Maricela Hernandez

Maricela Hernandez is a mother of one. She a outgoing lady. She was born in Tamulipas. When she was 18 her family moved to Mexico City where she studied to become a secretary but she always wanted to be a teacher. Maricela is one of many heroes in our community. Maricela used to work at Kelvyn Park High School with students and parents. Maricela loves helping people in our community. Something that she told us and others is that “ we should stay in school and learn how much we could because out there is another  world with so many things”

Maricela has been working with Logan Square Neighborhood Association for 7 years now. She stared by volunteering at LSNA. She was a parent mentor at KP for a couple of years. She works with students and parents. She visits those students with bad attendance and they will try to solve their problems. While Maricela was working with LSNA volunteering, she went to marches and had great experiences.

Maricela had so many experiences working with LSNA. Something that she liked the most was she helped the people around her. Like once she had a experience with a young lady that had dropped out. They got the students going back to school after a month or so she had a great attendance. Something that Maricela tells the students is, “Tell all the teenagers to stay in school because with an education you can get wherever you want to go and become whatever you want to in the future after high school.” Something that LSNA does is that they have a day that they go out and clean the neighborhood. Maricela likes the changes they did in the community. She loves helping others.

          Maricela’s ideas about the injustices in our community are that some schools don't have a lot of programs, extracurricular activities, the violence and danger and there isn't enough funding for the schools. The dangers that the students face are the dangers of the different gangs in the neighborhood. Some kids can't even walk home without being harassed by them. Those are some of the main concerns of the people and the parents in our community, and even some of the fellow students.

Maricela defines a hero is someone who’s always there for you when you need them without asking something back. Her heroes are her mom and her daughter for the fact that she loves them a lot. Her mom inspires her a lot because she has always been there for her since the day she was born her mom showed her how to be helpful and to always follow her dreams.

Something that Maricela Hernandez made me see was that she has such a sweetheart for kids, teenagers, and parents who need help and that she’s a lovely lady and hard worker because she doesn't only help students but the community. Something that I saw was the community needs heroes and organizations like LSNA to make big changes in the community. The reason that I believe that Maricela Hernandez is a great hero its cause she works in differents things and she always there to give you a hand if you need it.

      

Caleb Jennings

                                                         

               

                Caleb Jennings is a union organizer that works with people that want to

change working conditions and unfair wage payments. He enjoys working with workers to improve wages and any other issues that they have. By organizing protests, it makes it possible for him to get more people involved. He values the lives of many hard-working people who don’t get paid as they should, and aren’t being paid equally. He has been working as a union organizer now for 13 years, and has seen many changes in the communities and workers he’s helped.

                 In high school he wasn’t as civically engaged as he is now, but during

his time when he got his education at UIC he was more interested in workers that were struggling. He attended a organizing institute, which helped him learn how to become a union organizer, mostly what he knows today he was taught there. Since he joined the institute he never stopped participating in the organization. He stated that, “If people want to change the way they work.. they have to be civically engaged.” He also thinks that students could also be civically engaged, to focus on what is going on in their community, and participate in organizations.

                A person that Caleb found inspiring was a woman named Sonia Acuna.

She has 3 children that she takes care of on her own. She inspired Caleb by showing that anything was possible even during the hard times. During a protest that Caleb organized, he met her because she wanted to be a part of the protest. She had told him that she worked two shifts in two different Mcdonalds, while taking care of her children. It inspired him because she was willing to quit her job and sacrifice not getting paid, in order to protest having better working conditions.

               Other work that he’s done in the community was with people and organ-

izations collaborating together. One such project involved students to create posters for a protest. A recent protest that he organized, was shown on television, and it encouraged people to participate in his organization. He tries to get as many people involved in protests that he does, especially the working class. A new project that he’s working on is called the “Fight for 15,” which is to have minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour rather than $8 an hour.

                To him social justice is when there’s something wrong and people come

together to speak out against it. Some of the examples he used were about people that aren’t able to protest in other countries because they would be killed. An injustice that he thinks is important is income inequality, where people aren’t being paid equally, between the rich and the poor. He has accomplished to have more benefits and healthcare for workers he protested with, which they never had before. He stated that “as individuals we are weak.. but when we pull people together, you have power in numbers”.

