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CHICAGO (May 29, 2026) – The Chicago History Museum in association with the Dave Truitt Historical Film Series is proud to host the free premiere screening of the documentary film “Holding Pattern,” an unprecedented chronicle and intimate portrait of the conflict surrounding a proposed third Chicago airport, on Saturday, June 13, 2026, 12:30 p.m.

For over twenty years, filmmakers Tom Desch (“Walkable USA,” “An American Home”) and Brian Kallies (“Lincoln Is Crying,” “Gaming Wall Street”) have documented the ongoing saga of a proposed third Chicago airport and its impact on communities in Chicago’s Southland and exurbs near Peotone, Illinois. Immediately following the screening there will be a panel discussion with filmmakers Tom Desch (director/writer/producer) and Brian Kallies (producer/writer/editor), airport proponent and long-time political strategist and analyst Delmarie Cobb, and anti-airport activist and Will County Board Official Judy Ogalla, moderated by former Fox News Chicago reporter Mike Flannery. Executive producer John Davies will also join the discussion.

Since 1985, plans for a third major airport in Chicago’s far south suburbs—with a full footprint larger in land area than New York’s Manhattan Island—have increasingly gained momentum. Proponents of the airport claim it would alleviate air congestion, meet growing passenger demand, and create thousands of much-needed jobs in the economically struggling Southland. Anti-airport activists have decried the plan as a potential environmental disaster, the destruction of irreplaceable farmland, and a waste of millions of taxpayer dollars. Still in play, this debate has spanned the administrations of seven Illinois governors and Chicago mayors.

The 56-minute “Holding Pattern” documentary frames this ongoing battle through the lens of two anti-airport activists, George Ochsenfeld and Judy Ogalla, and two airport proponents, political pundit Delmarie Cobb and former Park Forest mayor John Ostenburg. Over the course of more than 20 years, the filmmakers take an up-close and personal look at how the airport project has impacted the lives of Ochsenfeld and Ogalla, their personal relationships, and their evolution from citizens to activists to politicians. Cobb and Ostenburg, who have championed the airport for decades, address the political complexities of the project and explain why they believe eminent domain—the government’s power to seize private land for public use—is justified and could change thousands of lives for the better.

“Holding Pattern” is executive produced by veteran television showrunner and documentary filmmaker John Davies whose many national credits include the WTTW Chicago productions “Sneak Previews,” “Wild Chicago,” “Heroes on Deck” and “The First Jetliner.” The documentary is also executive produced by Robert Bied, president of Captain Dave’s Foundation and the Chicago Marine Heritage Society. The film is made possible in part through the support of Captain Dave’s Foundation, an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Discussions are underway with local Chicago broadcasters for a television premiere later this year, and with syndicators and streaming platforms for broader distribution. Updates will be forthcoming.

Link to media kit 

Link to RSVP for premiere screening

Contact: Tom Desch (773) 837-1915 or deschvideo@gmail.com

Buddy Guy, Debra Cafaro, Fred Eychaner, Linda Johnson Rice and John McCarter Jr. to be recognized for shaping Chicago’s cultural and economic legacy.

CHICAGO (May 28, 2026) – The Chicago History Museum will honor a cross-section of Chicago’s most influential leaders from blues icon Buddy Guy to top executives and civic visionaries at the Museum’s 32nd Annual Making History Awards, which will occur on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago.

The Making History Awards is the Museum’s premier annual fundraising event, supporting its mission to serve as the primary destination for learning, inspiration and civic engagement to connect people to Chicago’s history and each other.

This year’s honorees represent the breadth of leadership shaping Chicago today across business, culture and civic life:

Debra A. Cafaro
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ventas
Recipient of the Cyrus McCormick Making History Award for Historic Corporate Achievement
Award Presenter: Laura Ricketts

Fred J. Eychaner
Chairman, Newsweb Corporation; President, Alphawood Foundation
Recipient of the Daniel Burnham Making History Award in Visionary Leadership
Award Presenter: Art Johnston

George “Buddy” Guy
Iconic blues guitarist, singer and songwriter whose influence has shaped generations of American music
Recipient of the Theodore Thomas Making History Award for Distinction in the Performing Arts
Award Presenter: Ronnie Baker Brooks

John W. McCarter Jr.
Former President and Chief Executive Officer, Field Museum of Natural History; Chair, Board of Regents, Smithsonian Institution; Interim President, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
Recipient of the Marshall Field Making History Award for Distinction in Corporate Leadership and Innovation
Award Presenter: Marshall Field V

Linda Johnson Rice
Chairman, Johnson Publishing Company
Recipient of the Bertha Honoré Palmer Making History Award for Distinction in Civic Leadership
Award Presenter: Marc Schulman

“The Making History Awards celebrate individuals whose work reflects the spirit, resilience and innovation that define Chicago,” said Michael Anderson, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago History Museum. “This year’s honorees represent extraordinary leadership across business, culture and civic life, and we are proud to recognize their enduring contributions.”

Media opportunities with select honorees and Museum leadership are available upon request.

For more information about the event, sponsorship opportunities, or tickets, please visit chicagohistory.org/mha or contact Eric Miller, Development Coordinator, at miller@chicagohistory.org or (312) 799-2110.

