Category: Video Based

Erika Villegas

Posted on by Chicagolandia

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

Posted on by Chicagolandia

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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Elizabeth Barrios

Posted on by Chicagolandia

Elizabeth Barrios

associate Professor, interviewed 2025

Elizabeth Barrios is currently Associate Professor of Spanish at Albion College. Barrios grew up in Mérida, Venezuela, but emigrated with her family to the Aurora, Illinois area at age 12, just as Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela for the first time. In this interview, Barrios describes with brilliant complexity the challenges of being part of an early wave of Venezuelan migration to the US, and how it shaped her worldview, career, and scholarship. She shares her deep insight into the roots and reality of the recent out-migration of millions of people from Venezuela to places such as Illinois. This interview is part of a Mellon Foundation-funded series of oral history interviews that will examine the history and present of the Venezuelan migration to Chicagolandia.

Hada Matías

Posted on by laurenmeranda

Hada Matías

Interviewed June 21, 2023

Hada Matías was born in Dover, New Jersey and grew up in Elgin, Illinois. In this interview, she examines her family’s Puerto Rican heritage and her own racial identity. She shares insights into her childhood and her growth as a trans woman and a human being. She also explains the challenges and joys of being trans in the United States today.

In this clip, Hada explains her family’s origins in Puerto Rico and shares memories from her uncle’s restaurant, Pat’s Grill.
In this clip, Hada explains how her feminity became a problem in her family, forcing her to hide herself.
In this clip, Hada explains how she went from “living in survival mode” to finding identity, healthcare, and community.
In this powerful clip, Hada shares the joys and challenges of being trans. She also talks about the importance of mutual respect and education, as well as the specific relationship between the cisgender Latinx and trans communities.
In this clip, Hada explains how, at age 17, she traveled to Japan to fulfill a lifelong dream. She also talks about the worries and lessons that came from a recent trip to visit family in Puerto Rico.
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Ramon Angel Campos

Posted on by Chicagolandia

San Luis Potosí, 1958

Ramon Angel Campos

Radio Personality, Musician, Comedian – Interviewed By Anthony Villanueva, 2022

Ramon Angel Campos was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico in 1942. As a young man, he traveled across Mexico and Central America as part of several musical groups. He regularly performed comedy and impressions under the stage name “Quello El Bello.” In the 1950s and 60s, Campos rubbed elbows with illustrious actors and musicians of Mexico’s world famous Golden Age of Cinema — La Época del Oro del Cine Mexicano — such as Agustín Insunza, Libertad Lamarque, and Manuel Medel. 

Ramon Angel Campos came to the Chicago area in the mid-1960s and has resided here ever since. In 1978, he started Radio Fiesta, Elgin’s first Spanish-language radio program, and was its host for more than twenty years. Over many decades, he organized dances, parties, and musical performances across Chicagolandia, the state of Illinois, and the United States.

In this Spanish-language clip, Campos talks about establishing his first musical group as a 12 year-old boy. He also shares how he developed his impressions of performers like Cantinflas while sitting in the balconies of Mexican theaters.

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Tony Figueroa

Posted on by laurenmeranda

Tony Figueroa

Waukegan community leader, interviewed 2022

Tony Figueroa describes his parents’ lives in Puerto Rico and their arrival to Waukegan, Illinois in the 1940s. The Figueroas were among the earliest Puerto Rican migrants to the Chicago area.

Tony Figueroa describes his father’s experience working in foundries in Waukegan. He remembers the vibrant African American neighborhood where he and many other Puerto Ricans lived. 

Tony Figueroa describes the founding of the Puerto Rican Society in the 1950s and its development into one of Waukegan’s most important organizations under the leadership of Edwin Montano and others.

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