By : Andres Solano

Lily Diaz

Liliana Diaz works with youth. She wants to make a difference not only for the community, but even for her daughter. She loves doing what she does. Liliana is helpful, hard working and proud because of the fact that she wants to make a difference in the world and see if anything could be changed.

        Liliana does a lot of things of with youth. She does something that can help people when they are dealing with bullies and also she works with all of students that are in the neighborhood or even KP. She does a lot that involves immigration work or even with school. This really helps a lot because if there is some people that need help with something, she and the people that she works with can really do a lot for all the people that need so much help. There is a lot of other jobs like working with children but you can choose what you would like to do. They don’t do it for the money, but they do it because they feel that it’s wrong. She likes to work with teenagers for the fact that she could talk to them in an early age about what is going on and tell them that they should start doing stuff in their community and it will really change.

      Liliana goes with the students in the youth leadership program and goes to the congressman to talk about what they think needs to be changed in communities or just everything in general because there is a lot of things that are wrong. The protesters were protesting about immigration they were saying nasty things like that they should close the border. Liliana and her group had confronted protesters that were against immigration and we're talking very negative about it. The protesters were saying that they need to take their families and go back from where they came from. They were saying very racist things to Liliana and her group and were even recording them and Liliana doesn't even know why they were in the first place. She had said, “that they were just putting more wood into the fire.”

          She thinks that CPS doesn't really care what other people want or what they can do to make all the neighborhoods better or it could even be the schools. CPS wants to close schools that little kids go to and now they're going to have to go farther just because of what CPS had chose to do and its not even the students fault they just want more money. Liliana doesn’t like the fact that schools look at GPA. She thinks it shouldn’t even be important and you should let a kid in no matter what it is at least they try their best to do good and CPS doesn’t really appreciate much.

      Liliana thinks that a hero is a person that cares and takes care of their family even if they're the only parent figure in the house. They would just do a great job doing all that work and making sure that there are kids doing good. Her mom was like the only one that took care of her and her siblings when their dad wasn’t really in the picture but her mom did everything she could and try to buy them things when she could. It was hard for her but she was doing the best that she can do.

       What I learned from Liliana is that she is really great person, and she does care about the world and what happens in it. She really wants to make a huge change and that’s awesome. I learned so much from her and know that if she keeps doing what she has been doing since the start, people will open their eyes and listen. They will know that they should do the same. She makes me want to stand up and do something about all of this that has been going on. If I had another chance to interview her again it would be great. I would love to hear more information about what she has been doing since the last time I met her. It’s good to know that someone cares about the changes that could be done.

Stacy Erenberg

Stacy Erenberg is one of the many people working to make the Logan Square area a better, healthier, more just place to live and work. She plays two minute shows, works with the Sage Community Health Collective and sliding scale acupuncture bodywork clinic. Stacy also does Chinese massage, she was raised into a buddhist religion, and she lives a biracial life.

Stacy works as a massage therapist using Chinese massage. Stacy works with chi; chi is a form of energy that runs through your body. Chi is life force and energy. “Chi flows through us. It flows in different pathways throughout the body and every pathway has a different direction. Every pathway has a different patterns in balance, that are sort of a particular in that way and every person.” Stacy had gone to a college called Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in Chicago. In college Stacy had met her two business partners, which do the acupuncture. Stacy has been doing acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine to cure her terrible allergies. Now that Stacy is doing that she feels that she has more energy. Stacy sees Western medicine as a life saving medicine because its mainly for surgeries and other medical reasoning.

Stacy live in a biracial life she is black, Russian and Romanian. Her mother is black, and Stacy was raised in Chicago. Stacy ancestors on her mother's side came from New Orleans around the nineteenth to twentieth century. Most blacks that are in Chicago are from the south around the twentieth century. Her father is white but her father’s ancestors are Russian and Romanian Jews. They had came over from Russia and Romania around the same time as her mother's ancestors came from the South to Chicago. Her father's ancestors came by boat as immigrants before eastern European Jews were considered to be white.

Stacey was raised Buddhist. Her parents met through this Buddhist organization. Stacy’s father was very involved. Her father was the religious leader. Then her mother and father had left the organization because they had gotten really disillusioned. Stacy was raised doing Buddhist practices. She believes that she had sort of “inherited the way she see the world.” Stacy does her own Buddhist practices but not within the organized group.