MEDIA KIT AVAILABLE HERE: https://app.box.com/s/sk2ed94lyowl0kazfi3jqxree2cajdgr

On May 27, 1933, the second world’s fair set in Chicago opened to colorful fanfare in the midst of the Great Depression. In this blog post, Paul Durica, Director of Curation and Exhibitions at CHM, writes about the circumstances of the A Century of Progress International Exposition and how planners sought to make it different from the first world’s fair.

On a cloudy evening in late May 1933, starlight lit up the lakefront in Chicago. Forty years had passed, it was believed, since the light had emanated from the star Arcturus in the constellation Boötes and arrived on photoelectric plates at four observatories where the weak current it generated would be amplified and then sent, via telegraph wires, to the nation’s second largest city. The four decades separating the light’s departure and its arrival served a purpose, which was to remind those in the present that in 1893 Chicago had hosted a world’s fair, the World’s Columbian Exposition, in Jackson Park, on the South Side of the city.


The front cover of Color Beauties of A Century of Progress Chicago 1933. CHM, ICHi-073747. A stylized drawing of the star Arcturus appeared on several A Century of Progress souvenirs, such as this pamphlet.

The 1893 fair had as its core 14 immense neoclassical structures painted a blinding white. Now, farther north but still along the lakefront, stood another cluster of large buildings, sleek and modern. There was another key difference, made clear when the light from the star Arcturus arrived at 9:15 p.m. on that evening of May 27. One by one, accompanied by the singing of the national anthem, the blasting of cannons, and the pealing of bells, the sleek and modern buildings became bathed in electric light, a rainbow of colors. The White City of 1893 receded into the past. In 1933, the A Century of Progress International Exposition, the city’s second world’s fair, opened in a burst of what could only be described as technicolor.


Night view of fireworks above the Sky Ride Tower and Hall of Science at the A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933. This lantern slide was hand-colored by the photographer, Anton Rodde. CHM, ICHi-176028; Anton Rodde, photographer

An opening in which color chased away the clouds fit the purpose of this world’s fair. Outside the fairgrounds, the Great Depression continued to immiserate the people of Chicago and the rest of the nation. The widespread economic collapse that had begun almost four years prior had threatened to cancel plans to mark the city’s centennial, but the planners pressed on, raising enough private funds to produce the fair. Even the assassination of Chicago mayor Anton Cermak in March of that year—an event that eerily mirrored the political murder of Mayor Carter Harrison at the conclusion of the 1893 fair—did not pause the preparations. Instead, Cermak’s ultimate successor, Edward Kelly, turned the event into a kind of memorial to Cermak, his vision for the future of the city.


Crowds of people watch a marching band parade down Michigan Avenue at Monroe Street near Grant Park for the opening of the A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, May 27, 1933. CHM, ICHi-167209; O. L. Cook, photographer. Note the Arcturus symbol on the banners.

Earlier that day, a parade along Michigan Avenue had led to the fairgrounds, which encompassed today’s Museum Campus and more, and into Soldier Field, where a formal opening occurred. Wave after wave of representatives of the various nations with pavilions at the fair processed past a reviewing stand upon which stood Mayor Kelly, Illinois governor Henry Horner, president of the fair Rufus Dawes, and US postmaster general James Farley, who came with a message from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When the black-shirted Italians marched by, they gave the assembled dignitaries a one-armed fascist salute.

Following the international delegations were columns of cadets, soldiers, and veterans. When Black veterans of the Great War entered Soldier Field, separate from their white counterparts, the Chicago Tribune noted they were “heartily cheered.” After them came Lillian Anderson of Racine, Wisconsin, Queen of the Fair, and her court of “fifty ladies of honor,” as selected by readers of the Tribune. Anderson bore medals that she bestowed upon Farley, one for him and one for the absent Roosevelt. Episcopalian bishop George Craig Stewart dedicated the fair with a prayer. The Tribune had observed earlier in the day that the “orators [had promised] to be mercifully brief.” Everyone knew things really would get started when the sun went down.


Left: Professor Edwin Frost (right) leaning on stairs next to an unidentified man looking through a telescope in the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, 1927. DN-0082807, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, CHM. Right: The Light of Arcturus board by the Hall of Science at the 1933–34 A Century of Progress International Exposition. CHM, ICHi-038601

Capturing light from the star Arcturus to open A Century of Progress had been the idea of a blind astronomer Edwin Frost, formerly of the University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory. He was there, on a platform outside the Hall of Science, when all the lights came on. After explaining the science behind capturing and harnessing the power of starlight, Frost asked the jubilant crowd, “Is this not a fitting demonstration of this century of progress?”


Broadside for A Night in Paris at the A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933. CHM, ICHi-075758; William P. Welsh, artist

After the lighting ceremony, about 3,500 of the city’s elite, many in elaborate costumes, attended the Bal de Quat’z’Arts (Ball of the Four Arts) in the Streets of Paris attraction and celebrated late into the night. They enjoyed beer and wine, now legal again after 13 years of Prohibition. A performer named Sally Rand caused a small stir when nonattired as Lady Godiva she rode a white horse through the crowd.


A parade along the Avenue of Flags during Illinois Day at the A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933. DN-0011047, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

The Tribune believed 150,00 to 200,000 attended the opening of A Century of Progress. By the time the fair closed in November, it is estimated that a total of 22 million had passed through the turnstiles. The second Chicago world’s fair proved such a success that it was brought back the following year, with an Earth-bound President Roosevelt, via a projected film, kicking off the opening evening’s festivities.

