Magdaleno Castañeda –

On the eve of Three Kings Day, Humboldt Park witnessed a special visit by Puerto Rican artist, Osvaldo Budet, whose paintings were unveiled at the opening night of “Romantic Political Affair,” an exhibit of the artist’s work at the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (IPRAC). Despite the cold of a typical Chicago winter, dozens of people, including a television camera crew, gathered at IPRAC for an evening of art and appetizers. The exhibit consisted of seven paintings that varied between color and black and white.

Ray Vázquez, president of the IPRAC Board of Directors, welcomed everyone to the opening of the exhibit, which will run until March 5. José E. López, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, introduced Budet and thanked him for his visit, as well as for the mural Budet created at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School. “How do we camouflage through art, messages we want to send about resistance,” was the question López asked the audience in explaining the themes behind Budet’s work.

“There is a duality between comedy and tragedy in Mexican life and cultural expression that resonates with Budet’s art in “Romantic Political Affair,” said López, who made also made connections between Budet’s work to that of Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. When Budet spoke, he first thanked everyone for attending the exhibit and explained a little about his paintings saying, “I try to make politics more accessible to me and to all through humor.” This humor was visible in the “Where’s Waldo?” characteristic of Budet’s painting, which all include an image of himself. “Humor is a key to deal with anything,” Budet said. Many of his painting combine the humor with political events from the past like the Spanish Civil War as well as the Vietnam War. Budet also emphasized the importance of identity in his work. “The only thing we have is identity and we have to unite to keep our identity and respect other’s identity.”

After his speech, Budet socialized with the crowd and answered the public’s questions regarding his artwork. He also invited everyone to the community workshop and lecture at IPRAC held on January 9. It was great for Budet to have taken time from his busy schedule of studying art in Germany to visit Paseo Boricua. IPRAC was a very fitting place for the “Romantic Political Affair” exhibit because as Budet said, “Here is a place that preserves our culture.”

José Luis Rodríguez –

On December 9, 2009, the Institute for Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (IPRAC) sponsored its first annual NaviJazz Concert held at VLive nightclub (2047 North Milwaukee). The concert will become a regular feature of the Institute’s work in promoting Puerto Rican musicians who have, and continue to make, significant contributions to the musical genre of Latin Jazz.

The very first concert featured the legendary William Cepeda, Puerto Rican trombonist, composer, and arranger. Cepeda brought with him a legend in his own right, pianist Edwin Figueroa, formerly of Batacumbele. These two legends were backed up by Chicago’s very own Latin jazz band, Latin Inspiration, led by Johnny Rodríguez, who has been recognized as one of Chicago’s top trombone players, along with Afri-Caribe, Chicago’s premier bomba group, led by Tito Rodríguez.

The night outside was in a deep freeze with temperatures bottoming out to the single digits. Inside was quite another reality. The temperature was beyond hot—slowly rising with each melody and each note that the musicians played. Cepeda showed his mastery as composer, arranger, and conductor by effortlessly fusing the genre of Latin Jazz— its emphasis on the trombone, trumpet and saxophone— with the rhythmic heart beating percussions of bomba.

On stage, Cepeda challenged each musician to give their absolute best performance. The crowd, which included more than 500 people, was awed while treated to a once-in-a-lifetime experience in seeing Cepeda not only lead these musicians, but watch as he himself put down the trombone and picked up his shells and began to blow into them. He played the shells as if they were his trombone, blowing melodic sounds that combined and blended smoothly with every note. It was a showcase of the best that our musicians have to show, both from the Puerto Rico and from Paseo Boricua/Humboldt Park, Chicago—the common denominator certainly being they were all Boricua. This was undoubtedly a memorable night—one that has set the bar high for the future of NaviJazz.

Eduardo Arocho –

Hundreds of children, parents, and community members endured the freezing temperatures to participate in the 15th Annual Three Kings Winter Festival & Parade held on Wednesday, January 6.  This tradition on Paseo Boricua is one of the highlights of the New Year and has grown to be one of the most anticipated family festivals in Humboldt Park. 