Stacy does two minute shows. Her father is actually playing in one of them in the live band as the drummer. Stacy is a singer in the play, so she is singing poetry. The story is about a biracial person who is Jewish. Stacy had wrote the two minute show with a friend of her’s. From going to several colleges, learning the way of Chinese medicine, creating her own schedule in her way in the business world, Stacy seems to be doing just fine. She doesn’t seem to be so chaotic or pressurized. Stacy is really relaxed and has a great sense of humor. From my point of view, Stacy is very funny, laid back, and knows what to do or how to deal with certain situations.

Emlyn Rickets? She works at the Chicago Police Department. Emlyn is currently working at an organization named FDLA, in which they run a 24 hour police custody hotline. She also is a part of The Street Law Program, which she goes to different schools, and teaches students about their legal rights.

She is a well respected attorney in Chicago that came from Loyola and would like to become well known for what she does in her near future.Her family has been a huge part of her life while yearning to be a lawyer. Her parents have always influenced her to do her best and try to succeed in everything she does. Her mother is a teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. Her father works at a restaurant. She said, “My mother and father have always been my heroes ever since I was a young girl, they are hardworking and made sure I was successful in life.” Emlyn’s family has always been there for her, through thick and thin. She mentions her family quite a bunch because they encouraged her to fulfill her dreams, and to stop crime in the CIty of Chicago.

Emlyn’s ideas on gang violence and segregating children from their background and where they come from are very strong. She wants to stop all of the negative activity happening in and around Chicago. She lives to help people, which makes me have a great liking towards her. She also thinks everyone deserves to be equal, go to school, and be successful in life no matter where they come from. School closings in her opinion are a very difficult thing for the youth of Chicago; she also believes students should have the right to attend their neighborhood schools because ONCE again there is a lot of violence happening and people die everyday over just wearing the wrong colors. She has a great point in expressing herself in helping to stop the closings and keep grammar school kids in their destined school.

Heroes? Her parents are a huge part of her life and were when she was a young girl. Emlyn described her parents as “hardworking and loving.” Now? Then? Her heroes will always be her parents. Her views on heroes are people who put anyone before themselves and random citizens who do things on their own time and love helping out no matter what the situation is. Heroes can be anyone you want them to be! Your parents, an action hero, ANYONE. Role models are heroes as well in their own way. Emlyn chose her parents because they have always been there for her, helped her be successful, and encouraged her to be what she is today, which is an attorney of Chicago.

Personally? Emlyn is a great person and can achieve higher goals with much more time to go. Talking to her made me realize there ARE people in the world who DO care, and love to help out the youth of Chicago. Being a lawyer is a big responsibility. You gain enemies, you lose friends, you gain friends. It’s all a win-lose situation.

Elizabeth “Libby” Frank is one of the many community heroes working for a better change in the community. Libby grew up in a segregated area called Terithe, Indiana. She was not too fond of high school life. To her it wasn’t so exciting because her school only had the basic core classes and nothing more. She enjoys gardening, reading and sewing. She hopes one day to learn Spanish. She would like to be fluent in Spanish.

LIbby has a way of putting people together. She believes the more people know their neighbors, the better the community will get. She has been volunteering for about 7 or 8 years now. She has done peace work in the community and planted many gardens that brought the community together. She also works with the LSNA. Libby has many successes especially with planting gardens.

Libby has planted many gardens throughout the neighborhood. The programs she has with the gardens are very successful. Another success of Libby’s is having a required military form in a summer packet for her child’s school. Before the school did not give the option to the parents of the students to give the military their child’s information. Libby saw this as an injustice and worked hard to change this so that the parent’s could get this option.

Through Libby’s eyes she sees many injustices facing our community. One injustice includes Kelvyn Parks’s student to counselor ratio. She believes that there should be way more counselors so that a student will always have access to a counselor. Libby wishes the resources we have in the school were better. She also does not prefer to have standardized testing. She hopes that one day there will be no more because “CPS has gone overboard” with the testing. “I think its something you guys should be volunteering for, not something you have to do,” said Libby talking about her views of the program JROTC. Libby would love to change all this but the only person that could do this all is a true hero.