Sources

James O’Donnell Bennett, “Exposition Starts with Pageant in Soldiers’ Field,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 28, 1933: 1

Ibid., “Miles of Wonders Show Progress of Century,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 27, 1933: 1

“Four Observatories Will Help Arcturus Open World’s Fair,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 25, 1933: 1

“Fox Shows How Arcturus’s Light Will Open Fair,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 27 May 1933: 2

Philip Kinsley, “Star Sets 1933 Fair Ablaze,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 28, 1933: 1

Lenox R. Lohr, Fair Management: The Story of A Century of Progress. Chicago: Cuneo Press, 1952.

Additional Resources

Jojo Galvan Mora, CHM Digital Humanities Fellow, writes a brief history of Cuban independence, the country’s ties to the United States, and Cuban relations with Chicago.

On the island of Cuba, May 20 is a day just like any other. However, for the roughly 18,000 Cubans who call Chicago home, and for the thousands more in the diaspora around the world, May 20, 1902, is remembered as one of the most important moments in the island’s history. On this day, the Cuban flag, the Estrella Solitaria (Lone Star), was raised for the first time over the Castle of the Three Kings of Morro in the bay of Havana, marking the end of formal US military occupation, thereby inaugurating the Republic of Cuba as an independent nation, kickstarting over a century of complex international relations between both countries.


View of the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro (Castle of the Three Kings of Morro), Havana, Cuba, c. 1899. Library of Congress, LC-USZC2-6452

The flag raising on May 20 was the culmination of nearly a century of intertwined history between the island nation and the United States. What first began as an amicable trade relationship between the US and the Spanish territory in the early 1800s quickly became so important and profitable that, in 1848, US president James K. Polk formally offered the Spanish empire $100 million to purchase the island, an offer that Spain declined. Despite the denial, trade between the US and the island continued, with the US becoming the largest buyer of Cuban sugar by the 1860s. In 1868, the island entered into militarized conflict seeking independence from Spain in what would come to be known as the Ten Years’ War. During this time of crisis, the US became a place of sanctuary for those fleeing the violence, as the country welcomed more than 10,000 Cubans immigrants throughout the duration of the fighting. Two more conflicts would follow in pursuit of independence from Spanish rule, the first in 1879, and and the second in 1895.


Lithograph depicting the destruction of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor during the Spanish-American War, Havana, Cuba, February 15, 1898. CHM, ICHi-008428. The destruction of the Maine has long been the subject of historical debate, with press reports blaming the incident on Spanish forces, while other records point to an accidental explosion.

The third struggle for independence would finally see the United States entering the conflict after the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor in February 1898, with the international press quickly placing the blame on Spanish forces, and the US government formally declaring war in April. The Spanish-American War lasted a little over three months, ending in August with Spanish defeat. As part of their concessions, the Spanish empire ceded control of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the US, and a military protectorate, the Platt Amendment (proposed 1901, approved 1903), over the island of Cuba.


Milk glass dish with lid titled The American Hen, in the shape of an eagle sitting on a nest of eggs labeled ”Porto Rica” (Puerto Rico), Cuba, and Philippines, 1898. CHM, ICHi-179104

The Platt Amendment placed Cuba under US military and financial guardianship until the island’s political leaders, many of whom were installed by the US government, could draft and ratify a new constitution. In 1901, the assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution for Cuba rejected the terms of the Platt Amendment, a demand which then-US president Theodore Roosevelt rejected. In June 1901, a new constitution was approved, with the Platt Amendment included as an official appendix to the new nation’s founding document. In December of that year, elections were held, and after some controversy, Tómas Estrada Palma, a naturalized US citizen residing in the mainland was elected to lead the Cuban Republic, formally ending the occupation when he took office.

The legacy of the Platt Amendment is vast. It established the terms for the lease over the area that would become the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention facility and opened the door to extensive US immigration and investment on the island. By 1902, more than 15,000 residents on the island were US citizens. On the US mainland, the topic of Cuba was one of constant debate, with many seeing the terms of the Platt Amendment as little more than a US version of European imperialism, a sentiment fueled further by growing Cuban populations in cities like Miami and New York.


Charles G. Dawes (holding top hat), vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929, stands next to Gerardo Machado (wearing glasses), president of Cuba, who is shaking hands with Chicago mayor William Hale Thompson, along with a group of men during a visit to Chicago, 1927. Machado is shaking hands with one of the men. DN-0083489, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

While Cuban migration to the Chicago metro area would not come until the middle of the 20th century, the Windy City served as a host to Cuban civic and political leaders. In 1927, US vice president Charles G. Dawes hosted Cuban president, and later dictator, Gerardo Machado as part of a larger effort to demonstrate goodwill and the importance of commercial and political ties between both nations. While this visit may seem little more than a trivial footnote, it demonstrates the depth behind the history tying both nations as political and economic allies, opponents, and sites of cultural exchange. In many ways, it’s impossible to adequately tell Cuba’s national history without giving a nod to the ever-present shadow of US policy, a complex reality that continues to this day as policies around trade, immigration, and national sovereignty continue to shift.

Additional Resources

Cinco de Mayo is here, and the scent of lime juice is in the air! We’re popping salt on the rims of some festive cocktails. But why? Fighting colonial powers is the answer!

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become a general celebration of Mexican culture. Sometimes people even mistake it for Mexican Independence Day (which is actually September 16).