As in previous years, families gathered at Rebaño Compañerismo Church (2435 West Division) to register, enjoy some hot chocolate and rosca de reyes, a sweet bread traditionally served on Three Kings Day, as they waited to board the double-decker bus and trolley for the parade. This year, recently appointed 26th Ward Alderman Roberto Maldonado and his family rode on the horse and wagon with the Three Kings who are always represented by members of the Latin American Motorcycle Association (LAMA), a key sponsor of the parade and a major contributor of toy donations along with the Chicagoland Toys For Tots.

The Three Kings celebration on Paseo Boricua first began in 1995, when the first bandera was inaugurated on the corner of Artesian and Division. On that day, snow fell upon the flag that was still being welded together up until the press conference that afternoon, attended by Congressman Luis Gutierrez, then-Alderman of the 26th Ward Billy Ocasio, and Mayor Richard M. Daley, among a host of other political leaders. Paso fino horses were brought in from a suburban stable to be ridden by the Three Kings down Division Street after the press conference. But it wasn’t until 2000 that Three Kings Day began to be celebrated as a winter festival and parade, with trolleys, horse and carriage and an immense toy drive.

This year, the parade procession marched a mile along Division Street until it reached the Humboldt Park Field House, where music and gifts were given to the delight of the children of the community. The parade was organized by the Three Kings Parade committee, consisting of the Division Street Business Development Association, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, LAMA, the Chicago Park District, Alderman Roberto Maldonado, Chicagoland Toys for Tots, and Rebaño Compañerismo Church. Moreover, this year’s parade enjoyed the sponsorship support of Extra newspaper, the 2010 Census, Verizon, Comcast, and La Voz Del Paseo Boricua. The success of this year’s parade is a good omen for the New Year. ¡Felicidades!

Xavier “Xavi” Luis Burgos –

As I have previously addressed in this column, the issue of Puerto Rican identity – especially for those who are from the Diaspora, i.e “Diasporicans” (Boricuas in the U.S.) – is a complicated topic and even a painful one to discuss. Who defines who is and is not Puerto Rican? Why do Puerto Ricans, who are second and third generation, some of who cannot speak Spanish and many who have only seen the island in photographs, proudly display the flag on everything, from tattoos to car stickers? Are Puerto Ricans on the island really in a privilaged place, in terms of knowing who they are and where they stand as a people?

To research these questions, I turned to  none other than Facebook, the social networking website, to began a discussion. I began it with a statement that I do not believe (and it will explain itself as you read), but wrote to stir peoples’ minds and emotions. I hope the comments selected will enrich your opinions and thoughts on Puerto Rican identity. The following is an abridged (and grammatically correct) version of what transpired vis-à-vis Facebook:

Me: I’m more Puerto Rican than any Boricua born on the island because I have had to fight for my identity instead of having it handed to me…

Diasporican #1: AMEN!!!! How can I even begin to explain that to others??

Islander #1: Everyone has their own experiences… I don’t know if you are more Puerto Rican, but ultimately it is the way you feel…

Diasporican #2: It’s interesting you say that because I’ve had this discussion with my cousins on the island, and they just don’t get it.

Islander #2 (my aunt): And of course I disagree with you at least 50% of the way. You know your history, you fight for Puerto Rican rights in Chicago, you live the flavors. You might be more Boricua than some, but not most. There are a couple of people that discredit our island but most of us love our background, we do have a love-hate relationship with Puerto Rico, but you have to live here (not read about it or experience it during vacations) to understand that. That’s why no one from here will ever understand or accept when you say you’re more Puerto Rican than the ones living here, but if that’s how you feel, okay.