We asked Libby what she thought a true hero includes. She said, “Someone who puts their cause above themselves. Someone who goes beyond the call of duty.” She thinks heroes should be someone who is helpful and dedicated to their work. She thinks true heroes should have great characteristics. To me Libby is all of those things.

I believe that Libby has done some incredible work throughout the neighborhood. To me she is a true hero doing the work she does. One day I hope to plant alongside Libby. She is dedicated to her work and community. I hope one day she is recognized throughout our city as a community hero because that is what she truly is.

Tami Love

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to interview someone who is very important in our community. Her name is Tami Love. She’s the mother of three kids and whenever she isn’t working, she enjoys being with her family. She went to college as well. Like most kids, she didn’t really like to attend school. But she knew she needed to go further. She put all her studying and work in night school. She met a lot of friends who were just like her. She started working on Housing Issues in the Logan Square Community.

Tami Love works on housing and education at the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. She helps residents keep the community affordable. She is working with this community to try to make them keep our community affordable with low income. She also helps organize the community and neighbors. She tries to keep neighbors involved with activities. While Tami is working in the community, she has faced some situations within our neighborhood.

As Tami worked in the community, she has seen some things that she felt were unfair. She said, “Anytime there's a problem, the first thing they do is call the police and have everybody arrested. We have the police being called on kindergarteners and getting kicked out.” She believes there is a way to deal with our conflicts within our community. There are programs where they deal with situations in our neighborhoods. She mentions that she likes Peace Circles because it's a good way for people to talk it out. People including adults who are not familiar with social justice need to become more educated on what it is for. On the other hand, Ms. Love has seen some changes while working in our neighborhood.

   Tami has seen people try to learn more than one language or learn about a different culture. She also mentions that she has seen people get stronger and more powerful. She said, “I don't think it's always been been that way. I think that our organization in particular has been pushing people into that direction.” She believes that us students have the courage to change something in our school if we see that something is not right. She sees potential in us. She thinks people have learned about their civil rights and about their civic duties and what they are. As we talked about the changes in life, we decided to ask her about her views on a hero.

   She believes a hero is a person that is not outfront that stays in the background and is willing to put themselves on the line if things were  dangerous. As a kid, she looked up to her brother because he was the oldest and took her for rides. Someone who's her hero was and still is her mom. She went through tough times, but she made it through raising all her six children. Her mom is always there whenever she is having a bad day, that's why she's her hero. She believes anybody can be a hero, as long as they speak well and are not flashy and fancy.

    Ms. Love is a very hard working person who I have looked up to after interviewing her. She is willing to make the world a better place for everybody that way people could have a shelter and not worry about a thing. She is a woman with a big heart who just wants the best for everybody in this world. She is a true hero.

Brian Perea

Brian Perea is one of the many heroes working to make our community a better place. He graduated from Kelvyn Park High School in 2008. Now he works for LSNA. He’s now in his second year of college. He works with a high school leadership program to help kids become leaders. He’s in his second year of college but he’s behind a little so the classes he’s taking are not second year classes, but he's catching up. The LSNA program helps him too.

                                                                                                                                 

Next we asked him about his challenges in high school. He said at first it was very distracting with all his friends. He also talked about where he lived, like the gangs and shootings.        He was falling behind in his classes so he had to make them up in night school and with the LSNA program, and they gave him extra credit so he can catch up and graduate on time. So he stopped getting in trouble he got a job with LSNA.          

                                                                                                             

Then we asked him what are his favorite things about his job. He said his favorite things about his job is helping high school students so they don't fall behind like he did. He also likes to help out his old communities or ones that need help. He also enjoys helping kids in high school.  The last thing we asked him was what does he think about the school closings. He thinks it’s not good because the kids have to move to a new environment and that could led to gang fights. He also said that a lot of kids are going to get off track when they move to a new school. The interview was mostly about his life and what he thinks about the communities and how we he help.

We also asked him things he likes to do on his free time. He like to help communities that need help not ones that he knows already, he goes with the LSNA program. He said that he like his job because he like the money they pay him and it keeps him motivated. He also enjoys seeing his family because he lives alone, so his job and school sometimes doesn't let him see them. So when he gets a chance they’re happy to see him and he is to.