Guerre du Mexique, siège et prise de Puébla / Imp. lith. Charles-François Pinot éditeur, c. 1870. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-2673

But the holiday is more specifically the celebration of a mixed-heritage (Indigenous, African, and European descent) Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The French intended to recolonize the newly independent Mexican nation, which won independence from Spain in 1821. Though Mexican resistance to the French colonizers took several more years to reach lasting victory, this was an important moment for Mexicans to publicly and very visibly reject the idea of new and additional colonization.

This rejection was crucial following on the heels of the US-Mexico War (1846–48), during which the US stole more than half of the land belonging to Mexico and occupied the state of Puebla and Mexico City. Then-US president James K. Polk requested that each state in the union send military troops to the US-Mexico border to fight in the war. Illinois governor Thomas Ford sent three regiments of local militia in 1846 in response.


A copy of the order from General William Jenkins Worth saying that the government of the State of Puebla (and any other lands occupied by the US) is abolished by the occupying government of the US, May 22, 1847. CHM, Abakanowicz Research Center, broadsides collection

This local “contribution” to the war may be part of the reason why CHM has General Antonio López de Santa Anna’s ceremonial tack (spurs and bit) in its Americana Collection.


The bit (above) and one of the spurs (below) that belonged to Santa Anna, 1840–50, on display in Aquí en Chicago. Photograph by CHM staff

Santa Anna (1794–1876) was the 8th president of Mexico, a military leader who lost Texas to Sam Houston—and eventually to the US (1845). He allowed US forces to invade Mexico City (1847) and brokered the utterly bad deal (for Mexico) of the Gadsden Purchase (1854), selling off additional Mexican territory.


Undated lithograph of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. CHM, ICHi-053702

The success, from the standpoint of United Statesian empire building, of the US-Mexico War paved the way for much more imperial US expansion during the 19th century including, most notably, the theft of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines from Spain in 1898.


Milk glass dish with lid titled The American Hen, in the shape of an eagle sitting on a nest of eggs labeled “Purto Rica” (Puerto Rico), Cuba, and Philippines, 1898. CHM, ICHi-179104

So, this year when you’re firing up the grill, consider the ways in which US imperialism has helped create the Chicago we experience today. ¡Salud!

Additional Resources

Spring is in the air. And that means it’s time for full skirts and photo sessions as young people across the area begin celebrating their milestone fifteenth birthdays with a quinceañera. This special event is a coming-of-age ritual for many families of Latin American heritage.

Front view of a quinceañera ensemble from Mi Quince World with a matching bouquet and tiara, c. 2024. Created by Nelly Lizcano; Susana Cavazos, Wendy Clavijo, Anahi Marin, Giselle Morales, Juanita Rangel, Ariella Santoyo. CHM, ICHi-186341

Traditionally, the quinceañera looks a bit like a wedding, minus the groom. A young lady attends mass with her family and then makes her debut at a party surrounded by a coterie of damas and chambelanes (ladies and gentlemen of her court). She may wear her first high heels, give her last doll to a younger member of the family, receive gifts of money, and enjoy toasts in her honor and a delicious meal.


Juanita Villarreal wears a quinceañera dress made by her mother, Maria Villarreal, 1983. Courtesy of Roman and María Villarreal

Though the celebration of the quinceañera often retains a religious component—celebrating mass—the focus is now, more than ever, on the individuality of the celebrant and the culture. And the celebration is beginning to include young men and nonbinary folks as well as young women. Clothing is often the space we use to express our identities, and in the quinceañera that often takes the shape of a gown. 26th St. in Little Village, La Veintiséis, is the place to shop for quinceañera gowns and accessories, not only in Chicago but all over the Midwest and beyond.


Interior view of Mi Quince World, 2018. Courtesy of Jonathan Michael Castillo

After Michigan Avenue, 26th St. is the highest grossing street in Chicago. Chicago has roughly 80,000 Latine businesses (Illinois has roughly 140,000), and, during Operation Midway Blitz last fall, the businesses on 26th St. were hit particularly hard, losing sometimes 40–60% of their business. This is an excruciating, sometimes insurmountable burden for a small, independent business.

Ariella Santoyo and Jesús “Jesse” Nevares, co-own Mi Quince World on 26th St. It grew from their more general apparel business, started in 2006, to focus entirely on the quinceañera in 2008. The selection of gowns on site, mostly made in Mexico and locally, the customization of the gowns, and the focus on themes sets the shop apart. The seamstresses and designers at the shop do the beading, embroidery, lace, and other decorations themselves as well as the entire conjunto of supplies for the event: bouquet, bible, kneeler for mass, guest book, and so on. The tiaras also come from a single maker in Mexico.


Mi Quince World staff pose with the peach gown that was on display in Aquí en Chicago. Photograph by Elena Gonzales

In 2023 Ariella graciously recorded an oral history about the shop and the tradition of the quinceañera and, in 2024, Mi Quince very generously made two glorious—and very different—gowns specifically for the Chicago History Museum’s permanent collection. The gowns each had their time on display Aquí en Chicago (on view through November 8, 2026).

The traditional peach and champagne-colored gown (on display first) might appeal to celebrants across Latin American heritages, not only Mexicans (who make up 73% of the Latine third of Chicago). This gown is a classic, sparkling vision of femininity featuring a skirt nearly eight feet in diameter and a long train covered in rhinestones and applique. The tiara (from a single maker in Mexico) features an iridescent floral pattern.