Islander #3: You think we have not fought for our identity Xavi? You don’t think as a Puerto Rican I struggle everyday to show these mofos we exist? You don’t think it hurts when I see maps in history books that don’t even have the island on it? You think our identity is handed to us just because we were born en la isla? La isla, it’s already a dilemma, my man. It’s even harder, you know why? Because I was born in a place like no other, with our own traditions, culture, climate, people, our own self; yet, we are not recognized. We are “La isla del Encanto” con el desencanto de no ser nada. Ni esto, ni lo otro. We, too, have to fight for our identity, much more than anybody. ¿Dónde nació Pedro Albizu Campos, Ramón Emeterio Betances, Juan Antonio Corretjer? No fue en New York, no fue en Chicago; yet, this are los proseres, the ultimate fighters of our independence, the people you emulate. ¿Dónde nació Lolita Lebron? Donde nació Filiberto? Who organized and said to La Marina, “Salte pal carajo de Vieques?” Nobody gave me my identity, nobody gave nobody anything. You could be from NY, CHI, Puerto Rico; if you identify yourself as a Puerto Rican, you are still looking for your identity and ESPECIALLY if you were born in Puerto Rico.

Me: I’m loving this discussion. I do have to say that identity is much more complicated than anything one thinks. I, myself, began this discussion with an essentialist view of identity… and I did it on PURPOSE. Do I believe Puerto Ricans on the island or in the Diaspora are more Puerto Rican than each other? NO! Because we are a nation of 8 million, not just 4 million, on the island or in the Diaspora. The point of initiating this discussion was to: 1) To prove to everyone, even my dear Titi, that it is painful and wrong to say a person is “more” than someone else, especially in terms of identity and 2) To see the different reactions between my friends, who were born or live on the island and those who are “Diasporicans.” The differences are clear. All those who were born or live on the island reacted negatively to what I had to say while my fellow “Diasporicans” cheered me on. Isn’t that ironic? LOL

Me: Oh, and by the way, even though I agree with you 100%, Lolita Lebron joined the Nationalist Party in New York City. The campaign for the freedom of the five Nationalists began in Chicago, the last grouping of Puerto Rican Political Prisoners were almost all born in Chicago or in New York, and the campaign for their freedom started in Chicago. Betances wrote his most eloquent writings in Paris and Hostos did so in the Dominican Republic and Chile, and Juan Antonio Corretjer wrote “Boricua en la luna” about Boricuas in Chicago, which is the greatest proof that without the Diaspora, Puerto Rico would be incomplete. Oh, and the Vieques movement would not have been successful if it wasn’t for the compañeros in the U.S.

Islander #2 (my aunt): Well, I think you’re full of it. Even if you were trying to make some kind of experiment, of course we were going to get offended. It’s like if I say I’m more American than any soldier who has served in Afghanistan or Iraq. But you’re right; there is a difference between Puerto Ricans who live in the U.S. than those who live here in Puerto Rico. We think it’s very funny when you people demand liberty, equality, march, and complain about our social/democratic issues when all you know is due to books and newspapers. When you all move here, work here, and contribute here, then we can actually talk more seriously.

Me: Ok, Titi, let’s take back that Puerto Rican flag you hold so dear and bring it back to New York where it was made. When you’re willing to do that, then I’ll say what you wrote makes sense. Also, who’s “you people?” Let’s not be essentialist here and regroup everyone into one experience and category. I guess my “experiment” didn’t really work, because you still feel you have the right to define who’s a “true” Puerto Rican…

Through observations, I believe that the two things that elicit the most discussion from Puerto Ricans and even divides the Puerto Rican family is the conversation on puertorriqueñidad and the status of Puerto Rico. In terms of identity, as you have read, there is no easy way to describe what constitutes a “true” Puerto Rican and what criterion exists to allow someone into the category of “Boricua de pura cepa.” But here is some food for thought: when one actively excludes people from a community, you are actively developing feelings of anger, sadness, and confusion. However, one also fans the fires of empowerment and affirmation. It is like when my grandmother came to the U.S. in 1967 and was “greeted” with racism. In turn, she held onto her Puerto Rican roots and worked to instill in her children and grandchildren the beauty of being Boricua, even though most were not born there. It pushes me to tears when some of my cousins call me “American” instead of what I truly am. How can you tell a little boy, with a smile on his face and a Puerto Rican flag, during a hot summer day during the parade that the symbol he carries does not represent him? And that is why the “Diasporicans” cheered me on in the discussion. They, too, know the pain of being ignored, the love they feel for a country that sometimes wants to forget that half of its citizens left the island, but those same citizens will have Puerto Rico in their hearts and memories, forever.

