Chicago Sun-Times

Take in a DePaul soccer game from the L

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 02:35:11 -0500

Once in a while something breaks up the dreariness of an elevated train ride. Almost everyone aboard the L sure looks like they need it. Some wear tired expressions from putting in a long workday, or maybe they are dreading one. Those lost in the music chiming through their earbuds or buried in their newspapers or Kindles sometimes seem annoyed by the comings and goings of other passengers. Riding the L is a noisy experience, and the platforms from which we board or exit are narrow, grimy and sometimes smelly (I’m thinking of the stairwells at the Clark and Lake …

Trusty landline phones will be missed

Sun, 22 Sep 2013 02:36:28 -0500

About 20 years ago, I had a cellular phone that probably weighed close to five pounds. It was a clunky thing in a large case, and I paid $9.99 for a service plan. It traveled in my clunky car for emergency purposes. Whenever the car broke down, and it often did, I used that phone to call tow trucks. Since then, technology has brought cellphones a long way, and we have fallen hard for the crisp, colorful monitors of cellphones, but especially smartphones for their ability to keep us connected to the world almost all the time. According to the …

Latinos creating jobs at rapid pace

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 02:34:41 -0500

BY MARLEN GARCIA. There are about 3 million Latino-owned small businesses in the U.S., according to the chamber, up from 2.3 million in 2007. They make up the fastest-growing group of business owners. Their economic output is worth hundreds of billions.

Controversial Payton book worth reading

Sun, 01 Sep 2013 02:39:46 -0500

Some members of the Chicago news media and Mike Ditka verbally trashed the book without reading it. A New York Times best-seller, the book has been largely shunned in Chicago. That’s a shame because it is without a doubt worth reading.

Kids spread the joy through music

Sun, 25 Aug 2013 17:32:00 -0500

Sometime in grade school my classmates and I were introduced to musical instruments. For many of us playing the clarinet or flute was just a daydream. We could never ask our parents for lessons, even free instruction, because buying or renting an instrument went beyond our financial means. Anyone who grew up in a family strapped for cash knows what I’m talking about. For more than 20 years at Holy Cross-Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Back of the Yards, kids who would otherwise have no shot at exploring their musical talents have thrived playing the marimba, a percussion instrument …

Giving the hazards of football a closer look

Sun, 25 Aug 2013 17:20:55 -0500

August is a time to enjoy the dog days of summer when Chicago has them, back-to-school sales and the start of football. That assumes you can still stomach football. Every year it gets harder for me to do so. On many fronts, the sports is unsettling. Let’s start with youth football. “Why does Pop Warner exist,” an orthopedist asked me once, referring to the popular youth football league. It was a rhetorical question. “For the parents,” the doctor said. Boys who are 7 or 8 probably wouldn’t give the game a second thought if their parents didn’t talk it up. …

Latinos can save a compadre’s life

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 09:38:09 -0500

Encarnacion Roldan, a sergeant for the Cook County sheriff, has a reputation among police officers for being a strict supervisor. That’s what officer Pamela Walker told me last week when we talked about Roldan, 51. “He’s militant,” she said. “He wants you in proper uniform and you had better be punctual.” She is also familiar with Roldan’s softer side that makes him popular among cops. When an officer loses a loved one or becomes ill, Roldan is the first to pass around a card and start a collection to offset costs of services. The sergeant has gotten to know plenty …

Biggest Asian-based festival in Midwest highlights Korean culture

Sat, 27 Jul 2013 22:24:01 -0500

Long before South Korean sensation Psy went viral with his hit song and dance “Gangnam Style,” Korean pop music had a following in the U.S. It’s known as K-pop, and it will have a heavy presence Aug. 10 and 11 at the 18th annual Chicago Korean Festival. The festival is a reminder of how Korea Town once thrived. Over the years, the hassles of running a business in Chicago as well as a limited selection of quality public schools drove Korean immigrants to the near north suburbs. Each year, the festival brings many back. It is billed as the biggest …

Saying goodbye to Nelson Mandela

Sun, 21 Jul 2013 19:12:01 -0500

The celebration last week of Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday came with beautiful tributes, including moving praise for South Africa’s first black president from children throughout his country. On the same day, President Jacob Zuma said in an optimistic statement that doctors had confirmed Mandela’s health was steadily improving though he remained hospitalized. Mandela has been critically ill and in the hospital for more than 40 days because of a lung infection, the latest among many hospitalizations in the last year. Since he entered the hospital there have been conflicting reports, some making death seem imminent and others signaling he will …

