Ana Gil Garcia

Illinois Venezuelan Alliance co-Founder, Interviewed 2025

Dr. Ana Gil Garcia hails from Isla Margarita, Venezuela and migrated to the United States in 1991. She is a professor Emerita, five-time Fulbright Scholar, published author, and an esteemed community leader.

In the first clip, Dr. Gil Garcia describes her and her family’s experience of the economic crisis in Venezuela. She describes how economic desperation and authoritarianism contributed to Venezuelans fleeing to other nations, including the United States. Dr. Gil Garcia also shares how thousands of Venezuelans showed up to vote in Chicago for a Venezuelan recall referendum in 2016. She explains how she and others founded the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance in the context of rising migration from Venezuela to Chicago.

In the second clip, she describes how the Illinois Venezuelan Alliance suddenly became a frontline organization for assisting thousands of Venezuelan migrants, including families with children, that arrived in Chicago in 2021 and beyond.

This interview is part of a Mellon Foundation-funded series of oral history interviews that examine the history and present of the Venezuelan migration to Chicagolandia.