Pilsen Artists’ March Against Violence in the Hood
The August heat was in full blazes as the protesters gathered at the Juarez High School yard. Over 200 artists, parents, motorcyclists, bicyclers, teens, children and officials were uniting with handmade signs, drums and demonstration materials, with the most unsettling being the actual coffin brought by a local funeral director who stated she had buried over 200 women, children, sons, and daughters killed by gang violence over the past 10 years. The coffin was pink, and where a corpse would lie there was a mirror, insinuating, “You could be next.”
Chicago artist Michael Hernandez de Luna organized the march, and opened the demonstration with an address to the gathered demonstrators saying, “Remember, YOU are the community.” A local priest offered a prayer and the march began in a parade going north on Ashland. The parade then proceeded to 18th Street at Blue Island where Jeff Maldonado, Jr. was fatally shot in the head while driving east on 18th Street. The parade paused and there was a moment of silence; then came words from Jeff Maldonado, Sr., who’s son, known by his friends as ‘J-Def,’ was the one shot and killed last week on 18th street in Pilsen. “This is a moment my wife and I never wished to experience,” said Maldonado, Sr.
The marchers moved eastward on 18th Street stopping again. This time it was the place where the wounded Jeff Maldonado, Jr. crashed to a halt as he died from the fatal shot to his head. Another moment of silence, and the march moved on amid drumming and shouting, “Stop killing our friends”, “Keep our Streets Safe,” and “Peace in Pilsen Now.”
After about a 2-mile walk in boiling heat, the people gathered one last time at the Dvorak Park Field house steps, nearby a place where gang-related gunfire killed a two-year-old child a few years ago. Last moments of silence and a prayer, the protestors were thanked with words from Hernandez, Mr. & Mrs. Maldonado, and a few of J-Def’s friends. “He was my toughest student,” said his dad. “We lost a son but we gained all of you. We have to make this change and we will.” Choking back the tears, Jeff’s mother added, “I had no idea how many people he touched when he went out the door. You are all keeping me strong. I see him in all of you.”
The Maldonados and other local artists are planning more “Stop the Violence” art campaigns to take place in Pilsen in the coming months to help express the urgent need for change in the Pilsen neighborhood. If more programs for art and expression are available then more youth can hopefully bypass gang violence. Peace could then return to all of Pilsen and other Chicago neighborhoods once and for all. Artists can express what so many cannot even say, but it is a universal understanding the loss one feels when their son or daughter is killed. More art programs in neighborhoods like Pilsen will give more children a safe place to grow up. Let there be more.
By Diane Green