What I learned from Brian was to stay in school no matter what. He messed up in high school and he fell behind a lot by hanging out with friends and sometimes skipping classes. Then he got his act together when LSNA helped him by giving him extra credit and gave him a job. So he told us to never give up because there's always still a chance to pass the classes that you're failing or need help in, like he did. Now he has his own job, he also lives in his own apartment and going to college.

                                                                                                                                                                  

Alonso Zaragoza

Alonso is one of the many people working in our community to make it better. He sits on local school councils and helps our students, and he’s a librarian in Chicago helping out the community. He takes a lot of his time to help others. Alonso lives in the neighborhood of Blackhawk Park. In his community, he thinks the biggest injustice is that the people under age are discriminated because of their age. He thinks under age people should be taught how to be leaders because in 10 to 20 years from now their going to be the people running the communities.

Alonso ran for office last year against Berrios and lost. He was close to winning but Berrios won by a couple votes. Alonso also does a lot of political work in our community. Alonso also helped out Miguel de Valle when he ran for mayor. Alonso helped out Miguel de Valle because he only lives a few blocks from his house. He had fun, it was a city wide campaign. They lost but made a lot of friends.

In high school Alonso went to two schools: Lane Tech and Kelvyn Park. He lived really far from Lane Tech and he also held down a job while being a student, which was really hard for him. He had to help pay bills and work while studying. Alonso ended up graduating from Lane Tech. Alonso in high school had perfect attendance he got really good grades and was always willing to do his work. In college Alonso also had financial problems so he went to UIC and graduated there because it saved him a lot of money.

The goals Alonso wanted to accomplish in life was to get married, have a family, and Alonso wants to also be a congressman. But if that goal cannot be accomplished, he would like to be an alderman or just in political work. Alonso twelve years ago ended up helping the Illinois Dream Act. He went with a big group of people to Springfield to cities that are on train tracks trying to get some rights for documenting families and friends that was one of the biggest successes he’s had.

The  things Alonso likes about his job is that he gets to meet a lot of new people everyday. He has fun, and he also helps out our community in his job. One of Alonso’s heroes is Debra McCoy from LSNA. The reason she’s his hero is because she cares, she goes down to places to take pictures to document it and she gives people opportunities to be involved. Things he would like  to do for younger students if he had the money  is to open batting cages, open basketball courts something like a ymca but make it cheaper so more kids would come.

         I learned from Alonso that you can become a politician from just being a normal guy. As long as you strive to do what you want you can accomplish it. I also learned how important it is to help out your community and help the schools in it too. Alonso taught me if you put your effort into school you can be successful he worked and went to school which is pretty hard. If you try and never give up, things can go your way.

Gerardo Molina

 

Gerardo Molina is a student at Kelvyn Park High School. He is one of the many heroes helping to make a better community and a place for people. He helps students and his family to be successful and he learns new things from them too. He’s struggled during his high school years since he moved from Arizona, and he wants to make his high school a better school and better place for students who come or are going to come to Kelvyn Park High School.

One thing Gerardo Molina likes to do is work with LSNA. He helped people to register to vote for the election of 2012. It takes a lot of skills to do that like door knocking and going house to house talking to people that are barely waking up or basically in their underwear. It is awkward but you can’t get awkward with them cause it wouldn’t be right. Another thing he does is work with the Metro Community project that brings two different communities together--the KP community and the New Trier community in the suburbs of Winnetka. Another thing he does is work with a group of student citywide student organization that is called Chicago Student Organization which he’s part of. In CSO the work they do is to help students who have struggled in life or have problems .

Gerardo came from Arizona He graduated 8th grade and then came to Chicago where everything was new to him. Some struggles he faced as a student was being alone and meeting new friends in freshman year. He didn’t know anybody, only his cousin but she was a senior and they barely saw each other because of their grade level. The other thing was trusting people because he didn’t know them, but they were friendly. As time passed and he met new friends and they were actually nice because they accepted him the way he was without thinking bad or saying he was different. During his freshman year he heard about an organization called LSNA. He enjoyed it and it helped him because he got to met more friends and it got everyone to know each other that was in his English class. He accomplished big things in school. One was to make new friends and another for making his parents proud of him because they always told him to do good in school and he did a good job.

