LITTLE VILLAGE — Town’s largest Mexican Independence Day parade, held on Little Village’s twenty sixth Road, carried on Sunday with out a hitch regardless of the federal authorities’s immigration enforcement efforts within the metropolis.
1000’s of revelers packed the sidewalks for the twenty sixth Road Mexican Independence Day Parade, waving flags and blowing plastic horns. In stark distinction to the muffled turnout for Saturday evening’s usually raucous automotive caravan celebrations, Sunday’s parade didn’t disappoint with a crowd solely barely smaller than typical, a number of parade-goers mentioned.
“I believe folks simply really feel extra snug going out in the course of the day after they’re surrounded by folks in the neighborhood,” mentioned Damaris, who attended each Saturday and Sunday’s celebrations. “I’ve relations afraid to exit at evening — afraid of the police, so it is sensible that there weren’t as many individuals out [Saturday]. We actually have to only preserve checking on one another.”
The parade kicked off at midday Sunday on the Little Village Arch, 3123 W. twenty sixth St., earlier than marching west in the direction of Kostner Avenue, concluding round 2:00 p.m. The parade featured a range floats, reside music, native advocacy teams and even a number of teams of Vaqueros on horseback.
Name and responses of “Viva Mexico!” echoed via the streets.
The 54th annual Little Village parade befell as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is endeavor Operation Halfway Blitz, an effort to conduct immigration raids and arrests in Chicago. The efforts may have been timed to coincide with celebrations of the vacation, that are held in mid-September, native officers mentioned.
El Grito Fest, held in Grant Park in honor of Mexican Independence Day, was canceled as a result of ICE efforts.
Officers with the Little Village parade vowed to hold on their custom as “nearly like an act of resistance,” Jennifer Aguilar, government director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, beforehand mentioned.
Some parade-goers held anti-ICE indicators alongside the route. There have been no reported sightings of ICE or different federal brokers on the occasion.
Rep. Chuy Garcia, who represents a lot of Chicago’s Hispanic neighborhood in Congress, helped lead the parade alongside different progressive Latino elected officers within the metropolis. He spoke to reporters shortly earlier than the parade started and lambasted President Donald Trump’s administration and its remedy of immigrants in Chicago.
“[Celebrating today] is a vital assertion that reveals that we have now been right here for over 100 years as a neighborhood,” Garcia mentioned. “We now have mates and allies and individuals who love us throughout this metropolis. … We’ll proceed to reside a standard existence and to be who we’re and to proceed to like and share every thing that we’re as a folks with the remainder of our metropolis.”
Much like the earlier weekend’s Pilsen Mexican Independence parade, marshals skilled in speedy response methods had been stationed all through the twenty sixth Road parade route within the occasion of an ICE recognizing.
Representatives from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights had been current on the parade Sunday. The group is devoted to making a community of sources for these beneath the specter of immigration enforcement actions and stories ICE sightings from across the state.
“Chicago and the state has an extended historical past of welcoming folks,” Government Director Lawrence Benito mentioned. “Whether or not it was folks shifting north within the Nice Migration, or immigrants coming from everywhere in the world — we need to proceed to ensure that Chicago stays a welcoming metropolis for everyone. We simply need to present folks that this metropolis helps our immigrants, particularly proper now.”
Members of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Electrical Staff Native 134 Chapter marched within the parade and represented the Organized Hispanics Making Strides group, highlighting the contributions Latino-Individuals make to the labor drive in Chicago and past. It was the union’s first 12 months being represented within the parade, member Frank Rodriguez mentioned.
“I’m a 3rd technology IPEW electrician,” Rodriguez mentioned. “My grandfather, my father, all his uncles, all his cousins, all my uncles, they’re all electricians. Mexicans in my household have been celebrating this parade for an extended, very long time – however we haven’t been in it. So, seeing seeing the turnout and seeing this involvement from all of the members is improbable.”
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