A Walk Around The Neighborhood

by Katie Flood

This week, the Chicago Semester students all participated in the Pilsen Plunge. Basically, we spent our class day touring through Pilsen. I am one of the six girls who chose to live in La Casa student housing in Pilsen, so for me this was a great chance to explore my own neighborhood.

The day started off with a lecture from Maria Bucio, who works with La Casa as a part of The Resurrection Project. We all learned about why and how La Casa was formed, and the extreme effort they take to help their residents succeed in college.

We then headed on a mural tour of Pilsen. Pilsen is covered with murals that show the history and culture of the neighborhood. We went to a school down the street from La Casa that showed different historical figures in Mexican history. They were painted on the panels of windows by students at the school. This was my favorite part of the day because I learned a lot about the murals that I did not know before.

As the day went on, we went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and listened to a speaker talk about the history of the Pilsen neighborhood. It was interesting to see how much Pilsen has changed over the past few decades.

Our last stop was the National Museum of Mexican Art, where we had a tour of the Day of the Dead exhibit. We looked at all of the different altars and Day of the Dead themed paintings. I was particularly struck by the altar honoring the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy. This altar featured the faces of all of the victims, with a mirror on the the bottom, reflecting the faces of featured above. The tiled mirror was lined with rolled green scrolls, which we later learned were prayers that had been written by the students from the school that created the altar. I was touched by this method of honoring those who were lost in such a tragic event. 

The Pilsen Plunge made me stop and think about how very little I know about the neighborhood that I live in. I told myself that I was going to make more of an effort to explore my area while I am here.

Two of my apartment-mates and I decided that we were going to take a walk around our neighborhood after we got back from our internships. We picked a direction that we don’t normally go down on 18^th street, and found many small little shops, restaurants, and even a small grocery store just down the street from our apartment building. It’s amazing what you find when you just head a little bit away from your normal route, not to mention I can now go to that small market for some basic produce when I don’t feel like walking to Jewel or Cermak Fresh Market.

I really appreciate living in a neighborhood that continues to blow my mind. I’m excited to continue to explore during my time here in Chicago.