Cheers of “Viva La Raza” and “Viva Mexico” echoed down East Wacker Drive, bouncing off the skyscrapers back to students dressed in red, green and white stationed in front of Trump Tower. Roughly 100 students spilled into the street Tuesday afternoon, using time when they would typically be in class to celebrate Hispanic culture and to denounce the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago.
The student-organized rally came amid reports that the agency is conducting a sweep across the city and the Chicago area. Over a dozen people were arrested as of Monday, the day before Mexico’s national day of independence and the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month. These arrests and ICE’s presence in the city were the center of many signs students held up, whether they were words written on cardboard or loose-leaf notebook paper taped onto textbooks.
Between the chants of “No ICE” and “No one wants deportation,” students honored Mexican heritage as they played popular songs and did the “Pasayo de rodeo,” a collective group dance often done at parties.
Students from Chicago Public Schools around the city attended the rally, which was organized in part by UIC College Prep High School student Sofia Martinez, 16. The idea came from a lack of awareness within schools, she said.
“I realized a lot of the schools weren’t doing much to organize or to help spread much awareness,” Martinez said. “A lot of my friends have family members who are scared to be outside. And if no one’s going to say anything, we need to do something about it.”
The news of the event spread from school to school after Martinez made a social media account to get the word out about it, she said. The attendance of students from multiple schools indicated to Rauner College Prep student Oscar Salas, 18, how the topic of ICE detention unites schools despite their differences.
“I feel like it shows how much students truly do fear what could happen, like, we all have similarities about us losing our family members, friends, close ones,” Salas said. “I do believe that this really does push that (difference) to the side and we can all really put that to the side and support one another.”
After having firsthand experience and struggles with ICE, he said, it was important for Salas to come to the rally to stand by his community. His generation and other youth are “not all about violence,” which is the way he feels they are perceived, Salas said.
“I think that this is a prime example that shows that everyone just wants to be positive, we don’t want any violence,” he said. “We just want everyone to be happy.”
Aether Garcia, a 16-year-old student who attends Curie Metropolitan High School on the city’s Southwest Side, held one end of a Mexican flag at the rally. She was there to support people who are afraid to leave their homes because of ICE or might not have legal status, she said.
“I’m speaking for those who cannot speak, who don’t have papers,” Garcia said. “ICE has people hiding in their house. It’s kind of like back in the day when people were hiding from the Nazis and I really don’t think that sits well because people shouldn’t live under fear that they’re going to be kidnapped and taken away from their children and family members even though they came here to find a better life.”
Mexican Independence Day celebrations have been quieter this year compared to previous, Garcia said, which makes her feel like “everyone’s hiding away” due to fear. Both Pilsen and Little Village’s Mexican Independence Day celebrations had lower turnout than usual the past two weekends.
Adults are afraid to take a stance right now against ICE, especially those who are at risk of being detained, Garcia said. That’s why it’s important the students speak out, she added.
“If it’s not us, who is it going to be?” Garcia said. “And if we all have the same mentality of, ‘oh, someone else is going to do it’, no one is going to do it.”