The Occupation of Chicago
Rata de dos patas/Te estoy hablando a ti/Porque un bicho rastrero/Aun siendo el más maldito
Comparado contigo/Se queda muy chiquito - from Rata de Dos Patas by Paquita La Del Barrio
My mother was born in the shadow of World War II in Chicago, IL. Even though she was not alive to personally know the horrors of that epoch, her older siblings and others in her community knew what it was like, and I imagine, relayed information about it to her. She, like most people from our country, learned about "the big one” in our woefully meager social studies/history classes, and unlike me, was probably close enough to it to have more context about what it was like for people during that time. That is why I was so alarmed when she recently told me that living in Chicago currently feels like living in Europe during the 30s and 40s, when the Nazis and fascists were occupying Poland, France, and England. As of now, she doesn't feel like she is at risk of being snatched up by U.S. Customs and Immigration and Customs Border Protection federal agents (ICE), but she is very aware of the threat to our Latino neighbors and was of course horrified by the ICE raid that occured a couple of weeks ago that swept up both brown and Black inhabitants of an apartment building on the Southside of Chicago.
Make no mistake about it, the City of Chicago is being occupied and terrorized by the federal government in the form of federal immigration agents. After visiting the city that both she and I, and some friends that I recently visited, were born in, I am even more alarmed that when I obsessively sought news about the occupation from NYC. Speaking to and experiencing the terror that my friends, their neighbors, and the city writ large is going through still makes my blood boil. The least I can do is share these experiences and sentiments with you in the hope that you understand what is at stake and what we need to do to protect our communities. I do not have all of the answers (or even any) of the answers, but I am confident that we know what to do to fight the fascist takeover of the land that we, for better or worse, are stewards of now.
Migra, Migra/Pinche Migra/déjame en paz
Migra, Migra/Pinche Migra/déjame en paz -from Migra by Carlos Santana
I was not prepared for what I was going to see and hear while in Chicago, but I don't know if anything could have prepared me for what I was to bear witness to. When I am in Chicago, I often stay with writer Erika L. Sahnchez, who has described me in a letter as "like a weird brother” to her. I had been in contact with her and other people in the city, and what I had been hearing from them was beyond startling and provided extra context to the news stories of tamale ladies being suddenly detained, helicopters swooping around certain neighborhoods like hawks searching for prey, and one case that hit pretty close to where close friends and family members live; the raid on the city's South Shore neighborhood. Eyewitnesses to that story have said that they saw children in various states of undress, ziptied up in the middle of the street, late at night.
Once I arrived at Erika's home, I could immediately see the toll that Operation Midway Blitz had taken on her and the city. I was actually in Chicago around the beginning of the federal government's occupation of Chicago to visit my mother for her 80th, but things didn't feel as desperate, as empty, nor as menacing. While Chicago is nowhere near as bustling as NYC, the city was much quieter; I noticed a lot less hues of people on the subway and streets of the city. Erika confirmed what other friends had been alluding to: that the Latine community (and the Black community as well, because that is always the plan) and their allies were effectively under siege.
She told me of how neighborhoods like Belmont-Cragin were suffering economically and socially, as parents are scared to send their children to school, lest the parents and kids be kidnapped, and local restaurants are losing business because both workers and patrons are afraid to get apprehended by la migra. This also lines up with what other friends who I met at an event I spoke at told me; they said that they would leave early because they didn't want to be outside alone, lest federal agents kidnap them. One of them is of Korean descent, and she told me that the single largest ICE action at one time, recently in Georgia, rattled her.
The day before I went, I was talking about this to colleagues, one of whom expressed shock that the government would treat people, citizens, with such a heavy hand. Very politely, I pointed out that the state has violated many communities (mine included) since this country's existence. It still astounds me that white men, even cosmopolitan and "well-educated” ones, remain blind to the plights of minorities, women, and trans individuals. At times, I feel like I am living in a parallel reality as them, like the fictional cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma in China Miéville's The City & The City.
I noticed this dynamic while biking around the city, visiting different neighborhoods, and talking to different people. While Erika is too stressed to eat and sleep, at places like the Belgian beer bar/restaurant Hopleaf in the Andersonville neighborhood, people seemed to be taking it easy, talking about how great things were going and how swell their weeks were. I think at least people in Chicago know what is going on, but the experiences seem to be as segregated from each other, much in the same way the city itself was designed to separate people by race. Til this day, we still have tensions between Black and Latine (and of course, there is crossover in these identities) communities, even as the feds are detaining us both, citizenship be damned. I am proud to say that when thousands of Venezuelan immigrants arrived in Chicago around 2021-2022, instead of (one could argue rightfully) worrying that the presence of these immigrants would change the nature of the Black communities on the Southside, she learned Spanish.
