Masks required in Abakanowicz Research Center; optional for rest of Museum MORE

Close
Search
buy tickets

Latest Posts

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.)

Additional Resources

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.

Additional Resources

Jojo Galvan Mora, CHM Digital Humanities Fellow, writes about the significance of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo being elected president of Mexico, how Chicago’s Mexican community both influenced and is impacted by it, and the community’s importance in local, national, and international politics.

As midnight drew closer on June 2, 2024, Mexican voters on both sides of the US-Mexico border witnessed history when that year’s presidential election was called in favor of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, cementing her place in history as Mexico’s 66th president and as the first woman and first Jewish person to hold the nation’s highest office. Sheinbaum succeeded Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), continuing the leadership of the progressive National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) over Mexico for another six years. Chicagoans with Mexican citizenship played their role in a historic moment of their own: the 2024 election marked the first time that Mexicans living abroad in the US could vote in person at the Mexican Consulate on the Near West Side.

Embed from Getty Images

Mexican nationals wait to cast their vote in the Mexican presidential election at the Mexican consulate in Chicago on June 2, 2024. Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images

According to data from Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Eleccciones (National Elections Institute or INE) more than 10,000 Mexican citizens registered to vote in Illinois. The Mexican consulate in Chicago reported 1,500 in-person voting slots.

Embed from Getty Images

A Mexican national fills in her ballot for the Mexican presidential election at the Mexican consulate in Chicago on June 2, 2024. Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Sheinbaum was born in Mexico City to a Jewish family with Eastern European roots. Both of Sheinbaum’s parents were scientists, her father a chemist, while her mother worked as a biologist. This upbringing led Sheinbaum to the sciences, and she earned a PhD in energy engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1995. Sheinbaum first entered politics in 2000 when AMLO, then Head of Government for Mexico City, named her Environmental Secretary.

In 2015, the largest borough in Mexico City, Tlalpan, elected Sheinbaum as mayor. Riding a wave of local popularity, Sheinbaum went on to win the election for the Head of Government in Mexico City in 2018, the same year that her longtime mentor, AMLO, secured the Mexican presidency. Her time in office was marked by a science-forward approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and policy reforms focused on addressing gender violence, outdated public infrastructure, and initiatives to make education available to all. Sheinbaum’s popularity as the leader of the largest urban metro area in all of North America made her a logical choice to succeed AMLO after the conclusion of his six-year presidential term. She won close to 60% of the vote at home and from Mexicans abroad, and carrying 31 out of 32 states in the country. She was inaugurated in October of that year, and her leadership has been defined by policies focused on energy reform, nationwide passenger rail modernizations, and social welfare programs designed to support children and mothers.

Embed from Getty Images

New president of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo receives the presidential sash during the investiture ceremony as part of the presidential inauguration on October 1, 2024, in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo by Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images

In Chicago, Sheinbaum represents an aspirational figure for thousands of people with Mexican heritage in the metro area. According to data from a report published by University of Illinois Chicago’s Great Cities Institute in 2024, as of 2022, Mexicans made up at least 50% of the population across 15 neighborhoods in the city, and about one-fifth (roughly half a million) of the city’s entire population.

Sheinbaum’s ascension to the presidency also highlights the resounding impact of women in both local and transnational politics, especially in a city like Chicago, where women with Mexican ancestry are increasingly visible as business owners, educators, and political leaders. As an international figure, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum represents a milestone in the history of women achieving high leadership roles, and also the undeniable importance of Chicago’s Latine community as constituents in both local and international politics.


This photograph of “Fallen Dictator,” from Marcos Raya’s (b. 1948) mural Prevent World War III (1980) is currently on view in Aquí en Chicago. The banner depicted in the mural reads “MORENA” (Sheinbaum’s political party) and previously depicted a red and black portrait of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, remnants of which can still be seen in the outline behind the current banner. Photograph courtesy of Mario Hernandez, 2024

For more about Chicago’s Latine history, visit Aquí en Chicago, open until November of 2026.

