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.