  Another thing Gerardo wants to change is his high school. Gerardo wants to make it a better place for students. One thing he would like to change is the students’ library and student resources because some students don’t have access to a computer at home and they need to do their homework or projects but some students who want to use the computer at school they can’t because a teacher has reserved the computer lab already. Another thing is when other schools are compare to ours, we can say we should wear uniform and have everyone wear the same thing and we will look more formal, and not wearing different other colors. Gerardo thinks having a uniform policy like this would be a good idea.

Gerardo has many people in his life that have helped him become a better person. His heroes would be his parents, his AVID teacher, and people who would try to do their best and that won’t give up. One thing that inspired him was his avid teacher. She went  through a lot.  She had a baby and afterwards she was facing a divorce, but she was still the same teacher always teaching us very well, she wasn’t pretending to be in a different level as her students. When she wasn’t feeling good or was tired she would be like, “You know guys, I am tired and I don’t want to do anything.” She couldn't fake it like other teacher. In his early age his hero was his mom. She was prepared for anything. If she had to go out of her way she would. When he had major issues she would handle it. She will never deny anything to him because she wanted to help him and the rest of the family. For his little brother and sister she wanted them to have a better future and know what’s the right thing to do in life. In order for his parents to give them a better life they had to give her kids to a better person.

What I had learned from Gerardo Molina was a lot because his story is almost like mine. He had struggles with school but he accomplished a lot for himself. I learned not to give up and that in life we have to struggle to make something work whether if it takes time to make things better because at the end you will be proud of yourself. Working with the community and other people can make you a better person and make successes for you and your future and helping communities makes your world a better place. It’s important to speak up and never stay silent because what you have in mind may be something good for your community or work you’re doing. I learned to never let people judge you because the way you are you should be proud cause you're that person and know you can be something better in life and make good decisions and always look forward never look back.

Jessica Schneider A Community Hero

            Jessica Schneider is an amazing person. She was born in Germany, but she has spent most of her life in Chicago.  Most of her family is considered European. She works hard and happily, on a nonprofit for lawyers, as a staff attorney in educational and housing projects.  In her free time she likes to watch television and hang out with her friends. She loves the work she does, since it has helped a lot of people.

          Jessica works at The Chicago Lawyer Community, which is a nonprofit organization for lawyers. She has been working there for about 2 years. She started as a Civil Rights fellow. She would give advice about the peoples rights on expulsion and housing, but then she became a staff attorney. Her job consists now on educating people about their rights on housing discrimination and expulsion. This is done by reviewing the clients cases, and providing them an attorney that will help them with their case. She explains to the client, what they may be able to do, or have, by right and what they can't. Like for example, if a student is going through some sort of school discipline, like expulsion. There's normally a hearing where you can be represented by someone, so if the student doesn't have someone that represent him/her at the hearing then she and others review the case, so that she can provide the student someone to represent him/her at the hearing. But even though she does this, she also has volunteered in workshops to helps them fill out the application for DACA (Deferred Action For Childhood Arrival). But there’s had been always lows and highs in Jessica’s working life.

         Some of the difficulties that Jessica had in her work have been the limitations of the law. “It’s hard to be a lawyer sometimes because you want to fix everything, but you are limited by what the law says.” Also, what is difficult for Jessica is that, “People tend to assume things that maybe or may not be true about certain things just because they saw it on TV and it’s hard sometimes to make them understand the reality.” But either way, there’s been some good cases about discrimination that Jessica has won. Also there have been cases where she and others had found ways to solve the case without going to court since it could be really expensive and sometimes people don't have that money to afford it. But all these accomplishments have been done by all the inspiration she has from the community and the people around her.

Her biggest inspiration had been her parents. Since they have been spending their lives with their work as lawyers and trying to help people in many ways. That’s been really inspiring because she said that “To be able to be like the, and do do that type of work had been important to me.”  But not only that. She had found also inspiration in the people she works with. They have accomplished so many things and resolve so many cases, that she would like to follow in their steps. Also this is another form of inspiration to her. “It’s nice when someone thanks you for something. You feel like you helped somebody. But when I feel really tired, and I don't want to go to work, I think about those people.”  Thats why she does, what she does. To help others, and give them a better way of living by following in the steps of her heroes and the characteristics that makes them a hero.