For more on the history of Mexican political movements in Chicago, read Making Mexican Chicago: From Postwar Settlement to the Age of Gentrification by Mike Amezcua, available in our Abakanowicz Research Center.

Photograph © Tipping Point Photography

How can we help shape our communities and country for the better? By Using our Civic Superpowers!

Made by Us developed Civic Superpowers for their annual Civic Season, and CHM staff has applied them to develop this classroom activity. Students examine Amplifiers, Connectors, Nurturers, and Defenders from history to see how these powers and their actions have shaped our democracy. Explore the lesson and how your students can discover their own Civic Superpowers.

Download the Civic Superpowers Activity Guide Download the Civic Superpowers posters (11″ x 17″)

In recognition of Women’s History Month, we share excerpts from a forthcoming Chicago History article by Ann Saunders on her mother Doris E. Saunders, a librarian, author, editor, businesswoman, and professor, perhaps best known in Chicago for her work with Johnson Publishing Company, which published Ebony and Jet magazines and empowered Black self-representation.


Promotional image of Doris E. Saunders for her radio show, The Doris Saunders Show, which broadcast on WBEE, c. 1966. Courtesy of Ann Saunders 

In Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, there were businesses to establish and manage, newspapers like the Chicago Defender to keep up with and contribute to, and churches and religious institutions that offered both refuge and responsibility. Within this vibrant world, my mother, Doris E. Saunders (1921–2014), lived and thrived. A hidden figure in the story of Black Chicago and beyond, she left behind a legacy that few know, but one that deserves a place in the city’s historical memory.

Early Life and Literary Roots

An only child born to an only child, my mother grew up without siblings or cousins. She craved family—and with it, the stories, kinship, and culture that connect generations. Books became her extended family. As an early young reader and precocious, she found companionship in books like Heidi (published in 1821). I was named after the heroine in Anne of Green Gables (published in 1908). By age twelve, she was reading the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Scott’s Official History of the American Negro in the World War (1919) by Emmett Jay Scott, which were permanent fixtures on her grandmother’s library table.

Her education unfolded in Chicago’s public integrated schools and its libraries, especially the Hall Branch Library, which opened in 1932 in Bronzeville. Named after Dr. George Cleveland Hall, a surgeon and cofounder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History with Carter G. Woodson, the Hall Branch was created, my mother said, because Hall believed his community deserved a first-class library. I think my mother drew resourcefulness and agency from books.

In 1935, my mother met Charlemae Rollins, the Hall Branch’s children’s librarian, who would become a lifelong mentor and friend. Rollins introduced her to the canon of Black literature—Langston Hughes’s poetry, W. E. B. Du Bois’s essays, James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1905), Nella Larsen’s fiction, and The Negro in Chicago (1922), Charles S. Johnson’s landmark study of the 1919 race riot. My mother had grown up hearing about that riot in family conversations, and reading Johnson’s analysis gave her a context for those memories.

Johnson Publishing and the Innovative Information Management

Encouraged by Rollins, my mother wrote a letter to John H. Johnson, publisher of Ebony magazine, proposing something that had not been done before: a special in-house library designed specifically to house reference materials by and about Black people. This was an opportunity to realize a long-held concept, now with a focus on supporting the editorial and advertising work of Johnson Publishing Company (JPC). When interviewed, she was hired on the spot.

John H. Johnson established his company in Chicago in 1941 with his first publication, Negro Digest (later renamed Black World). He began publishing Ebony in November 1945. Ebony became the company’s flagship magazine. Ebony shared stories, news, and information about African American life. The company and all its publications fostered social, cultural, economic, and political awareness and development among generations of people of African descent across the globe.


Ebony Special Issue: The Emancipation Proclamation, cover designed by Herbert Nipson and Norman Hunter, Johnson Publishing Company, Chicago, September 1963. CHM, ICHi-183267

So, in 1949, at 27, my mother began creating a groundbreaking corporate library—the first of its kind—organized around the Black experience as its primary focus. Because the library was Mom’s concept, she established the initial parameters of its scope by defining the library’s position in the corporate structure. Unlike many other corporations where the library was in the lower echelons of the corporate structure, this library was on the same level as other departments, including advertising, editorial, circulation, and subscriptions.

