A Project of YAOTL

Young Activists Organizing as Today's Leaders – Phone: 773.762.6991

   Sep 25

16th Annual Celebration and Fundraising Dinner: “Si Se Pudo”

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
Invites Everyone!

“Si Se Pudo”Please join us for our 16th Annual Celebration and Fundraising Dinner “Si Se Pudo"

to commemorate LVEJO’s recent four victories:

1) the shutting down of two Coal Power Plants in Chicago;

2) the westend extension of the35th Bus Route to 31st Street;

3) the planning stages of Park # 533, a 24-acres open space park on 28th and S. Sacramento Ave.; and

4) building of a Hoop-House at the Troy Street Garden.
This celebration will take place on
Friday, November 2, 2012 at 7pm
at La Concordia Restaurant -
3801 West 26th Street Chicago, IL 60623.

Donation $25

You can buy your tickets online at Brown Paper Tickets
http://lvejo16annualcelebration.bpt.me/

Dance, Entertainment, Food,and Raffles!

For more information please contact us at events@lvejo.org

For Sponsorship opportunities

Follow this link to check the sponsorship packets for this event
(link to PDF called 16th Si se pudo Sponsorship Form)

For more information please feel free to call our sponsorships chairs: Roberto Armendáriz – rarmendariz58@yahoo.com – (773)255-7304 and/or Abraham Dueñas – catedralcafe@hotmail.com – (773)510-2233.


   Jan 23

What Our Chicago River Tells Us

Written By: Kevin Alcaide

“One does not sell the Earth, upon which people walk” (Crazy Horse, Oglala Lakota War Chief, 1875).

     The YAOTL group visited a prairie preserve by Ashland and 55th, in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. The purpose of the trip was to learn the History of the Chicago River. Adam Kessler, our tour guide, from the Al Raby/American Indian Center, explained reasons why the river is dark and polluted.

     “Our water is supposedly clean but they put a lot of chemicals in our water”, said Carolina Macias a member of YAOTL. As told by Adam Kessler, and validated as the history of the Chicago river, a place once filled with swamps, naturally filtrating the water along with the help of other plants.  However, the Europeans overlooked the essence of the swamps and prairie lands. Only viewing the land as profit, consequently raping the earth, destroying its natural cycle, along with nature’s balance.

     “The Europeans thought the swamps were disgusting, that it smelled bad and had to fix it”, said Adam Kessler.

     Once pollution became more pervasive, and people began to get sick, something had to be done.

          “It would go to their water they would drink it and get sick”, responded Viviana Galvan member of the YAOTL group.

          Adam informed us about how action was taken by draining the river and excavating it. The water would flow the opposite way and not continue to further pollute lake Michigan. Changing the river’s natural flow seemed to benefit at the time. In order to look good and prosper, we couldn’t allow pollution to diminish that.

          “It was not a nice view, they wanted to go against nature, completely turning around its natural flow”, said Carolina Macias (YAOTL).

          She argued that the Europeans had no environmental/health concerns, and didn’t think about the future effects, of which we deal with today. Part of the tour included background on herbs and weeds used for remedies. For example, Echinacea can be used to aid a toothache, and Rose Hips as antioxidant source.

          “It is good to learn how to use plants for medicinal use, and maintain the natural ecosystem” Said Hannah Weinstein, who is also part of the YAOTL group.

          Creating riverbanks high up from the river restrained plants to be able to filtrate the waters from the river.

          “It is important to grow plants along the river, they are essential to the life that lives there, some help keep water clean and its part of the ecological cycle” said Brenda Elizabeth Becerra from YAOTL .

          Many things are causing the river to be polluted, including those canals and bridges built long ago. In order to avoid pollution, or in other words, move pollution elsewhere, the river’s natural flow was altered. Consequently, Europeans became terrorist to the natives, throwing them out of their land, killing families, and selling land for profit.


   Jan 23

Public Transit and Working with Politicians

By: Brenda B.

 

This summer as part of my youth internship at LVEJO I worked with the Public Transit campaign. I have got to say I definitely did not know what to expect. It was the first time I had worked on that specific campaign so I had a lot to learn. The main priority for the summer was to get in touch with politicians to see how we could meet the sufficient funds that are needed to put the much needed 31st Street CTA bus back in service. CTA says that they do not have money to put this route in service, but through the JARC program we have gained the opportunity to put the proposed route in service temporarily if we can meet the sufficient federal funds. If the funds were not met by a certain date the grant money from the JARC program would be lapsed, luckily LVEJO was able to renew the grant.

