CHICAGO – Two pals are reviving an occasion sequence that gives Latinx households in Chicago with an intergenerational neighborhood to share their data and experiences.
Noemi Roman and Valeria Ramirez based Habláme de Ti in 2023, a platform that organizes culturally related occasions for the Latinx neighborhood, significantly for fogeys who immigrated to the US to expertise “what their kids get to reside, because of their sacrifices,” stated Ramirez.
“Often occasions are made for us – the Latino child, English language [speaker]. However then, we neglect about these experiences for our mother and father,” Ramirez, who immigrated to Chicago together with her mother and father when she was 9, advised Block Membership.
After a break, the 2 pals are again to organizing occasions that supply moments of pleasure to Latinx households at a time when neighborhood is so necessary, they stated.
Roman and Ramirez met in 2011 by the Gamma Phi Omega Worldwide Sorority whereas learning at DePaul College.
Roman, a first-generation Latina from Albany Park, describes herself as naturally curious and desirous to study from others or attempt new issues — “a curious chismosa.”
Ramirez, who grew up close to Halfway Airport, is well-informed and concerned with the Latinx neighborhood, like “a database” of information, Roman stated.
For years, the 2 pals traveled collectively and attended cultural and neighborhood occasions all through town, the place they usually seen few others who appeared like them within the crowd. Different occasions, the occasions have been inaccessible to older Latinos whose first language isn’t English, Roman stated.
“We might at all times be the one Latinas in an area that we want that we might share with different individuals,” Roman stated. “We might go to occasions and be like ‘I want my mother might expertise this.’”
These gaps, coupled with their pursuits and personalities, impressed them to create Háblame de Ti. The duo’s first occasion was a stroll that took attendees to a few of their favourite spots in Pilsen, together with the studio of native muralist Hector Duarte, whose work showcases the immigrant expertise. The occasion additionally served as a coat drive for brand spanking new arrivals.
Roman remembers Duarte welcomed about 10 attendees to his studio, talking and joking in Spanish. That made mother and father really feel welcome and recognized, to really feel that “he’s certainly one of us,” Roman stated.
Strolling by Pilsen additionally supplied alternatives for Latino mother and father to see town by their children’ eyes and go to locations they’d by no means been, even after a long time of calling Chicago house.
“For me, one of many greatest moments of that stroll was once we stopped on the Joan Sebastian mural and my mother — who has been right here for greater than 30 years — was like ‘I’ve solely seen this on TV,’” Ramirez stated.
Ramirez and Roman associate with native organizations or companies to prepare free or low-cost occasions that expose Latinos to new experiences and other people, showcase Latino-owned companies and create alternatives for them to share and really feel secure, they stated.
Previous Háblame de Ti occasions have featured actions corresponding to a paint and sip brunch in Spanish, an grownup “present and inform” for individuals to speak about one thing they love or need others to know, a Father’s Day mountain climbing outing and a tea ceremony.
At every occasion, Ramirez and Roman stated they’ve seen mother and father, millennials or youthful generations studying one thing new or attempting one thing for the primary time, they stated. Some attendees have change into pals, leaning on one another at a time when many immigrant households fear about federal immigration insurance policies, Ramirez stated.
“Once we hear these little issues taking place at every occasion, that’s the explanation we do it,” she stated. “However I believe that in the end, it’s simply to be in neighborhood.”
The following Háblame de Ti occasion on March 8 will invite attendees to affix an artwork class led by first-generation artist and illustrator Isabel Cambray. Extra particulars will be introduced on social media.
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