* * * *

But she was more than a librarian. She was, in her words, an “information and marketing manager.” In an era before computers, PDFs, internet access, mobile phones, or even electric typewriters, she became the living interface for JPC’s information infrastructure. Working with carbon paper, mimeograph machines, manual typewriters, and landline telephones, she built a system that revolutionized how JPC accessed, analyzed, and archived information. Her design served every department across the company, providing a responsive, interdisciplinary model of information management tailored to JPC’s mission and markets.


Black World, edited by Hoyt Fuller with cover designed by Herbert Temple, Johnson Publishing Company, Chicago, August 1971. CHM, ICHi-182539

From the start, she established associations, memberships, subscriptions, and networks with organizations whose publications and data would underpin her work, supporting JPC’s advertising staff. In her first few years, she collaborated closely with the company’s New York advertising office, led by William P. Grayson. Her pioneering marketing research verified what Black newspapers already knew, but what most mainstream advertisers had failed to realize or accept: the existence of a vibrant, $16 billion “Negro market.” Her research helped persuade national advertisers to buy ad space in Ebony, driving the company’s financial success.


People enjoying an open house for the new Johnson Publishing Company building, 820 South Michigan Avenue, May 16, 1972. ST-70004694-0042, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

This was not guesswork. My mother’s ability to extrapolate, interpret, and organize census, demographic, and business data had been honed during her year in the Social Science and Business Division at the Chicago Public Library. By the end of 1955, Ebony could point to advertising revenue, rather than circulation alone, as the marker of its success. This shift also helped open new avenues in the broader media landscape, including commercial photography, advertising, and publishing directed at Black audiences. By 1970, other media companies were launching books and magazines targeting Black consumers, once it became clear just how profitable the market was.

Learn More

As part of our Aquí en Chicago exhibition, which traces the lives of Latino/a/e communities in Chicago, our blog post series by guest authors highlights countries of Latin American heritage. In this post, Dr. Rafael Núñez-Cedeño, Professor Emeritus in Hispanic and Italian Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, founder and chair of the Dominican-American Midwest Association (DAMA), and an advisor on Aquí en Chicago writes about the history of Chicago’s Dominican community.

Tell us about the Dominican community in Chicago. How big is it? How long have Dominicans lived here?

Chicago may not be the first city people associate with Dominican immigration, but for nearly 60 years, it has been home to a dynamic Dominican community. While Dominican migration to New York began in the 1940s and surged after 1963, Chicago became a significant destination thereafter. As economic conditions in the Dominican Republic continued to deteriorate and job opportunities in New York declined during the 1970s, many Dominicans moved westward. They found new opportunities in Chicago and subsequently contributed to the city’s social, economic, and cultural life.


Dominicans celebrating Dominican Independence Day at the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, February 2024. All photographs courtesy of Rafael Nuñez-Cedeño

According to oral histories and Dominican Consular records, Dominicans found employment across industrial, service, and professional sectors. They often felt welcomed in a city with established Puerto Rican and Cuban communities. Shared Caribbean histories and common cultural traditions eased their integration into Chicago’s northwest neighborhoods, while professionals settled in the suburbs.

Officials failed to count Dominicans in census statistics for many years. They were not identified separately in 1980, but passport records suggest that as many as 4,000 first-generation Dominicans lived in Chicago at the time. Consular estimates today place the population at approximately 7,500.


DAMA delivered school supplies and presented financial awards to students in Santo Domingo, June 2024.

The 1990s marked a turning point in community organization and visibility. A group of Dominicans founded Casa Dominicana in 1991, a grassroots organization that promoted culture, history, and identity. In 1998, Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado recognized its impact by sponsoring a resolution honoring the Dominican contribution. Around the same time, the Chicago City Council honored Dominican physician Ramón García-Camilo for his humanitarian service by naming a section of Kedzie Boulevard after him.