Customs raid was an overreaction

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 02:15:46 -0500

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is more commonly known for its abbreviated term, ICE, and it is a fitting, chilling acronym. ICE sends shivers down the spines of immigrants who have entered or stayed in the country illegally and fear being deported to their home country. Some say that’s OK because such people are not appropriately documented to be in this country. But it’s important to point out that fear of ICE isn’t felt by the undocumented alone. That’s why Latino aldermen, activists and business owners lashed out last week at a joint operation by ICE and the Cook County …

TEENS INVESTIGATE IMMIGRATION STORIES

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 02:14:33 -0500

Jerica Tan is 15 and fully aware of her father’s successful career as an expert in infectious diseases. Her dad finished high school early in Singapore and at 16 enrolled at Duke University to launch his studies in the field. But until last week, Tan never considered what her dad left behind when he immigrated to the United States. “I never looked at my father as an immigrant,” she said during a break from a workshop at DePaul for International Baccalaureate students in Chicago Public Schools as well as Trinity, Tan’s high school in River Forest. The annual weeklong summer …

A Pilsen hub falls by the wayside

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 02:12:13 -0500

The colorful multistory building at 1831 S. Racine, once a Hull House settlement home, has housed dance troupes, artists, community activists, citizenship classes and, more recently, a computer lab. Its exterior walls and parts of the interior are covered by murals and portraits of historical figures such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. In the early 1900s, long before Pilsen’s Mexican muralist movement, the building was named Howell Neighborhood House. It served Eastern European immigrants, the neighborhood’s majority back then. Amid an influx of Mexican residents more than 40 years ago, the building was renamed Casa Aztlan and for decades …

Trying to kill immigration bill

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:14:36 -0500

The Senate debate on immigration last week quickly turned chilling. Toxic doses of gamesmanship and ego filtered in through proposed amendments to the bill. The amendments range from silly to absurd. They would further distance undocumented immigrants from the legalization process, but that seems to be the goal for some senators. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) wants to halt the legalization of undocumented immigrants after a required 10-year wait if border security fails to meet potentially unattainable standards. He might as well say he is against immigration reform. His plan would effectively kill it, which is why some, including Sen. John …

A lifetime of helping others

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:57:23 -0500

My recent visit to the small, nondescript office of the Little Village Community Council on 26th Street was briefly interrupted by a local businessman looking for August Sallas, the council president. The man told Sallas he knew of two area residents down on their luck and in need of financial assistance with gas and electric bills. “I know someone who can help with that,” Sallas said, pulling a name and number from a seemingly endless list of connections. In this case he directed the man to someone who assists the poor with applications for utility company hardship programs. Whether a …

Commemorating Latin America’s role as Holocaust refuge

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 02:17:17 -0500

Years ago, while working for the Holocaust Museum in Houston, Christina Chavarria gave a radio interview about the history and relevance of the mass murder of Jews under the Nazis. Later she received a startling message from an angry listener. “He asked why I was working on Jewish people when my own are being prejudiced against,” Chavarria told me now. “That phone call started making me think. Is there something in the history of the Holocaust that speaks to Latinos?” The atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust should be enough to make it relevant forever. But Chavarria, in her seventh …

Kirk says little on immigration

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 02:14:44 -0500

The U.S. Senate, controlled by Democrats, probably can pass comprehensive immigration reform this summer without support from Republican Sen. Mark Kirk. But he should give it. He is, after all, senator of a state with the sixth-largest immigrant population in the country. So far, he has said little about reform, and most of his comments have centered on border security. “Sen. Kirk has long said that any immigration reform proposal must first restore the American people’s confidence in their government’s ability to control the border,” spokesman Lance Trover said in an email. “Once that confidence is restored, Sen. Kirk believes …

Marlen Garcia: Why Latinos look so white on TV

Mon, 27 May 2013 19:02:23 -0500

If you watch a Spanish-language telenovela or buy a Latino celebrity magazine, you will see beautiful actors and models. Almost all of them will be Latin Americans with light skin color. I was reminded of this last month by reader Ted Manuel of Hyde Park. He wrote in an email: “The spectrum of complexions in real life ranges from ivory to rich brown. So why is it that in every telenovela and in the photos of every magazine I’ve seen showcasing the star of the moment, or the singer of the moment, they are uniformly white? “The pattern is too …

Students stiffed on college aid

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:15:01 -0500

Back in January I wrote about the Illinois Dream Fund nonprofit and its initiative to raise money through private donations and award college scholarships to undocumented Illinois students in need of financial aid. This was significant because by law undocumented students cannot receive taxpayer-based assistance. Financial assistance via government-funded pell grants and state-sponsored tuition waivers is out of the question. The students can, however, receive financial aid through private groups, and this is where the Dream Fund enters the picture. In August 2011, Gov. Pat Quinn signed the Illinois Dream Act, appointed a commission and established the fund to raise …