Xavier “Xavi” Luis Burgos –

Nostalgic for the sweet sounds of Boricuas singing and playing music outside your door during the Christmas season? Miss the smell of roasting lechón and the echoes of scratching güiros? For the past two years the ¡Humboldt Park NO SE VENDE! campaign has organized the Paseo Boricua Parranda Puertorriqueña, a special Puerto Rican tradition full of music and food, in order to promote Paseo Boricua as a safe, culturally relevant, and family-oriented space during the holiday season. ¡Humboldt Park NO SE VENDE! is an organization that works to connect housing resources to longtime community residents who are threatened by displacement (i.e. gentrification) and raise community consciousness on the issue.

In its third year, the Paseo Boricua Parranda took place on December 19, around the anniversary of the adoption of the Puerto Rican flag.  Over 100 participants visited nearly two dozen businesses down Division Street while traveling the parranda route, including an endearing visit to the Teresa Roldán Paseo Boricua Apartments for the elderly and the Institute for Puerto Rican Arts & Culture.

During the chilly and snowy evening, the event began at La Estancia Apartments with over 30 people enjoying hot chocolate, Puerto Rican pastries, and literature related to the parranda and its history in this community. The local bomba y plena group, Nuestro Tambó, serenaded the eager parranderos with mostly traditional Christmas plena songs, including Dame la mano paloma, but also added two new songs created by the NO SE VENDE campaign, with lyrics related to the struggle to preserve the Puerto Rican community in Humboldt Park.

As the singing and dancing parranderos visited each community business, receiving food and drink in gratitude for the mobile party, the group grew larger and defiant of the cold. What began as a relatively small group grew to over a 100 people who paid homage, with music, food, and waving Puerto Rican flags to dozens of community pioneers at Teresa Roldán Paseo Boricua Apartments, an affordable housing complex that remains a symbol of hope and resilience for the longtime residents of Humboldt Park. The event ended at the Institute for Puerto Rican Arts & Culture for the closing of its “EsCultura” exhibition of Puerto Rican sculpture.

The ¡Humboldt Park NO SE VENDE! campaign continues to plan events such as the parranda, which has potential to connect important resources to longtime community residents, support community businesses, preserve Puerto Rican traditions and experiences, and to promote Paseo Boricua as a historical center of Puerto Rican life in Chicago that is worth maintaining and building.

(youth working)

by Marisol Rodríguez

This summer, youth, ages 14 to 24, are using their skills to contribute to the maintenance of Paseo Boricua through work in the areas of community beautification, cultural development, economic development, and participatory democracy.

Through funding from Mayor Daley’s Youth Ready Chicago Summer Program, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School (PACHS) designed this summer’s youth employment program to reflect the vision of the high school since its inception, community building in the Puerto Rican community, said Program Director and PACHS principal Matthew Rodríguez.

While youth have worked in the Humboldt Park community in the past, this summer the program has placed a significant number of youth workers at businesses. “It’s our first attempt to help the businesses in the community to engage in the process of passing down their skills and traditions of their specialties to the students,” said Summer Program Coordinator Lourdes Lugo. Having students learn the value of cleanliness and the effort it takes to maintain a business is another important goal of the program, added Lugo.

From June 29 to August 7, Humboldt Park residents will be able to spot youth workers at restaurants such as La Bruquena, La Plena and Latin American. Tony Muñiz, co-owner of Nellie’s, said youth have been responsible for helping greet customers and washing dishes, among other tasks. Muñiz pointed out that the summer employment program is a teaching experience for both youth employees and business employers. “For a lot of them, this is their first job,” said Muñiz. “You learn from them and they learn from you.”

As part of engaging students in participatory democracy work, students have been involved with Humboldt Park No Se Vende, a community initiative to address gentrification in Humboldt Park. For Lincoln Park High School student Carali Caro, 16, working with HPNSV has not only enhanced her understand of the effects of gentrification, but also developed her communication skills through activities such as canvassing. In addition, through learning about the history and struggles of the Puerto Rican community, Caro has found a way to fight stereotypes.