Honorary street named after Dr. Ramon Camilo Garcia, Logan Square, December 2025.

The demise of Casa Dominicana also marked the emergence of professional leadership through the culturally and educationally oriented Dominican American Midwest Association (DAMA) and Unidad Dominicana. The former’s founding board reflected the community’s professional depth and included figures such as Dr. Samuel Castillo, a humanitarian and gastrointestinal specialist; Dr. César Herrera, an expert in cardiac radiology; Dr. Bernadette Sánchez, a clinical psychologist and university professor; Rita Simó, founder of the People’s Music School of Chicago; Kenneth Greene-Vélez, an artistic photographer and the first Dominican elected to public office in Illinois in 2000, Yulissa Nunez-deLeon, a Berwyn’s award-winning school teacher, and Idanes and Rhina Sánchez, community activists.

Is there an activity/location related to the Dominican community that every Chicagoan should experience?

With DAMA leadership, cultural expression flourished alongside civic engagement. In the late 1990s and beyond, Dominican folklore, merengue music, and visual arts were introduced to Chicago’s museums, schools, libraries, and parks. Mi Galería, founded by surgeon Dr. Rafael Pérez Guerra, became the city’s first space dedicated to Dominican artists and sculptors.

Entrepreneurship further anchored the community, as Dominicans opened agencies, beauty salons, automotive shops, construction firms, appliance stores, restaurants, and nightclubs—creating jobs and contributing to Chicago’s small-business economy. Many of these establishments also became cultural gathering spaces.

Is there a food/meal/dish related to the Dominican community that every Chicagoan should try?


Punta Cana and Tropical Taste restaurants in the Logan Square community area, November 2025.

To enjoy an authentic Dominican culinary experience, visitors can sample la Bandera Dominicana, the national staple of rice, beans, and meat; los tres golpes, featuring mangú with fried eggs, cheese, and salami; or a hearty sancocho, a traditional stew made with a variety of roots and meats. In the Humboldt Park area, several restaurants offer these classic dishes, including Punta Cana and Tropical Taste The experience often continues with music and dance at LV Night Club, a popular venue for lively merengue and bachata rhythms.


Dominicans perform merengue at the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, February 2018.

Is there a prominent person in the Dominican community you would like to highlight?

In medicine, professionals such as Drs. Max Brito, Ramón García (a Chicago Cultural Alliance honoree), and Frank Morales have made lasting contributions. Others, including corporate leaders Pedro de Jesús, José Colón, and Alexandra Nelson, rose to top executive positions in finance and mortgage lending.

Today, the Dominican community in Chicago exemplifies strength, cultural pride, and transnational connections.

Hannah Simmons is a student at Northwestern University and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium graduate assistant at our Abakanowicz Research Center (ARC). As part of her work, she is writing a series of blog posts related to the Chicago Covenants Project.

Racially restrictive covenants justified anti-Black violence in Cicero, a working-class, primarily Southern and Eastern European immigrant community neighborhood in Chicago, years before the anti-Black violence that came to be called the “Cicero Race Riot of 1951.” In July 1944, the Federation of Chicago Neighborhoods lamented in their publication, Restrictive Covenants, how “unjust” it would be for white soldiers to come home only to find that their “homes have been taken over by negroes.” The paper claimed that if African Americans moved in, these once-nice neighborhoods would become slums. The Federation’s overall argument conveyed a mindset that justified racial segregation and reinforced the commonly held fallacy that African American residents drove down property values.

Furthermore, the Federation’s argument completely omitted African American soldiers’ involvement in the war, ignoring the fact that when African American soldiers came home, they were forced back into segregated housing, despite their sacrifice and fight for democracy abroad. In other words, though African American soldiers were pivotal in the victory against fascism abroad, the Federation still painted them as enemies to the progress of the domestic housing market. This mindset, fallacy, and disregard for African American servicemen’s sacrifice all fueled the Cicero Race Riot.