    Even though she should be considered a hero by the community, she also considers other people as her heroes like her parents. They have been her role models, and heroes since she was little. They have worked hard to help others no matter what. For her, seeing her parents doing that, and dedicating their time to help those in need had guided her to be the person she is now. Because for her, heroes are people that do extraordinary things for others and are people that dedicate their life to help others in need. “Somebody who inspires you... somebody who you look up to. Something that an ordinary person wouldn't do. So that will make a person a hero,” she said.

That’s why Jessica is a hero in the community because she has expended most of her life helping others by the works she does. And she does this, day by day without complaining. She just loves to do it and that's really inspiring to see someone come in into a class and talk like that about her work with a lot of passion and happiness. That’s just really amazing. There's no words to describe that.

Being a lawyer may be really cool. Having the tools and skills that you need. In order to accomplish your goals and help others in any way you can. Help them to know their rights and fight for them, no matter what is the situation, maybe hard, but a really great experience.

 

Cristian Diaz

Cristian Diaz is one of the many people working to make our community a better place. He is 25 years old. He actually became part of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association by accident. One day he was walking and he saw a group of people that were part of the community and he asked them what they were doing and they told him and he thought it was interesting and he asked how can I be part of this and he has been part of the community ever since. Cristian mostly focuses on youths to make them become part of the community like going door to door to educate them about their community. He was raised as a Catholic and he graduated from Forline college. He got his degree in global studies which means studying in a global state.

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Cristian works with Logan Square Neighborhood Association in a community called Logan Square. What he does is educate people about the community, like what is  a bad thing if this happens and if it is good. He shows people that actually working in a community or together you can make a difference for the better. One of the the things Cristian has helped in is helping immigrants get their licences the way he achieved that goal was by knocking door to door and telling people what the government is doing to immigrant people and how unjust it is, and people started complaining and standing up for their rights.

Cristian's goal is trying to change racism and stop people from being prejudiced. Cristian thinks the reason why racism exists is because its so accepted in society and people find it as a way of life. Cristian only thinks white people can be racist because its a conflict of power. "Only white people can be racist, because racism involves an interplay between power, when one person has more power than the other." He also said that being prejudiced takes a big role in racism, and the reason for that is, "All they’re being shown is this fictional exaggerated character and that creates stereotypes." He thinks the first step in resolving this problem is by accepting there is a problem. Then that's when we can really make a difference and change or eliminate any forms of racism. He also thinks not only should we realize there is a problem, but the only way we can get rid of it is by working in solidarity.

Cristian mostly focuses on youth and he has done a lot of community service to benefit a lot of people. Cristian goes door to door to inform and educate people about the elections, the new mayor’s intentions so they can go out and vote to make our community better. Some people have never voted and he tries to let them know that every vote counts and sure that one vote may not make a big difference but if you get your friends and family to vote you may be able to make a bigger difference. Cristian tries to teach teens how to use their human rights and become a community leader in life and tries show them if they work hard in life they can be someone. By doing community services Cristian has achieve a lot of goals. He helped immigrants being able to get a license so they can be able to drive and he also stopped deportations in Chicago so families can stay together.

   

     Cristian considers his mom to be his hero because she struggled a lot in life. His mom got pregnant when she was sixteen and they kicked her out of the house because they were a really Catholic family and that brought disgrace to the family. She was homeless for a while but somehow she still manage to bring him to this country to get all the opportunities he could not get in Mexico. "She made me the man I am today because of her,” and he is very proud of that. Cristian knows it wasn't easy for his mom to take care of him because of her situation but she never gave up and kept going that's why he takes every opportunity to the fullest.

   

    Cristian opened my eyes to see how racism affects our community and how we need to change it for the best. I no longer want not to do anything for my community. I actually think I can make a difference and help it grow. He made me appreciate my mom more than I do because I don't know the struggles she's been through to be in the place she is today and for that I thank her. I want to be not only a part of my community but the world. I want to be a leader and inspiration and a hero to look up to. Now I appreciate more people who do stuff for my and the communities benefit.

     

   

    

Stacy Erenberg

Stacy Erenberg is a community hero who does Chinese medicine in Chicago. She enjoys singing and writing her own music, and in her free time she plays two minute shows with one of her friends. Her mom is Black from New Orleans, and her dad is Russian and Romanian Jew. She has a husband, but she likes to refer to him as a partner so people can interpret it how they would like when she’s talking about him. Stacy also enjoys doing community work and working with kids.