“People think Boricuas are lazy and addicted, but we can show them this is a positive community doing good things,” said Caro.

Having many of the youth work in the same community that they live in and/or attend school in has had its own benefits. “It’s a good idea to have students working in their community because they have a relationship with a lot of the customers already,” said Stan Kustra, owner of Joe’s Hardware Store. D’Angelo Luciano, senior at P.A.C.H.S. and Joe’s Hardware youth employee said he’s learned a lot of useful skills at the business that he can take with him to make repairs in his own home. Luciano also feels satisfied to be spending his summer working on Paseo Boricua. “It makes me feel proud to be able to work in between the flags,” he said.

Lolita Lebron - (Center, sitting down)

by Dan Berger

July 4 in Puerto Rico was less a celebration of independence than a demand for it. That night, more than 100 people attended the closing event for Not Enough Space, an art show featuring the works of political prisoners Oscar López Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres, as well as a replica of the small cells in which they have each spent almost 30 years.

The exhibit was housed at a community center in San Sebastián, which was on the same grounds where scores of vendors and artisans from around the island had come that very weekend to sell homemade hammocks, paintings, leather goods and other materials at the 29th annual Festival de la Hamaca. The first thing festival goers saw upon arrival was a giant banner proclaiming that Puerto Rico awaits the return of López and Torres.

The night before, festival planners awarded one of the island’s renowned linguist, Luz Nereida Pérez, for her work to study and preserve Spanish. She dedicated her award to López, saying the continued incarceration of this San Sebastián native “affects us all.” The town’s mayor, a supporter of Puerto Rican statehood, was one of several speakers at the July 4 finale; he too called for López’ freedom.

Five of the 11 political prisoners released in 1999 attended the closing event, as did the 102-year-old Isabel Rosado. For her lifetime involvement in the struggle for Puerto Rican independence, and in honor of the local artisans, event organizers presented the legendary activist with a hammock.

This event was not the first time that independence supporters gathered that week. Two nights before the closing, two dozen people gathered to hear Puerto Rican Cultural Center director José López speak about the beauty and the struggles of Puerto Rico. And on June 30, more than 150 people came to a wake in Mayagüez in memory of Miguel Sanchez, a shoemaker and longtime activist against the U.S. military presence in Vieques. Independentists from across the island, including Puerto Rican Socialist Party founder Juan Mari Bras, attended his wake and a celebration of his life the following evening. On July 4, Luis Rosa praised Sánchez as both a brilliant strategist and a tireless organizer.

These public events revealed a continuing push for the release of Puerto Rican political prisoners through a unified demand across Puerto Rican civil society. This unity succeeded in winning the unconditional release of one Puerto Rican Nationalist in 1977 and his four comrades in 1979. It won the freedom of 11 more prisoners in 1999. And it effectively removed the U.S. military from the island of Vieques in 2003. In interviews held during the week preceding the July 4 event, leading independence figures—Lolita Lebrón, Nelson Canals, Rita Zengotita, José Fortuño, and Juan Mari Bras, among others—each pointed to this unity of purpose as the reason for the movement’s successes in the past three decades. Such unity has repeatedly made the impossible inevitable.

Irmgard Iglesias lives in San Juan. During the 1970s, she lived in New York City and worked with a Puerto Rican organization called Resistancia Puertorriqueña. As we drove the two hours from San Sebastián to San Juan, Iglesias told me that she never thought the five Nationalists would get out of prison. To her delight they did, and it confirmed for her what she said she has always known: “I’ve never had any doubt that we will get our independence. I know we will be free.”

Dan Berger lives in Philadelphia and is the author of Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (AK Press, 2006).

Isabel Rosado (Green Shirt)

by Xavier “Xavi” Luis Burgos

In an e-mail sent by Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) President Sharon Hah’s on June 19, it was stated in a swift and inconsequential manner that “[The State of Illinois funded] $1.5 million for costs associated with facility renovations for the construction of a Latino Cultural Center….”