Pero siempre hay un bruto que nos trata de ignorante'/Cosa' má' importante'
Como luchar por los derecho' de lo' inmigrante'
Como que ayer otro cabrón asesinó a su amante
Como que el sueño americano existe hasta que te levante' - from COMPOSITOR DEL AÑO by Bad Bunny
Erika poses with local Chicago Bulls fan.
Of course, I am not ignoring the destabilizing actions that the US has done to the country of Venezuela and its citizens, along with the 30% of Chicagoans being of Latino descent, with something like 50-70% of those people being Mexican, like Erika and her family. A lot of immigration to the US is directly a result of the country's neo-colonialist policies. I suppose that it is hard for most people to connect the dots, as they don't have time, and our media doesn't make it easy to learn how American foreign policy affects their lives. If immigration is a "problem,” then it is one of the government's own doing.
But the problem, as one of my mentors Dr. Leonardo Figueroa Helland shared in a conversation, is not “immigration” across borders that were problematically imposed by settler states on unceded Indigenous lands, but the unjust system of white supremacy which would collapse if effective solidarity and collective action can be built and mobilized among the Black, Brown and Indigenous Peoples, whose identities are not mutually exclusive, and who in the Americas and across the world make up a majority.
Tamale ladies, elementary school children, and brown landscapers are not causing chaos in the city; in fact, non-systemic violent crime is in decline there. By the government's own metrics, Chicago is becoming a safer city, in some ways. However, when I last visited, I heard from multiple people there, including Erika and another mother in their neighborhood, talking about how scared they were about ICE raids at their kids’ schools, or even taking up another job just to convince a loved one not to go outside to go to work. The masked troops that the federal government is not making it safe for these people. They are even making it less safe in general, like in the case of them ramming a car off the road and shooting a woman who was driving her car in broad daylight.
However bleak this sounds, and it is bleak, I am heartened by the fact that ICE keeps failing in major ways. Many people in the city have united as a community to look out for each other in various ways. Erika told me about how people are carrying whistles now to warn of immigration agents in the area. There are ICE Watches that alert people to what is happening, even as social media apps and Facebook pages are taken offline in compliance with the false claim the Department of Justice is making that those pages and apps are dangerous to its masked officers. Even in Andersonville, as mentioned above, I saw several shops with the sign I have higher up on the page. I was able to get one for myself, but had to go to multiple stores because they ran out. The people of Chicago are not taking this lying down, and we have not even got to the wintertime yet, which threatens to be as bad as the 2013 Polar Vortex, which I definitely remember. It was so bad that as soon as you stepped out of the house, your only thought was Fuck. Not even a whole sentence, it was too cold for all that.
Soy una raya en el mar/Fantasma en la ciudad/Mi vida va prohibida,Dice la autoridad
Mexicana clandestina/Haitiana clandestina/Boliviana clandestina…
Mexicana clandestina/Colombiana clandestina/Peruana clandestina/Paraguaya clandestina
Hondureña clandestina/Brasileña clandestina- from Clandestina by Silviana Estrada
People are doing what they can to support each other, even across ethnicities and neighborhoods. Erika and her co-hosts shared tips and information on her No Chingues podcast, which you should really listen to if you get a chance. Before I flew back to New York, I joined Erika and her partner at the No Kings March on October 18. One thing I was glad to see, but I heard "criticism” of, was that there were a lot of old white people there. I can attest to seeing a lot of old white guys there, and for once, I was appreciative of that sight. At least now, white people are seeing what is going on and taking action. I am not saying that a protest that you register for is the end-all, be-all solution, but with 7 million people across the country, and 250,000 people (in a population of about 2.7 million people) taking to the streets in solidarity, I hope more of those people will take further action. Mayor Brandon Johnson even called for a general strike at the protest! I agree that this is the direction we need to go if our government continues to fail the people under its aegis. The US Constitution applies to people in the country, not just citizens. People in Chicago and across the world are fed up with America's policies, both foreign and domestic.
I was glad to see people out amongst each other, with provocative signs, silly costumes, and not seeing Erika's face so tense. I could tell that it meant something to her to be outside, doing something affirmative to hasten the end of the nightmare she is living through. Her small daughter (somehow one of my opps), who is a fan of superheroes now, asked if Erika and her father if someone was going to come to Chicago to save them. Erika replied something to the effect of: "We have to be the superheroes, all of us. Together, we have to stop bad things from happening.”
