in the past, such as using more modern updates in technology to get much faster results and better access to facilities and alternative programs in which we collaborate. Also, the updated equipment is a major benefit to our business in general. We have a genuine interest in providing helpful services that in some cases can make a major change in the lives of our clientele. We abide in the values of trust, earnest work, and an ongoing effort to keep our services in line with the everchanging needs for our much-cherished neighborhood of the Back of the Yards. Thank you, The Cadena Family

Family photo of the Cadena family before the gut rehab (Photo Courtesy of Cadena family)

Taking care of each other and ourselves

Granor Farm in Three Oak, MI. (Photo by Elizabeth Lyon)

By Elizabeth Lyon The consumption-driven economy we experience today removes our basic need to produce things of value for ourselves and our neighbors. Why cook for my family when I can go buy a quick and affordable meal? For some, this removal of a basic need eventually leads to the loss of desire, or even ability, to create. For me, this phenomenon is most noticeable in the arts and food production. Think of a neighborhood, this is not too difficult in Chicago--where chain restaurants are the norm and a few token family-owned establishments are a “quaint” reminder of how the neighborhood used to be. As I walk around Back of the Yards, I see evidence that people are still creating abundantly and sharing in the unique form of wealth generated when beautiful art and food are produced locally. To everyone creating in the neighborhood, this article is nothing new, but simply a reminder. I was given this reminder when I left my job managing the farmers market for Plant Chicago this summer to work at Granor Farm, an organic farm just on the other side of the lake, in Three Oaks, Michigan. Working on a small farm with a supportive crew to grow nutritious food for people turned out to be inspiring and eye-opening in many ways. My hope is to share what I am bringing back to my life in Chicago and my work in Back of the Yards. When we started to organize farm workers, people would say to us, ‘they’re poor, they don’t speak English, they’re

not citizens — how are you possibly going to organize them?’ And of course, the response that we had to that is, ‘power is in your body.’ Dolores Huerta, a revolutionary, activist, and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, was speaking specifically about organizing and protesting an unjust food system when she made this statement. However, I believe the sentiment also applies to a variety of more mundane tasks required of us on a daily basis. There are a few times in my life when I felt healthier, happier, and more empowered than when I worked on the farm this summer. I had the privilege to be outdoors every day, working directly with a small group of passionate people, growing a plethora of vegetables, and surrounded by a healthy ecosystem of birds, bugs, and microorganisms. It certainly helped that I was able to subsist primarily on high quality, super-fresh produce fertilized with compost and never sprayed with harmful chemicals. While not all of us can move to Michigan for a summer to work on an organic farm, there are small steps we can all take as city dwellers to treat our bodies well. One of these steps is to grow some of your own food at home or in a community garden. Growing food can be the most powerful connector of people to the land, the environment, our cultures, and each other. It can also promote mental, physical, and emotional health, both in the act of growing the food and in the act of using delicious results to fuel our bodies. Growing or foraging our own food also

gives us an excuse to move our bodies and be outdoors, both things that are often difficult to prioritize in a world that requires us to be sitting indoors for many types of work and formal education. Above all, growing our own food gives us the incredible power to feed our communities and ourselves. If, as Dolores Huerta says, all of the power we need is in our bodies, nutrition and regular physical activity are two of the essential building blocks of that power. Once we are confident in our own power, we can begin to engage in another valuable practice I experienced on the farm: the practice of relying on one another. On a farm, nothing is accomplished alone. This summer, the farm I interned with borrowed equipment from neighbors, sought knowledge from a variety of staff members (all the way from a young woman fresh out of college to a lifelong farmer with over 50 years of experience), relied on a diverse ecosystem of organisms large and small, and counted on regular customers for financial support. In relying on each other, we create meaningful relationships and build trust. If we do not rely on each other, we are forced to rely on corporations that do not know us as individuals and cannot truly be invested in the well-being of a community. This is one of the reasons I love shopping at farmers markets. I rely on our market vendors to not only provide nutritious food that I can trust has not been treated with harmful chemicals, but also to provide some education about what it takes to do so. Vendors rely on me to

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provide business resources and a thriving marketplace where they can sell enough produce for their families and employees to be supported financially. In this relationship, both parties hold immense and very intimate responsibilities. With so much on the line, we become accountable to each other and form a supportive and meaningful relationship. As long as the relationship goes both ways, relying on family, friends, neighbors, and local small business owners can be beneficial to us as individuals and can help us build a stronger community. I hope that these reminders energize you to grow food, be outdoors, and know your neighbors. For growers in the Midwest, winter is the perfect time to plan and make connections. Head to your favorite neighborhood gathering place (I personally am a fan of Back of the Yards Coffee, Monarca P.L.A.C.E. 7, the Whiner Beer Company taproom, or the coziest living room you can find) with your family, friends, co-workers, or neighbors to make a plan for the growing season. Use this time to identify and reach out to all of the great organizations in your neighborhood that have programs related to growing and/or health. Some that come to mind immediately for me are The Port Ministries, Star Farm Chicago, The Pie Patch, Richards Career Academy, the Chicago Commons Paulo Freire Center, Su Casa Catholic Worker, Plant Chicago, Patchwork Farms, Closed Loop Farms, and many local schools that have youth gardening programs. Your stoop, yard, patio, or fire escape can also be a perfect small space to start within the spring. If your group is feeling especially ambitious and you have your eye on some land that you would like to turn into a community garden, you can begin by looking into the great resources provided by Chicago Community Gardeners Association, which has a conference coming up in March. If you are a homeowner in Back of the Yards, you can also look into the City of Chicago’s Large Lots program. Many participants have used their $1 lots for community gardens. In a world that does not value these actions nearly as much as it should, lets take the time to appreciate and nurture each other and our own bodies. I highly recommend visiting Plant Chicago’s indoor aquaponic farm inside The Plant any Saturday from 12 pm to 2 pm. There, you will find a year-round green oasis with a small population of fish, whose waste fertilizes a variety of edible plants. If you visit the building on the first Saturday of the month between 11:oo and 3:00 p.m. you can also meet and support all of our wonderful farmers market vendors. I hope to see you there and learn all about your plans to grow this upcoming season.