Grantee Spotlight: Logan Square Neighborhood Association

Logan Square Neighborhood Association's Executive Director, Juliet de Jesus Alejandre, sat down with Woods Fund Chicago for a look back at 2020, and forward to what is on the horizon for the organization in 2021.

Juliet, please tell me about your organization, Logan Square Neighborhood Association.

LSNA has been around now for about sixty years. We build people power in this very quickly gentrifying part of the city. I often, for shorthand, talk about LSNA as if you would think about a very wealthy suburb, right, and all the self determination that folks have to really think about the way that they want their schools to prepare the young people and respect them. The way that they want the businesses supported, and how folks are helped and cared for in that community. Our vision is that Latinos, people of color, Black folks – have the same level of sovereignty to be amazing. For people of color in Chicago, our lives have been so shaped by segregation, and what that means for people's life chances.  At LSNA we have a vision that everyone has what they need to live full lives, and we also don't want it just for ourselves, we really want that to be what it means to live in the city. Everyone has the ability in their community to provide what people need to live, bold, beautiful lives.

As we look back on 2020, on a year that has shown exceptional challenges and resilience, what are some of the accomplishments for the organization? What were some of your wins and how did you meet them with all of the challenges the year brought? 

I think, for us, as a mostly Latinx organization, we had to really sit down with our people to examine our own history of anti Blackness and anti Indigenous, right – really looking at how colonization continues to be a part of the way that we think about who we are as people and who we are in solidarity with – to really remember who we are. So think about Palenques, Quilombos, – the liberated territory that enslaved folks escaped to and created in the mountains to escape slavery. Indigenous and Black folks in Latin America created these spaces, and thinking of LSNA – we really need to know that brown and Black history doesn't start here today. That  many of us are the descendants of that resistance that began 500 years ago. However, wee need to deal with our anti Blackness. Where did that come from? Where did we learn that? And how do we unlearn it? What is the work that we need to do? How does that impact our organizing and our partners and how do we talk about how issues are connected – from policing, to immigration? 

For me, the story of who we are and why we do what we do is a win.If Latinxs aren’t actively healing from how we have been shaped and harmed by white supremacy than we run the risk that our organizing will not be liberatory.  I think that's important – our framework has to be right or else we're moving in the wrong direction. I think about my oldest son pushing during birth the wrong way. It made it so hard for the both of us, and we weren't going anywhere. It was so important to push in the right way. What we're really doing is birthing liberation through the policy work that we do and  the way we build community and leaders. 

One thing I’m concretely, really proud of is the mutual aid and solidarity – the cash assistance – work that we pivoted to. There was thankfully different initiatives from the state and city and partners that we were able to connect to and help distribute, but then we also wanted to have our own money and so a lot of our teachers in the community and folks who work who didn't lose their job during this pandemic, donated to a fund that allowed us to give away cash in solidarity, and provide care for folks who weren't going to get any relief from the feds, like a lot of our undocumented immigrants. It felt so good to be able to give that money away and not ask anybody questions, or proof of need. You say you need it – here’s that money – and making it possible for a lot of our parent mentors to be able to stay at home when they needed to do remote learning with their children. I am proud of the partnerships with different mom and pop Latino – mostly Latina – women owned restaurants... finding money to pay them so they can keep their restaurant going and supporting them to feed our community. So that solidarity work and getting people fed in our community, those were important wins. 

LSNA has helped secure some policy wins in housing recently that will hopefully help more of our families afford to stay in Hermosa, Logan Square, Avondale. LSNA’s actual building sits on a stretch of Milwaukee that is about to get flipped. We have been working with the Ald. Carlos Rosa’s office and other housing groups to win affordable housing projects and negotiate a number of smaller community development agreements (CBA).  Because of the partial downzoning of  Milwaukee Avenue it forces community conversations and agreements to make those buildings affordable so that we won’t see the continuation of these glass towers being built. Also the new Affordable Requirements Ordinance means that 20% of larger construction will have to be affordable to families in our community. 

COVID is compounding the affordable housing crisis in our city.The 60639 is one of the most consistently impacted by COVID communities in the state which encompasses parts of Hermosa and Belmont Cragin nearby.. A lot of our folks are working less or they’ve lost their jobs completely. It affects their ability to pay for the homes that they're in whether they rent or they own. The developer class hasn't been impacted in that way. They're still buying, still making deals, and tearing down. So there is a need to have also compounding policies and solutions and practices to combat the pressures that a lot of our families are feeling to be able to stay here.. And that's why I like the combination of ARO with individual CBAs with different policies that we're trying to pass where necessary, as we try to keep folks living in the city and in our community. 

Looking forward now – to 2021 – what is on the horizon for the organization? How will it operate in 2021? What are your goals and aspirations?

Healing and grieving is necessary right now.  I am often overwhelmed by the though of children who left school in March at the beginning of this pandemic and lost a a father or mother, cousin, a sister. Schools need and will continue to need more social workers, and time and space dedicated to helping children understand what they’ve just lived through as far as COVID and the social unrest of the last several months. There will be a push to go back to “normal.” But as our leaders at LSNA have said, “we will only go back to our dream schools.” These dream schools will be places that honor our culture, our resilience, our histories and centers connection and care. Forget tests--that’s ridiculous right now. What we need are centers of community that prioritizes human care and connection. 

When I think about 2021 I think about the opportunity to pass bold, pro immigrant policies. Going beyond just immigration reform and moving to  decriminalizing immigration. It is also really important for LSNA to build our base, to experiment with our leadership development process by engaging more of our parents in young people in popular and political education opportunities and encouraging them to form their own solutions to hyper local problems in their school or block, and for us to learn from them and connect the dots between different liberatory projects across our community. We have the vision of creating a network of Palenques/Quilombos across Hermosa and Logan Square where everyday and humble people are empowering one another and developing life-giving systems around mutual aid, public spaces, economic security, immigrant rights, storytelling, etc. As a Latinx organization that is actively trying to be pro Black and pro Indigenous in how we see ourselves, but also at our partnerships and who our leaders are. We’re continuing to learn and unlearn, every day.For instance LSNA has signed on in support of the Defund CPD Campaign with the Black Abolitionist Network, and illustrating to our leaders that our organizing to build strong and culturally affirming schools, secure affordable housing, promote economic security, and build self and community liberation are already abolitionist visions. , 

So it sounds like you have some partner building and the solidarity, economy movements that you're excited about.

Absolutely. At first we started doing this work thinking we would be doing this for  three months.And because our government has not prioritized taking care of humans and the most vulnerable communities, we are continuing to provide mutual aid in recognition that our communities have always helped each other survive since the days of Palenque.  Something that I've been learning from the Disability Justice community is that collective care is essential to organizing and liberation. 

Well Juliet, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today and sharing about the amazing work you and the organization are doing.