The plan was to get in touch with all the representatives whose wards would be along the proposed 31st Street route, but most importantly we wanted to sit down with them individually to talk about the route and get their support. When it came down to the phone calls I would usually get a secretary that answered the phone and had no clue what I was calling about, some resulted in no answer, others were simply too busy to hear me out and told me to call back or email them. What I learned from that experience is that you have to keep bugging your politicians if you want an answer. They are more likely to listen if you meet with them in person and present the issue/concern. After days of contacting all the representatives to set up a meeting with them individually, we got replies from Dena Carli, Congressman Gutierrez, and Representative Hernandez. I was fortunate to have been able to attend the meeting with Representative Hernandez. Overall she was all for the route and gave us her support because she used to live in Little Village with her mother when she was younger and she expressed some of the many ways the route would benefit the community she serves. Talking to someone who understands the needs of communities was pleasant. We need politicians to envision the benefits this proposed route would bring to their communities and get the support of the people who live in the communities along the route. Having the support of at least one politician is a good start but we need the support of many.


   Jan 23

El Sitio Celotex…. Un Parque Seguro y Saludable Pa’ la Comunidad!

En Septiembre,  los organisadores  de LVEJO me dijieron  que la ciudad compró el sitio Celotex de la señora loca que era dueña. Fue un momento agridulce para mí, era dulce, porque “nosotros” por fin tenemos el terreno para construir el parque y amargo debido a que tomó cerca de seis años para comprar el sitio, y los 10 años desde que empezó la lucha para conseguir más parques en La Villita, sobre todo en la parte este de la comunidad. Esto fue un paso que nos pude más cerca de nuestro objetivo de un nuevo parque seguro  y saludable en La Villita, y una gran victoria de los vecinos del sitio Celotex por su resistencia y tenacidad.

La lucha por el sitio Celotex como parque se inició en verano de 2005 como una alternativa o una opción de construir un centro deportivo en La Villita, pero fue derribado por el comité pro-parque. Sin embargo, LVEJO siguió trabajando con los vecinos del sitio Celotex primero para limpiar sus casas de químicos que pueden causar cáncer, la segunda para limpiar el sitio para detener la contaminación en el futuro, y el tercero para construir un parque seguro y saludable en la comunidad en el sitio. Hemos tenido que luchar / protestar contra las grandes corporaciones, a veces con la EPA, y hasta la ciudad por arrastrar los pies sobre el asunto. Pero todo vale la pena al final porque estamos más cerca de la construcción de un parque seguro y saludable en La Villita.

Ahora, tenemos que unirnos una vez más para mantener al distrito de parques de Chicago responsable y honesto sobre el proceso de construcción del parque. No queremos sólomente un gran parque con pasto y un columpio. Queremos un parque que tenga una pista de patinaje, una granja urbana, una piscina, un centro comunitario, canchas de fútbol, campos de béisbol, canchas de baloncesto, y un anfiteatro. Sé que todo esto se va a tomar tiempo y $ $ $, pero todo esto es posible si nos mantenemos juntos!

 

M.A. Roman

Miembro de la Mesa Directiva de LVEJO y

el ex organizador del sitio Celotex.


   Nov 07

Youth go to Bioneers..

   

 Bioneers was a chance to learn new things about topics we all can relate to, such as Food sovereignty and education. This event was made possible thanks to Peter Schwartzman a professor at Knox College. I’m thankful to Selene, the Urban Land Organizer  at LVEJO for inviting me on this trip.

    The First speaker conveyed distress around the education system, she argued that our education system limits the amount of knowledge students receive in order to be sustainable, and centralize the ideas around how to deal if ever we run out of resources. As a child Karen Brown learned that diesel fuel was the best source of energy, and was said to be harmless. She spoke about the false solutions the government has in mind in case of catastrophe in this earth i.e. leaving to a different planet. Here she made it clear that running away won’t solve anything if nothing sustainable waits for us above, but rather we should change our education system so that it is possible to learn new ways of being sustainable “here on Earth” (Karen Brown, Revolutionizing k-12 education with sustainability in mind).

    As part of the trip we visited the prairie, were we picked seeds to bring back home. We also learned that a diverse ecosystem is less vulnerable in this time of climate change. Things like having a personal garden, community garden creates a sanctuary of your own pesticides free, organic fruits and vegetables. This can also be called the food movement. In which case people decide to stop being forced to buy transported goods, which not only contribute to the pollution but are grown with many toxins.

 

 


   Nov 07

Occupied with chicago ….

