Monuments Honoring Latina History Coming to Pilsen | Latino Voices | …

It’s not hard to find monuments of people and events in Chicago, but very few of them were created by the people living in the communities they stand in. As part of the Chicago Monuments Project, which allocated funding from the Mellon Foundation, the Pilsen Latina Histories Monuments Project is beginning the process of creating monuments that represent a fuller spectrum of history depicted by the Latinas who lived it.

University of Illinois-Springfield professor Hinda Seif said the idea of commemorating Latina activism in Pilsen was inspired by the book “Chicanas of 18th Street: Narratives of a Movement from Latino Chicago” by Leonard G. Ramírez.

“We received two grants,” Seif said. “The first grant was to mostly do planning, but we also have a couple of temporary monuments that we’re really excited about doing. One of them is elevating and celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mujeres Latinas en Accion, a really important Latino organization that was started in 1973….