She owns her own business called Sage Community Health Collective located in Logan Square. Sage Community Health Collective is a sliding skill acupuncture bodywork clinic that provides affordable healings. She does Chinese massages and has two business partners who do acupuncture. They work with needles to restore chi (energy) in your body. This is just one of the many things she does for the community.

In her work as a community organizer  she did a lot of youth work. “I love working with young people, I think it was really fun and creative.” She is an ally for Voices of Youth in Chicago Education and was a part of a big project at Senn High School. She did anti-violence work to end violence between women and girls. She also studied social justice in college, where she learned all about being a hero.

Stacy believes that a hero is someone who gets up and does their job everyday. A hero is someone who risks their lives everyday. Most importantly, she also thinks that everyone on this earth is an hero for not being killed off. She also thinks that youth are heroes because they have it so hard just  growing up in this time period because of all the injustices like the prison industrial complex and government interferences, these feeling has lead her to believe in different types of governments.  

She believes in many different types of government. She would take different things from different governments to  make her idea of a perfect government. She thinks that the government is the way that it is to keep the rich, rich. “People have this idea that money brings security, when really people just want to hurt you more... more money more problems.” She strongly believes that we need a new justice system because throwing people in jail just isn't working anymore. She thinks we should try and get to the core of the problem, and have the person doing the crime learn from their mistakes and teach others that applaud their crime that it’s wrong. She thinks guns aren't bad but she doesn't think they’re good either, but she definitely wants gun control.

Stacy help me see that the world isn't just black and white.  She taught me that money can't solve all problems in life and that sometimes money causes more problems. She helped me see just how unjust the prison industrial complex is, and inspired me to try and change it. She showed me that helping others is good and you can benefit from it as well. Stacy inspired me to help my community, that is why she is a community hero.

Lucy Gomez

Lucy Gomez works at Logan Square Neighborhood Association. She’s an artist and she enjoys taking pictures and was a journalist and worked on the newspaper in high school at Clemente. Her peers referred to her as “the person who took pictures.” As an artist she needs to practice and if she doesn’t, she feels as if “she’s starving and her soul is starving” because she needs art to be fulfilled and if she doesn’t do it she feels incomplete. She went to Lafayette for elementary and Touie for middle school. She has a daughter who she’s guiding through life and teaching her right from wrong and about growing up. She also takes care of her eighty five year old mother. She loves gardening and it’s another one of her passions. She likes to help inform parents and kids about the dangers of childhood obesity.

Lucy’s involved with avoiding childhood obesity, and she helps kids and parents help make more healthier choices. She wants to teach kids that eating healthy will benefit them. She uses her artistic creativity to find solutions to problems. She thinks outside the box in order to look for solutions that help everyone. She wants to change the things the school and park districts do because she feels they’re not doing a good job. She feels your attitude is one of the keys to a successful life. “You can be the smart person with bad attitude that doesn’t open doors for you.” She thinks everyone is born equal.

“We’re not perfect and you’re not better than anyone else so your value system is key to life.” She believes a good character is good for a successful life. She wants to change the park and school districts policies. She wants to try and please everyone because she knows that people will disagree with her. So it’s a little hard trying to please everyone when some people don’t like change. For instance, the school closings are causing panic because parents are worrying where their children will have to go and if they’ll be safe.

Lucy thinks the schools closing down is a bad move and she knows no city has closed that many schools down at one time. She thinks some schools might have to close down so they can be efficient with money. “Has the school district met with the community?” She’s concerned about how thats going to affect the kids education. “I think it’s gonna come back and bite them if they succeed (in closing all the schools). It’s gonna hurt more than help.” She thinks the school closings will cause more problems rather than fix it. She pays attention to how other people do things whether they are helping or not.

Her heroes were people she knew personally and had an experience with them. They were regular people she looked up to. She thinks there’s a lot of injustices in the world and if she can latch on to one injustice and make a difference, she’ll feel like she did her part and everyone should do their part. She wants to make the world better for people who’ve been treated badly and don’t have resources for education. So she wants to create new opportunities for people who are struggling to have access on some education.

Lucy helped me see that following your dreams and participating and helping as much as you can can help you get far in life. She also helped me see family will always be there for support and some people don’t have it so you’ll have to be that person to help support. That no matter what skin color, language you speak, or what religion you follow, we are all alike and born equal.