An example of racial violence against Black veterans in Chicago, c. 1947. This map indicates the locations of the homes of persons arrested for participation in racial violence in the Fernwood Park area, where Black veterans were housed in the Fernwood Housing Project. CHM, ICHi-183577, Chicago Council Against Racial and Religious Discrimination, creator

On July 11, 1951, a woman cheered with the crowd as the furniture of the Clark family sailed through a shattered window, landing with a crash three stories below. “It’s a shame,” she stated, watching as someone set the furniture on fire, “Our boys are fighting and dying in Korea for democracy and look what’s happening here. Is this civilized?”(1)


Cicero police arrest a youth, Cicero, Illinois, 1951. DN-N-7947; Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

To this woman, and the hundreds of Cicero, Berwyn, and Chicago residents who watched and participated in the destruction of the Clark family’s property, it wasn’t civilized for the Clarks, an African American family, to move into all-white Cicero. Yet, there was nothing uncivilized about destroying the Clarks’ property and causing $50,000 (today, approximately $623,000) in property damage to the apartment building. As the building was damaged and the Clarks’ property was destroyed, the police stood by and watched, arresting no one.

Though rumors had spread that the Clark family was part of a larger ploy to integrate Cicero, the Clark family was simply looking for a place to live. At the time, Veteran Harvey E. Clark Jr., a graduate of Fisk University, was a CTA bus driver trying to find an affordable place for him and his wife, Johnetta Clark, also a Fisk University graduate, to raise their two young children, Michele Elaine Clark, age eight, and Harvey Evans Clark III, age six. However, racial prejudice stood in the way of the Clark family and the home they sought to raise their family in. Despite the Clark family’s simple desire to find an affordable place to live, the prejudice of their would-be neighbors made this simple desire for housing and a place to raise their family into a controversy. A controversy that bloomed into a race riot that the police were called in to quell.


National Guardsmen form a cordon around a mob during the race riot in Cicero, Illinois, July 13, 1951. DN-N-7955; Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

Though he was called to quell the riot, Cook County sheriff John E. Babb did not want the Clarks to move in. Observers mentioned that he had told the crowd that he was on their side.(2) However, even he knew that the mob had gone too far. So, on July 12, he asked Governor Adlai Stevenson II to summon the National Guard to quell the rioters and protect the building. In the evening, crowds clashed with the National Guard, Cook County police, and Cicero police. The crowd threw bricks, flares, and torches, injuring National Guardsmen and starting a fire near the apartment. By 12:51 a.m., the National Guard and police had pushed the crowd from the building. Around 70 people were arrested that evening, and over a dozen were injured.


National Guardsmen stringing a wire barricade at the scene of the race riot in Cicero, Illinois, July 14, 1951. DN-N-7948; Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

Over the next few days, as the mob continued, 117 people were arrested. Most of them were let go. It wasn’t until September 18, 1951, that people were indicted, and none of those individuals had been involved in the riot.


Harvey E. Clark and his wife, Johnetta, seated on a bench during the Cicero Race Riot trial, Chicago, c. 1951. ADN-0000064, Chicago Daily News/Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

On September 18, 1951, a Cook County grand jury indicted the former owner of the building, Camille De Rose, George C. Adams, De Rose’s lawyer, George Leighton, an NAACP attorney, and Charles Edwards, the real estate agent, for conspiracy to injure property by causing “depreciation in the market selling price” by selling to a Black family. As a result of vigorous protests from groups like the Chicago Council Against Racial and Religious Discrimination, a federal probe was launched. In 1952, the police chief, two policemen, and the village attorney of Cicero were indicted for the race riot, and charges against De Rose, Adams, Leighton, and Edwards were dropped.


An undated photograph of George N. Leighton (left) with his client Carl A. Hansberry during their legal challenge of racially restrictive covenants, Chicago. ADN-0000067, Chicago Daily News/Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

The Cicero Race Riot of 1951 show the enduring legacy of racial segregation and anti-Black violence. Furthermore, although the indictment of four Cicero officials and three policemen showed the potential for justice, none of the actual violent actors were ever indicted. This lack of indictment leaves questions about whether justice was truly served in Cicero.