Left: CHM production manager Ethan Gasbarro and lead preparator Taylor Ausley open the display case to switch out the gowns. Right: CHM mount maker Michael Hall adjusts the bouquet that coordinates with the escaramuza gown. Photographs by CHM staff

On April 29, 2026, the vibrant escaramuza or equestrian-style gown came on view with a distinctly Mexican aesthetic. The escaramuzas or female charros began competing in teams in Mexico in the 1960s and are cultural icons of today of a femininity that is wild and daring yet noble, powerful, and accomplished.


Front view of a charro style quinceaёera dress and accessories, c. 2024. Ensemble includes a bodice with floral appliques, a matching overskirt, a red tiered underskirt, a tiara, a bouquet of faux roses. Created by Nelly Lizcano; Susana Cavazos, Wendy Clavijo, Anahi Marin, Giselle Morales, Juanita Rangel, Ariella Santoyo. CHM, ICHi-186750

This red and black ensemble features a dramatically flounced skirt that may be removed for a sleeker look at the after-party with the black satin miniskirt and bustier embroidered with red roses. Note the horse in rhinestones in the tiara!

The golden buttons feature the image of the Piedra del sol or Aztec Calendar Stone, which appears several times throughout Aquí as a national symbol of Mexico that finds many homes in Chicago. The real Piedra is at the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and is enormous, weighing approximately 24 tons. The Aztecs carved it using stone from the Xitle Volcano between the 13th and 16th centuries.

Embed from Getty Images

¡Felicidades to all those turning 15 this season!

Additional Resources

Our podcast, The Missing Exhibition: Building Aquí en Chicago, is a finalist for “Best Podcast” at the Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Awards! In this blog post, The Missing Exhibition co-creators Elena Gonzales, Curator of Civic Engagement & Social Justice at CHM, and Jesse Betend, producer at Rivet360, write about how the podcast is a celebration of Latine history in Chicago that weaves the immediate with the often overlooked.

In our contemporary media landscape, we’ve become accustomed to sound bites, vanishing social media posts, and myriad competing, cacophonic demands on our attention. Long-form journalism feels like a thing of the past, when quaint radio dramas held us rapt on our sofas. It has been a great honor and pleasure to bring the Chicago History Museum’s first podcast into being at this particular time, when we crave a moment to sink into stories without distraction. The Missing Exhibition allows listeners to delve more deeply into just a few of the many histories within the exhibition, Aquí en Chicago.

Like the exhibition, the podcast started with high school students from Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy in Pilsen challenging CHM to better reflect their communities’ history.


Students at Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy with their signs protesting CHM’s lack of Latine content in its exhibitions, 2019. Photograph courtesy of Anton Miglietta

Our initial goal was to document the protest and find ways to extend the presence of Latine histories beyond the year that the exhibition would be open. These stories are crucial to our understanding of Chicago, whatever our individual backgrounds may be, and we could not allow them to feel like a flash in the pan. The series touches institutions, power structures, and public narratives, and balances a broad context with specific and detailed moments both fragile and unfolding.

In addition, we’ve been able to take up topics that arose too close to opening to share in the exhibition. We opened Aquí in October 2025 amidst Operation Midway Blitz, a hate-fueled, racist mass-deportation campaign focused specifically, at that time, on Latine folks in and around Chicago. At the same time, the podcast was already in production.

We chose to lean into this opportunity for truth telling and documentation of the present in conversation with the past. We pieced together histories that were fragmented, but that echoed the violence and specific actions of our contemporary moment. In cases where traditional records failed—for example, researching people who never returned after mass deportation campaigns such as so-called “Operation Wetback”—absence became part of the story itself.


Map showing the Studebaker factory on S. Archer Ave. between S. Cicero Ave. and S. Laramie Ave. Plate 55 (1959), Insurance maps of Chicago, Illinois, vol. E, Ink on paper, 1925, Sanborn Map Co., United States. CHM, ICHi-189067

Parts of the story emerged through the corridos of Jesus “Chuy” Negrete, the beloved activist, songwriter, and scholar whose music immortalized everyday Chicagoans and 500 years of Chicano history alike. Corridos are traditional Mexican ballads—story-songs Negrete described as a “musical newspaper”—that preserve what official archives often don’t. A single line from the lyrics of Negrete’s ballad for Rudy Lozano, written for the funeral of the activist-turned-politician who was murdered in his home at the height of his career, revealed suspicions the press and law enforcement had largely ignored.


Jesús “Chuy” Negrete (center) and Teresita de la Torre (right foreground) play in homage to Rudy Lozano outside Farragut High School, Chicago, c. 1983. STM-036822153, Al Seib/Chicago Sun-Times

We began to find evidence of disappearing histories all around us. The story of a community leader’s legacy obscured by press coverage of his alleged killer’s trial led us to former Chicago Reader reporter Gary Rivlin, whose work suggests what the community believed all along: that Lozano’s death was political, part of a broader pattern of power and retaliation that the official story never fully confronted.


Rudy Lozano (right) at a meeting of CASA (the Centro de Accion Social Autonomo, or the Center for Autonomous Social Action), Chicago, February 12, 1975. ST-40001425-0011, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

These themes are especially present in the second episode, “Sound & Faith: Echoes of Defiance in a Sanctuary City,” which traces the sanctuary movement at a time when that history is being aggressively weaponized to justify mass deportations. From Adriana Portillo-Bartow, a Guatemalan mother fleeing military violence in the 1980s, to Elvira Arellano, whose protest inside a Humboldt Park church after 9/11 reignited a national movement, we felt it more pressing than ever to document the reasons Chicago became the second city in the nation to offer refuge to immigrants fleeing violence in their home countries.


