Communities and Cultures Seminar

Besides an internship, the Communities and Culture Seminar is a large portion of your experience in Chicago. As I am typing this reflecting on my experience, it may be September, but lets take a trip to the end of June. We are now two weeks into our seminar and have attended class in Paseo Boricua and in Andersonville. We have met numerous people who are significant figures in their communities and in Chicago. We have taken tours of the largest LBGTQ center in the country, sat through a news conference with city political figures, and toured communities I never would have ventured out alone to find.

Paseo Boricua: 
Paseo Boricua is a Puerto Rican community in Chicago that has been facing a large issue lately: gentrification. We were lucky enough to be able to sit through a news conference that brought in important figures from Puerto Rican countries as well as Chicagoans. We also got to try Puerto Rican breakfast food, which is delicious! It was similiar to American breakfast food: eggs and sausage were served but we also had chicken and pudding. A large part of the seminar is experiencing the foods of other cultures and I am glad we ad the chance to experience that in Paseo Boricua. We then had the opportunity to tour the neighborhood and learn about the history and culture of it. Paseo Boricua is facing gentrification and are trying to defy it by promoting the culture of all South American countries, not just Puerto Rico! We learned how much adversity Puerto Ricans have faced over the years in America and on their island as being apart of the United States. Within the next few months, the downtown will be featuring flags of all South American countries and a museum will be built to show the history of Paseo Boricua and those who have lived there. There are murals throughout the neighborhood showing the annual parade that takes place that celebrates the culture of Puerto Rico. We also visited a park that had a very unique design, the Puerto Rican flag was on the cement, how cool! This park also had a fresh garden with fresh strawberries, how delicious is that!

Andersonville/Boystown:

Another seminar class we completed was in Boystown and Andersonville, also known as the gay and LBGTQ neighborhoods of Chicago, We were lucky enough to attend our seminar here the same day that same-sex marriage became legalized! This was especially touching because our tour guide has placed a very significant role in this community and was receiving congratulations by almost everybody we passed by on the street.  This experience was one of my favorites while we were in Chicago because we saw so many happy, enthusiastic people out walking around and celebrating the good news. We participated in a Legacy Walk along Halsted Street which was about a two hour walk and we learned about all the influential LBGTQ community members that have made a difference and have now been put up on this walk so others can learn about their significant accomplishments! We also met with a good friend of Scott's, who taught us how intiate conversation about issues surrounding the LBGTQ community and how to talk about it. This meeting took place in the Center on Halsted, which is the largest LBGTQ community center in the midwest. It is a safe haven for those of the LBGTQ community, it is quite beautiful if you ask me! 

The seminar has been a great experience so far and I am only looking forward to learning more as the summer semester continues on!