If you have access to any news source such as tv, newspapers, or the internet you have probably heard about the “Occupy Chicago” and other “Occupy” movements going on around the country that started from the “Occupy Wall-Street” protests in New York. These protests have been going on for a few weeks now, maybe even a month. Thousands of people are occupying busy streets of downtown, marching and protesting for change. There are many reasons I saw that people were protesting for, from education to housing to everything in between. The main reason that is the root of the problem is that the nation’s wealthiest 1% is controlling approximately 40% of the nation’s wealth. This 1% is getter increasingly wealthier all the time, with the help of the government, while the other 99% has to pay the price. Last week, I got a chance to experience the Occupy Chicago movement firsthand.

I’m a student at Harold Washington College which is located in downtown Chicago. I had heard about Occupy Chicago and had seen protesters in front of Daley plaza, so I had a general idea of what was going on. Last Monday, I was walking around by Millennium Park to kill time between classes when I noticed an unusually large concentration of police officers about a block away. Naturally, I wanted to see what was going on.  I followed the flashing lights where I encountered a crowd of approximately 7,000 people (although the media would inaccurately report that there were merely hundreds of people) protesting in the street in front of the Art Institute. There were also hundreds of police present, more than I have ever seen in one place at one time ever in my life. I’m pretty sure there weren’t any cops present anywhere else in downtown at that time, I think they sent ever available squad by car, bike, and even horseback, to intimidate the protesters. I don’t know what they were so afraid of, Occupy Chicago is a completely peaceful movement, just people practicing free speech.

Traffic on that street was completely stopped by the sea of protesters. I saw a variety of signs, covering basically every problem you could think of. People where chanting and playing instruments. It looked like a revolution was going on. I heard from some of the people around me that the reason why they were occupying the street in front of the Art Institute that day was because there was some sort of banquet going on for a wealthy U.S. futures industry trade group. I looked up to the windows of the art institute and I could see them looking down at the protest, it was kind of funny. Here’s a picture I took:

Unfortunately, the protest didn’t last very long thanks to the Chicago Police Department, who did what they do best by stopping the most innocent, peaceful people from exercising their freedom and democracy. A line of police officers, shoulder-to-shoulder, eventually worked to plow protesters from the street. Of course, they were met with resistance and people chanting, “Our streets! Our streets!” but in the end the police were able to clear the streets and  I believe a few arrests were made along with a handful of citations. In a bizarre effort to prove their power, the CPD followed up their street-clearing by marching a line of police on horses down the street. This was relatively pointless, but it did work as a fear tactic because a lot of people were shouting things like, “Watch out! They’re bringing out the horses!” It was quite strange, look:

Now the question is, will the nation-wide protests be heard? How long until a revolution occurs for the 99% of the population? How long will the Occupy movements continue until we see change? How long until we stop being peaceful and start trying to overthrow the government like what recently happened in Egypt? 2012 is near, everyone. That’s all I have to say…

In the meantime, the Occupy Chicago, Occupy Wall Street, and similar movements around the country still continue. People can afford to do nothing but protest all day everyday because a lot of people don’t have jobs due to the very problems they are trying to change through this protest. The system here in the United States is pretty messed up. Unless you are part of the lucky 1%, which theres a 99% chance you’re not. Good luck people.


   Nov 07

youth unite in creative activism

curie student working on a section of the Gary Mural

“Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak…non-violence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win.” –Cesar Chavez.

If you have passed by Gary School on 31st street this summer you probably have noticed a mural in the works there.  Bright, colorful flowers in the painting grab your attention, even from blocks away. The familiar images of the arch entering Little Village and Chicago’s skyline make you want to take a closer look.  Many people are probably wondering, what is this mural really about?

LVEJO interns, volunteers, and some Gary School students worked together to put the mural together this summer. The mural spans an entire wall of one of the school’s buildings but so far is not completed. Cesar Chavez’s words about non-violence, as quoted at the beginning of this article, are in the design plans to be featured at the top of the mural. Images of some of the Gary School students who helped painting the mural will be wheat-pasted under the arch, along with some environmental justice images promoting the community garden, re-use/re-new/recycle, and anti-coal power.

The mural is a platform to spread the ideas of these words and images throughout the community on a large scale.  All of the Gary School students and many of their parents will most likely see it. All of the pedestrians and traffic on 31st street will probably see it too. All of the community members who frequent the playground, basketball hoops, soccer field, and garden of the school will for sure see the mural, too.  This makes the mural a powerful tool for activism, since the ideas presented in its words and images have the potential to reach a lot of people.