This event comes from the tireless contribution by State Senator Iris Martínez who stated on an historic meeting on May 1 organized by Latina/o student leaders at NEIU that “If I am going to continue to work hard for this institution… I want to make sure that Latinos are [being] catered to.” Now, finally, we, the Latina/o students of the university, have won, after years of being told there was never enough money, space, or time by many administrators!

This struggle began 27-years-ago with the university’s destruction of Albizu-Zapata Portable 1, a small, grassroots student-led space of Latina/o cultural and political affirmation. Fast forward to the present day and organizations like Que Ondee Sola (QOS) magazine alongside the Union for Puerto Rican Students (UPRS) and the Chican@ Mexican@ Latin@ Student Union (ChiMexLa) organizations have spearheaded this struggle with strong support from the Puerto Rican and Mexican communities of Chicago.

With members like Ruthy Venegas, Samuel Vega, Marcuz Erazo, Juan Morales, Jackie Nowotnik, Miosotis Santos and Joshua Cruz alongside Alpha Psi Lambda’s Stephanie Gómez, Jessica Urbina, and Vanesa Corado and the Movimiento Cultural Latino Americano (MCLA) organization this achievement was also made possible.

However, it must be stated that the struggle is not over. Complacency risks decreased funding for Proyecto Pa’Lante and Latino & Latin American Studies program (LLAS) every year. In QOS and in meeting after meeting we have made it a point to write and say “Latina/o Cultural & Resource Center” and not just a “Casa Latina” or anything else. This new space must include the vision that we as Latina/o students have placed out there, which includes the physical centralization of integral Latina/o-focused programs and student organizations. As we have stated before, QOS, UPRS, and the other Latina/o student leaders of NEIU must be at the table of planning and decision-making for this space – it is, after all, owned by the students of NEIU and no one else.

(Picture: Pablo Marcano Garcia)

by Pedro Sarsama

Just west of the beautiful banderas of Paseo Boricua is the newly-opened Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (IPRAC), the only museum exclusively dedicated to Puerto Rican art & culture in the states. Humboldt Park has historically been Chicago’s largest Puerto Rican community and in the face of gentrification, many are striving to preserve our Pedacito de Patria. Situating IPRAC in Humboldt Park is part of the conscious effort on behalf of community members to preserve Puerto Rican culture and community here. Located in the historic Horse Stables and Receptory of Humboldt Park (3015 W. Division), IPRAC is also helping to preserve this beautiful landmark. IPRAC has restored about eighty percent of the facility and is actively working to complete the renovations.
IPRAC’s opening reception, held on June 12, was a great success with 250 guests that included many notable community, business, and educational leaders. Among these important guests was Billy Ocasio, former 26th Ward Alderman. Ocasio gave wonderful remarks praising the hard work of the Board of Directors and IPRAC’s supporters. At the opening José López, Executive Director of IPRAC, presented artist Pablo Marcano García, whose exhibit Luz y Color is currently on display at IPRAC. Marcano García gave a powerful opening to his exhibition, which he feels represents hope for Puerto Ricans. He presented Margaret Burroughs, a major arts figure in the African American community, one of his paintings to be donated to the Dusable Museum. Luz y Color is a vibrant exhibit celebrating Puerto Rican history and culture through a series of paintings and silkscreens.

IPRAC is currently working on building a permanent collection of work by Puerto Rican artists, offering year-round programs of permanent and traveling exhibitions, giving educational art workshops, and hosting various art and film festivals.

The first of these festivals is the Puerto Rican Film Series, taking place at dusk on August 8 and 22, showcasing films by Puerto Rican filmmakers. Also coming up at IPRAC is the Barrio Art Fest on September 19 and 20.

IPRAC is free and open to the public throughout the summer. Its hours of operation are Thursday-Friday 3 PM – 7 PM, Saturday 10 AM – 4 PM, and Sunday 12 PM – 5 PM. Luz y Color is on display July 6 until September 6. More information about these and other events can be found by visiting IPRAC or calling (773) 486-8345.