Adalberto Memorial United Methodist Church, where Elvira Arellano took sanctuary, in Chicago’s West Town community area, 2022. Photograph by Rebekah Coffman

The Missing Exhibition is an invitation to listen differently, to consider whose histories are told, who gets to tell them, and what it takes to change that. Join us in close listening as well as close looking within the exhibition Aquí en Chicago through November 8, 2026.

In this blog post, Gladys De La Torre, a Kichwa cultural organizer and writer, writes about Pawkar Raymi, one of the most significant celebrations of the Andean peoples, and the Mushuk Nina ceremony, which take place at the spring equinox. Our exhibition, Aquí en Chicago, features objects from the Kichwa Otavalo community.

Read the original post in Spanish./Leer este post en español.

The great celebrations of the Andean peoples originate from the profound observations of changes occurring in Pachamama, or Mother Earth. Based on this ancestral knowledge, specific times of the year are recognized as periods of transformation, renewal, and gratitude, influenced by nature’s cycles and its relationship with the sun. This knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation as part of a living collective memory. These periods were also linked to cycles of planting and cultivation, as the Indigenous peoples organized their lives in relation to the rhythms of Earth and the observation of the sun.

Within this context is Pawkar Raymi, one of the most significant celebrations of the Andean peoples, especially the Kichwa communities. The word “pawkar” refers to blossoming, abundance, and the moment when life springs forth anew with strength. This time marks a period of renewal that is expressed both in nature and in community life.

During this time of renewal, the Mushuk Nina ceremony, which translates to “new fire,” is also performed. Mushuk Nina represents the ritual lighting of a fire that symbolizes new beginnings, purification, and the continuity of community life.

These celebrations are symbolically linked to March 21, or the spring equinox, a moment when day and night are in balance. The equinox is the time of year when day and night are of equal length because the sun is positioned directly over Earth’s equator. This phenomenon marks the changing of the seasons and has been observed by Indigenous peoples as a sign of renewal, planting, and balance with nature.

Over the past decade, the Kichwa Otavalo community in Chicago has held Mushuk Nina ceremonies as part of their cultural continuity practices. Through community gatherings, the symbolic lighting of the fire becomes an act of reaffirming their identity, involving families, elders, youth, and children, and strengthening the transmission of ancestral knowledge for this migrant community.

In the Indigenous worldview, Pawkar Raymi and Mushuk Nina can be understood as practices that mark cycles of time, allow for the collective expression of processes of renewal, and strengthen the social and spiritual bonds that sustain community life. These ceremonies not only accompany cycles of nature but also reinforce collective memory and a sense of belonging.

For the Kichwa Otavalo communities living in the diaspora, these practices take on an even deeper meaning. Celebrating far from our ancestral territory is a way to keep our identity alive, transmit knowledge to new generations, and reaffirm that culture is not limited to a geographical space but lives within people and the community. In Chicago, a place with many migrants, this flourishing doesn’t always occur in the land itself, but rather in community ties, collective organization, and shared memory.

“Pawkar kawsayta apamun, mushuk nina yuyayta kawsachin.” (Blossoming brings life, and new fire rekindles memory.)

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En este blog, Gladys De La Torre, una organizadora y escritora cultural kichwa, escribe sobre Pawkar Raymi, una de las celebraciones más significativas de los pueblos andinos, y la ceremonia de Mushuk Nina, que se realizan al equinoccio de primavera. En nuestra exposición Aquí en Chicago se presentan objetos procedentes de la comunidad kichwa otavalo.

Leer este blog en inglés./Read the post in English.

Las grandes celebraciones de los pueblos andinos tienen su origen en la observación profunda de los cambios que ocurren en la Pachamama, la Madre Tierra. A partir de estos saberes ancestrales, se reconocen momentos específicos del año como tiempos de transformación, renovación y agradecimiento, influenciados por los ciclos naturales y la relación con el sol. Estos conocimientos han sido transmitidos de generación en generación como parte de una memoria colectiva viva. Estos tiempos también estaban ligados a los ciclos de siembra y cultivo, ya que los pueblos originarios organizaban su vida en relación con los ritmos de la tierra y la observación del sol.

En este marco se comprende el Pawkar Raymi, una de las celebraciones más significativas de los pueblos andinos, en especial de las comunidades kichwas. La palabra pawkar hace referencia al florecimiento, a la abundancia y al momento en que la vida vuelve a brotar con fuerza. Este tiempo marca una etapa de renovación que se expresa tanto en la naturaleza como en la vida comunitaria.

Junto a este tiempo de renovación, se realiza también la ceremonia del Mushuk Nina, que en español significa fuego nuevo. El Mushuk Nina representa el encendido ritual de un fuego que simboliza los nuevos comienzos, la purificación y la continuidad de la vida comunitaria.

Estas celebraciones se vinculan simbólicamente al 21 de marzo, momento asociado al equinoccio, cuando el día y la noche se encuentran en equilibrio.

El equinoccio es el momento del año en que el día y la noche tienen la misma duración, debido a que el Sol se posiciona sobre la línea ecuatorial de la Tierra. Este fenómeno marca cambios de estación y ha sido observado por los pueblos originarios como señal de renovación, siembra y equilibrio con la naturaleza.