 

Notes

  1. Camille De Rose, The Camille De Rose Story, 180.
  2. “Cicero Riots, 1951, Including Activities of Bayard Rustin in Chicago, Planned Purchase of Cicero Property, Housing Discrimination of Minorities, Communism in Cicero, Federal, State, and City Housing Policies, Dave McNamara’s Work in Cicero, Indictments of George N. Leighton and Others by Cook County Grand Jury, Need for Education Relating to Minority Housing, Reconciliation Efforts and Presence of National Guard,” 3. Bayard Rustin Papers; Alphabetical Subject File 1951.https://www.proquest.com/archival-materials/cicero-riots-1951-including-activities-bayard/docview/2900590824/se-2.

Additional Resources

On February 17, 2026, American civil rights activist, politician, and minister Jesse Jackson passed away at the age of 84. In his passing, Chicago lost a tireless worker for civil and social rights, but his devotion to care and uplift continues to call new generations to join the fight. In this photo essay, CHM director of education and curatorial affairs Erica Griffin-Fabicon describes Rev. Jackson’s extraordinary life and legacy accompanied by a selection of photographs from our collection that capture his indelible impact on Chicago and beyond.

Civil rights and religious leader and politician Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr.’s 60-year commitment to activism and social change began while he was a student at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in the early 1960s. His leadership and organizational skills caught the attention of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Following his graduation from college in 1964, Rev. Jackson marched with Dr. King and the SCLC from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.


Martin Luther King Jr. speaks to the media during a summit meeting on open occupancy housing with Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley at St. James Cathedral, 65 East Huron Street, Chicago. Jesse Jackson looks on in the center background. August 17, 1966. ST-10104142-0001, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Rev. Jackson became deeply involved in the Chicago Freedom Movement after moving to Chicago to attend the Chicago Theological Seminary. Jackson had a key role in the efforts to mobilize African American religious leaders to support the Movement’s goal to address the rampant racial and economic injustices plaguing Black Chicago neighborhoods.

Pallbearers carry the casket of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during his burial service in Atlanta, April 9, 1968. Jesse Jackson stands behind the casket in a green shirt and brown blazer. CHM, ICHi-173458; Declan Haun, photographer

Dr. King appointed Jackson as the director of Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of SCLC. Breadbasket focused on securing employment opportunities for Black people. Under his leadership, Operation Breadbasket targeted grocery stores chains with a large presence in the Black community. Through pickets, protests, and data collection, Breadbasket activists demanded that these companies hire more community members in both entry-level and management positions, provide shelf space for products made by Black-owned businesses, and end the selling of spoiled meat and produce in their stores.

re
Rev. Jesse Jackson and others officially open the 1971 Black and Minorities Business and Cultural Expo, Chicago, September 29, 1971. ST-19031751-0015, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

The Black Expo was a successful extension of Operation Breadbasket. First held in 1967 in Chicago, the Expo promoted Black excellence. This multi-day event highlighted Black-owned businesses and connected them with large corporations, which would hopefully purchase their products.


Jesse Jackson addresses an Operation Breadbasket meeting as a guest speaker after being suspended as leader of the organization, 7941 South Halsted Street, Chicago. December 4, 1971. ST-12005694-0005, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CH

Following difficult conversations with SCLC leaders over resource allocation, Rev. Jackson decided to separate himself from the SCLC, resigning from the organization in December 1971. Rev. Jackson named his new organization PUSH, an acronym for People United to Save Humanity (later revised to People United to Serve Humanity).


