Chicago’s Latino community is a historically overlooked player in local politics but is expected to be important in the mayoral race, with U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García the perceived beneficiary.
Mayoral candidate U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García greets people Jan. 8 as he arrives for a campaign event at Playas Nayaritas in Belmont Cragin.restaurant in Belmont Cragin, a crowd ebbed and flowed around U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García.
García was born in Durango, Mexico, before moving as a boy to what is now the Mexican immigrant enclave Little Village. He became an alderman in 1986, joining a multiracial coalition against the white City Council members who opposed Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, in what became known as the Council Wars. After he lost his first run for mayor in 2015, García was elected to Congress and has grown his base beyond the Southwest Side.
Under Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration, the Hispanic Democratic Organization — derisively known as the Hispanic Daley Organization — feuded with García and his allies. Top Latino officials, including U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, supported Rahm Emanuel against García in 2015. Dominguez and others point out, though, that older voters — especially property owners — are more likely to support an increased police presence, while younger voters tend to lean more toward police alternatives.
Candidate and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas said he expects to do well with Latino voters “because of my longtime position on public safety, because of my work in and because I’m speaking to an issue right now that is just having a devastating impact on largely the Latino communities: getting just killed by gentrification, with higher property taxes.”
At the same debate, Ald. Sophia King, 4th, echoed other mayoral candidates who claimed Lightfoot was ill-prepared to cope with the recent influx of migrants. “Being a sanctuary city is not the problem,” King said. “We can’t be welcoming to the migrants and not the people who are here in our city already. That is where the tension lies.”
“It’s hard, because ‘Chuy’ García is somebody that is part of my community by proxy of identity,” said Gonzalez. “However, just because someone shares an identity with me, that doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily speaking for me. … Brandon Johnson aligns more on what would be meeting the needs, specifically, of the Latinx community in Chicago in a way that maybe ‘Chuy’ García is a little out of touch with.
On a recent morning, state Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner, another mayoral candidate, walked down 26th Street in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood and spoke about crime with street vendors.“They’re spooked,” he later told the Tribune. “They don’t know that there’s a real plan for their safety. ...
In a statement, mayoral candidate Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, said he has heard from Latino aldermen and voters that housing affordability is a top concern. “We have to build and designate more affordable housing, and look at programs to offer property tax abatement to homeowners who have been in these neighborhoods for several generations.”
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