Desde los saberes andinos, este momento no se concibe únicamente como una fecha, sino como un tiempo propicio para acompañar los ciclos de la vida, fortalecer la relación con la naturaleza y renovar los lazos comunitarios.

En la última década, la comunidad kichwa otavalo en Chicago ha venido realizando ceremonias de Mushuk Nina como parte de sus prácticas de continuidad cultural. A través de encuentros comunitarios, el encendido simbólico del fuego se convierte en un acto de reafirmación identitaria, donde participan familias, mayores, jóvenes y niños, fortaleciendo la transmisión de saberes ancestrales en contexto migratorio.

En la cosmovisión Indigena, el Pawkar Raymi y el Mushuk Nina pueden comprenderse como prácticas que marcan los ciclos del tiempo, permiten expresar colectivamente procesos de renovación y fortalecen los vínculos sociales y espirituales que sostienen la vida comunitaria. Estas ceremonias no sólo acompañan los ciclos naturales, sino que refuerzan la memoria colectiva y el sentido de pertenencia.

Para las comunidades kichwas otavalos que vivimos en la diáspora, estas prácticas adquieren un significado aún más profundo. Celebrar lejos del territorio ancestral es una forma de mantener viva la identidad, transmitir el conocimiento a las nuevas generaciones y reafirmar que la cultura no está limitada a un espacio geográfico, sino que vive en las personas y en la comunidad. En contextos migratorios como Chicago, el florecimiento no siempre ocurre en la tierra, pero sí en los lazos comunitarios, en la organización colectiva y en la memoria compartida.

“Pawkar kawsayta apamun, mushuk nina yuyayta kawsachin”. (El florecimiento trae vida, y el fuego nuevo renueva la memoria.)

Recursos adicionales

As the end of Ramadan approaches, Rebekah Coffman, Curator of Religion and Community History, writes about the Ojalá Islamic Center in Berwyn, Illinois, the first Latino-led mosque in the Midwest, and how it formed to be a space for Latino Muslims in the Chicago area.


Ojalá community picnic, 2025. Courtesy of Ojalá Foundation

At sundown on Thursday, March 19, 2026, Muslims around the world are expected to conclude the month of Ramadan with celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the festival that breaks the fast. Here in Chicago, 3–4% of Chicagoans identify as Muslim. Within the Chicago metro area’s diverse Muslim communities, a small but growing group is the Latino Muslim community. In a 2023 study published by the Institute for Social Policy & Understanding (ISPU), roughly 1 in 5 United Statesians identify as Latino. As of 2020, 9% of Muslims in the United States identify as Latino, up from 5% in 2017.


The Grand Mezquita of Córdoba, an example of Umayyad architecture and culture in Spain, September 7, 2012. In the 16th century, a Renaissance-style Catholic cathedral was inserted into the building, making it today known as the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba. Photograph by Nicolas Vollmer, Wikimedia Commons

While there has been a noted uptick in Latinos converting to Islam over the last two decades, Islam is not entirely unfamiliar to Spanish-speaking communities. Historically, Spain was under Islamic rule in the southern Al-Andalus region through the Arabic-speaking Umayyad Dynasty from the 8th to the 15th centuries. Through this, Spanish history and culture is intertwined with Muslim influences. While Spanish colonization of the Americas is often discussed through a Catholic-dominant lens, cultural remnants persist of this Arab Muslim presence. A clear example is in the Spanish language itself, which retains some 8,000 words that have Arabic roots. In fact, one of the most common Spanish expressions—Ojalá, which is typically used like the word “hopefully” in English—means “God willing” and is related to the Arabic phrase “Insha’Allah.”


Sign outside the Ojalá Foundation: Latino Muslims of Chicago building in Berwyn, Illinois, 2026. Photograph by Rebekah Coffman

This linguistic cultural tie has become a marker for Chicagoland’s Latino Muslim community. The Ojalá Islamic Center in Berwyn, Illinois, is the first Latino-led mosque in the Midwest. A central part of their mission is to build bridges between the Latino and Muslim communities. In our exhibition Aquí en Chicago, we trace the many diverse ways Latine communities have created and maintained space for themselves in the city, including through diverse spiritual practices. The Ojalá Foundation: Latino Muslims of Chicago came through the unification of different communities of practice realizing the specific need to connect and support these burgeoning communities.


From left: Alma Campos, Imam Christopher Abdul Kareem Pavlicek, and Vilma Lopez, cofounders of Ojalá Foundation: Latino Muslims of Chicago. Courtesy of Ojalá Foundation

Twenty years ago, there was little representation of Latino Muslims in the Midwest. This began to shift through the organizing efforts of two Latina women, Vilma Lopez and Alma Campos. Vilma Lopez was born in the Dominican Republic, where she lived in the second largest city—Santiago—and attended Catholic school. Growing up Catholic, Vilma felt drawn to religious practice and after high school joined a convent with the intention of becoming a nun. However, some months in, she realized this wasn’t her path and instead joined her parents to come to the United States in 1991. They initially settled in New York, and it was there that she was first exposed to Islam and started attending the Islamic Center of New York. A year later, she embraced Islam. In 1997, she came to Chicago to join her then-husband. She initially attended the Muslim Community Center in the Irving Park neighborhood. At MCC, she began to meet other Latino Muslims, including Alma Campos.