Jesse Jackson speaks with Coretta Scott King at the First National Black Political Convention at West Side High School in Gary, Indiana, March 11, 1972. ST-19031772-0013, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM


Jesse Jackson at the New Chicago Delegation, Chicago. Jackson is wearing a commemorative Dr. King medallion. At this meeting, Rev. Jackson became part of the New Chicago Delegation, which supported Sen. George McGovern’s candidacy at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. CHM, ICHi-038704; Declan Haun, photographer


Jesse Jackson relaxes with delegates in a pool after the opening sessions conclude for the 1972 Democratic National Convention, Miami Beach, Florida, July 15, 1972. ST-19033571-0003, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM


Jesse Jackson participates in the South Side Christmas Parade, Chicago, December 7, 1972. ST-30004480-0035, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

PUSH’s early activities followed the Operation Breadbasket model. All of Breadbasket’s materials, resources, staff, and board members followed Jackson to PUSH. PUSH would address varied issues from housing to education to voting rights for Black people over the following decades.


Jesse Jackson discusses gasoline issues at the Standard Oil Building, Chicago, January 2, 1974. Standard Oil agreed to investigate Jackson’s claims that Black gasoline dealers were receiving less gasoline and paying more for it than white dealers. ST-50004976-0037, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM


Rev. Jesse Jackson burns a set of Chicagofest tickets in protest of Chicago mayor Jane Byrne’s nomination of three white board members to the Chicago Housing Authority, at Operation PUSH headquarters, 930 East 50th Street, Chicago, July 31, 1982. ST-12001917-0015, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

In 1984, PUSH merged with the National Rainbow Coalition, an outgrowth of Rev. Jackson’s presidential campaign. Rev. Jackson was inspired by the philosophy of Fred Hampton, president of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition linked varied marginalized people together to advocate collectively against shared systems of oppression. Rev. Jackson would build on this model, giving voice to varied communities and their concerns for economic and social equality.


Retired sports stars and Jesse Jackson participate in the ‘Fairness in Sports Leadership’ conference to address need for minorities in coaching and front-office positions in major league sports, at Operation PUSH headquarters, 930 East 50th Street, Chicago, May 29, 1987. ST-12002798-0062, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM


Jesse Jackson receives a commemorative gift from Mayor Harold Washington after returning to Chicago from freeing a captured Navy airman from Syria, January 10, 1984. ST-30002916-0001, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM


Jesse Jackson speaks to imprisoned people during his annual Christmas visit to the Cook County Jail, sponsored by Operation PUSH, Chicago, December 25, 1989. ST-30002138-0012, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM


Rev. Jesse Jackson and his wife Jacqueline Jackson vote by absentee ballot, Chicago, November 1, 1996. ST-12001577-0024, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM


Rev. Jesse Jackson and other activist leaders participate in a Rainbow/PUSH organization conference on Africa at McCormick Place, 2301 South King Drive, Chicago, July 29, 2000. ST-10002320-0142, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Rev. Jackson would continue to advocate for varied causes centering collaboration and advancement across marginalized groups. Rev. Jackson’s words, actions, and steadfast devotion to a safe and well society stands to remind us that we are all “somebody,” and if we “keep hope alive,” the fight for justice continues for another day.

To explore Rev. Jackson’s contributions to the city of Chicago and the nation, visit the online resources below.

Additional Resources

PRIMARY SOURCE TYPE: 2D OBJECTS, 3D OBJECTS, DOCUMENTS
Recommended for grades 6—12

In 2019, students from Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy in Pilsen protested CHM for the lack of Latino/a/e representation. In doing so, they stood on the shoulders of past Latino/a/es and allies who fought against cultural erasure and systemic racism.

This field trip guide introduces the Aquí en Chicago exhibition and the “Resistance Toolkit,” which are a set of actions or practices people use to support their communities and push back against injustice and erasure. The Resistance Toolkit symbols are featured throughout the exhibition. Included within the field trip guide is a gallery graphic organizer that students can use onsite during your visit, recommendations for other exhibitions to see during your field trip, and pre- and post-visit activities for your classroom.

Download the Aquí en Chicago Field Trip Guide Download the Field Trip Graphic Organizer – English Download the Field Trip Graphic Organizer – Spanish
Translate »