Cook County – Chicagolandia https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org Oral History Project Thu, 28 May 2026 12:49:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/websiteAssets-18-150x150.png Cook County – Chicagolandia https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org 32 32 Ana Gil Garcia https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/2026/05/27/ana-gil-garcia/ Wed, 27 May 2026 16:38:18 +0000 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/?p=1151

Image: Manny Alvarez

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.

]]> Erika Villegas https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/2025/11/04/erika-villegas/ Tue, 04 Nov 2025 02:02:50 +0000 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/?p=1135

Image: Goodman Theater

Erika Villegas

Volunteer Organizer, Interviewed 2024

Erika Villegas is a Chicago-area realtor and community leader. Erika was born and raised on the southwest side of the city and lived in Mexico for a few years as a teenager which helped her become fluent in Spanish. She established herself as one of the top residential Realtors in Chicagoland serving a wide variety of buyers and sellers.

In this clip, she describes encountering the first migrant families and quickly realizing the massive scope of the issue. She describes the initial steps she took to organize her community into what would become a robust care network that spanned multiple police districts.

This full interview with Erika Villegas was taken as part of the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation’s “Our Heroes, Our Stories” project. For more, see the tab on the Chicagolandia website.

]]> Mark Jaeschke https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/2025/11/01/mark-jaeschke/ Sat, 01 Nov 2025 15:40:37 +0000 https://chicagolandiaoralhistory.org/?p=803

markjaeschke.com

Mark Jaeschke

interviewed 2022

Mark Jaeschke was born in Lima, Peru but was raised by his adoptive parents in Arlington Heights, Cook County, Illinois. In this interview clip, Mark describes how being a transracial adoptee and growing up in a mostly-white suburb led him to struggle with his identity early in life.

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