Alma embraced Islam when she was in her early twenties as a college student. As a first-generation American from a Mexican immigrant family, her journey to Islam began years earlier in high school, where she attended a Catholic school and was introduced to the faith through her best friend, who was Muslim. At the time, Alma often felt alone in her journey and even traveled to Mexico in search of a Muslim community but was unable to find one then.


Women of Ojalá. Courtesy of Ojalá Foundation

Both Alma and Vilma experienced challenges of being new to Islam and feelings of isolation from their broader Latino communities. They felt an urgency to create the scaffolds of support in which they wanted to raise their families, so together they founded Latino Muslims of Chicago, a grassroots organization to do just that. Importantly, they anchored this network of care in their identities as women, as Latinas, and as Muslims. They knew in order to be sustainable they needed to embrace their Latinidad through food, language, and culture. This included being able to practice in Spanish and to have access to resources like the Koran also in Spanish.

Several years after Latino Muslims of Chicago were informally gathering and centering the experiences of Latina Muslim women in Chicagoland, similar efforts began to connect Latino men and other converts to Islam. Imam Christopher Abdul Kareem Pavlicek, the third cofounder of Ojalá Foundation, was pivotal to these efforts. Imam Pavlicek grew up in Rogers Park and Naperville. Though himself of Croatian background, he felt embraced by the Latino community when he lived in Pilsen, and this continued to be true after he embraced Islam a few years later.  Sylvia Morales, a community member originally from Texas who came to Chicago in 2010, suggested Alma, Vilma, and Imam Pavlicek combine efforts to strengthen their shared mission of supporting Latinos and new Muslims. In cofounding Ojalá Foundation in 2018, Imam Pavlicek wanted to ensure the experience of Latino Muslims and those new to Islam was uplifted amidst the increasingly diverse Muslim community.


Ojalá’s Neighborly Deeds Initiative. Courtesy Ojalá Foundation

For over eight years, Ojalá: Latino Muslims of Chicago have centered their efforts in civic action. An example is the program Neighborly Deeds, which responds to the needs of Chicagoland’s unhoused populations through providing warm meals and basic supplies like blankets and hygiene products. Another example is Andando y Limpiando, where community members join for a walk and to pick up trash in the neighborhood as an act of service. They especially wanted to ensure non-Muslim family members and friends felt welcome to participate and be present.


Eduardo Castaneda, owner of Lalo’s Mexican Restaurant Chain, in front of Lalo’s on South Harlem Avenue, Berwyn, Illinois, March 25, 1993. ST-11002576-0034, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

For several years, Ojalá remained itinerate, but in 2024, they began looking for a permanent home. They desired to be in the near west suburbs to be close to Latino communities. Community leaders looked at locations in Cicero and Berwyn, which are 88.8% and 60.2% Latino today, respectively. After an initial location was scouted in Cicero, the community came close to purchasing a property at Harlem Ave and Cermak Road, the previous site of an old standby Mexican restaurant, Lalo’s. However, the purchase did not move forward, and the community continued its search.


Exterior of the former First Reformed Church of Berwyn, now the Ojalá Foundation, 1900 Oak Park Avenue, Berwyn, Illinois, 2026. Photograph by Rebekah Coffman

Soon after, they found their new home—a former church building on Oak Park Avenue and 19th Street in Berwyn. The space was originally built in 1948 as the First Reformed Church of Berwyn, which initially served a predominantly Dutch heritage community. This congregation originated in the 1840s and ’50s when families from the Netherlands immigrated to Chicago and began forming Dutch Reformed congregations. Initially meeting in homes, the First Reformed congregation had several church buildings in Chicago before moving west to the suburbs as part of white flight from the city during the 1920s–40s. During the 1920s, Berwyn became the fastest-growing suburb in Chicagoland, and it experienced another period of significant growth after World War II, the same period First Reformed Church was constructed. Berwyn remained predominantly Euro-American until the 1990s, when the number of Latino residents grew. By 2000, 38% of residents identified as Latino, and within the last 25 years it has become a Latino majority community.


Ojalá’s main prayer hall, 2026. Photograph by Rebekah Coffman


Women’s prayer section in the Ojalá prayer hall, 2026. Photograph by Rebekah Coffman

In 2017, First Reformed Church merged with Bethel Reformed Church of Chicago to become CrossRoads Community Church, and in 2024 they stopped worshipping in Berwyn to focus their ministry in Chicago. Ojalá closed on the sale of the building on May 5, 2025, after months of fundraising, and began adapting the sacred space into their new home, an example of architectural conservation known as “sacred shift.” This included sympathetically adapting the former sanctuary into the new prayer hall by removing pews and installing new carpet, refreshing the fellowship hall, and making plans to adapt the restrooms to include more space for wudu, or ritual washing. In 2026, they are celebrating their first Ramadan in the building, including nightly iftars to break their fast together and to welcome others from the surrounding community—Muslim and non-Muslim alike. This includes crucial work to support Latinos across Chicagoland during a period of targeted activities by ICE. Today, the Ojalá community includes hundreds of congregants and supporters, ensuring Latino Muslims have a supportive home in Chicagoland for the future.

With thanks to Alma Campos, Vilma Lopez, Sylvia Morales, Karen Rios, and Imam Christopher Abdul Kareem Pavlicek for speaking to the author, and to the Ojalá Foundation for their hospitality.

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