HUMBOLDT PARK, CHICAGO- Roberto Clemente Community Academy, which only last month celebrated its own 40th anniversary, has partnered with the UIC Latin American & Latino Studies (LALS) Program to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Community groups and leaders who were involved in the creation of LALS, together with current students, faculty and staff are busy preparing a 2 week celebration (schedule below).

Chicago, IL - October 1, 2014- hosts the 13th Annual Haunted Paseo Boricua on Friday, October 31st in the Humboldt Park neighborhood along Division Street from Western to California, between the giant Paseo Boricua Gateway Flag monuments. The festivities begin at 4:00pm and go until 7:30pm. Admission is free and open to the public. We provide a safe space for hundreds of families to enjoy the Halloween festivities, trick or treating and have plenty of fun. 

This year's festival includes over dozen of "halloweenesque" stations inspired by the carnival circus theme infused with a bit of Puerto Rican culture such as: a Haunted Casita, Scary Graveyard, Spooky Dancing & Thriller Stations, Healthy Treats Station, and the infamous and devilish Puerto Rican VEJIGANTE Station. 

This is the second year that Haunted Paseo launches the initiative " Healthy Treats for Healthier Kids" a campaign to inform children and their families about moderation and healthier snacks choices. We encourage our businesses to offer alternatives to candy in order to help prevent diabetes and obesity among our youth and in our community.

This event is being co-sponsored by: Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos H.S., West Town Bikes/Ciclo Urbano (Boys & Girls Bike Club), AfriCaribe Cultural Center, The Puerto Rican Cultural Center, Batey Urbano, Roberto Clemente High School, Muevete - Diabetes Empowerment Center, VIDA SIDA, The Chicago Park District, Alderman Roberto Maldonado (26th Ward), Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation, and The Greater Humboldt Park Community of Wellness.  

Visit: www.paseoboricua.org

Find us on Facebook:Haunted Paseo

or Flickr: Haunted Paseo 2012

(donation for food)

Monday November 3 at 6:30 p.m. at Nellie's

Hey Maestre, long time civil rights attorney, has been the director of Legal Services of Puerto Rico since 2006. From 1990 to 2008, he was one of the lawyers in the carpetas, or "subversive files," case, suing the Puerto Rico Police for illegally surveilling and keep files on independentistas. He will talk about this case and bring us new developments.

Pantoja Oquendo, long time feminist, human rights activist, Legal Services attorney, and chairperson of the Puerto Rican Organization of Women Workers founded in 1982, is one of the founders of33 Women for Oscar. She will talk about the struggle for women's right in Puerto Rico. 

Georgina Lazaro opens our "Jornada Centenaria a Julia de Burgos" with an amazing range of presentations

The love for literature and the need for creativity to be explored was the central topic of children's book author Georgina Lazaro's at various book readings and presentations all around our community this past week. On October 21st toddlers from our Centro Infantil Consuelo Corretjer" visited the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (NRAC), where they got introduced to the book El Flamboyán Amarillo. Later that day she visited Bernard Moos Elementary where she presented a 3rd grade class with the process of how to make a book, followed by the book reading of Julia, a book dedicated to Julia de Burgos.Lazaro has received many international awards for her literature and pedagogy, including the  Educator of the Year Award by the Chamber of Commerce of the Municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. On Thursday, Georgina was received by over 200 students from different Charter Schools, among them Erie Charter School and Volta, who were also able to learn the process of creating a book, as well valuable information about Julia de Burgos. NPRAC is now showing a beautiful exhibition installed by BACCA Coordinator Maria Borrero and ACA Navigator Raul Maldonado, which brings together historic images of the poet as well as a 3D painting titled: Transcendent Julia. Students were also encouraged by their chaperones and professor to walk around and learn about our Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos. The exhibition ad book readings are all part of the Jornada Centenaria and centennial celebration of Julia de Burgos, which will also include the play presentation of Julia de Burgos: Child of Water by Urban Theater Company . 

On October 21, 2014 Centro Infantil students were very excited about going to the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (NMPRAC). When they got to NMPRAC they were going to listen to book. The book they listened to was called El Flamboyan Amarillo and what made this trip to NMPRAC more special there was a special guest and that person was Georgina Lazaro the Author of El Flamboyan Amarillo. They were really excited about it because the staff members read her books to the kids all the time so they were familiar with the books she was reading to them. They were a little shy talking but they enjoyed it. We would like to thank Georgina Lazaro for taking the time to read to the students!.

November Chicago Magazine "Why José López Stands Between Gentrification and Humboldt Park"

Be sure to pick up the November issue of Chicago Magazine, which features an interview by Puerto Rican Cultural Center ED José E. López conducted by Elly Fishman.

As the date for the Marketplace's Open Enrollment Period approaches (November 15), the PRCC's Affordable Care Act staff has been hard at work. Our Navigators have been revisiting previous partners, such as Alderman Roberto Maldonado, the Burbank Unemployment Office, the Logan Square Library, and the Grito Desesperado Shelter. The ACA team has also started developing new partnerships with places such as the Diversey Unemployment Office, the Irving Park Pantry, and the Humboldt Park Library. So far, people's response has been amazing and we hope that Year 2 will be even better. 

On October 23, the Mobile Journalism Unit of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School (PACHS) attended the "Meet and Greet" with Puerto Rican author Georgina Lázaro, who spoke about her book, Julia. This event celebrates the 100th birthday of Julia de Burgos, a powerful role model -- for the Puerto Rican people and also for people around the world who realize the worth of her words. Julia de Burgos was a feminist, a Puerto Rican nationalist, an internationalist, and a monumental human being in history.

The author spoke, as well as artists and others who recognize the significance of her work. This was very emotional. We returned with an important message --  

     See the exhibit, "Images of Julia de Burgos" - at the Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (MPRAC). Artist Raul Maldonado calls his work of art, "Transcendent Julia" -- because she continues to live through her poems." Also, see the play, "Julia de Burgos: Child of Water," which runs Nov 4 - Dec. 14. This will be the first play running at the beautiful NMPRAC, surrounded by the amazing exhibit.  Artist Maria Borrero, who curated the  exhibit," asked the audience to, "Tell others - Spread the Word". Don't miss it!

Funds raised from the event will go to start new youth bike programs at Community As A Campus partner locations such as Moos and Yates elementary schools. These Humboldt Park schools are along the forthcoming Bloomingdale/606 elevated trail that will be opening in the Spring of 2015. West Town Bikes is excited to be a partner that will engage neighborhood youth and their families to use this new community resource. 

Thank you to all who attended Bikecitement and help support the work of West Town Bikes!

The group 33 Mujeres NYC x Oscar held its monthly rally today at the South Bronx Hub on East 149th Street to demand the freedom of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera.

33 Mujeres NYC x Oscar is a group of women from New York City committed to securing Oscar López Rivera's freedom. We hold monthly rallies for 33 minutes on the last Sunday of every month from 4:00 - 4:33pm to signify the 33 years that Oscar has been imprisoned in federal penitentiaries, and will continue to hold monthly rallies until he is released. Our rallies coincide with the 32 x Oscar monthly rally that will occur at the same date and time in San Juan, Puerto Rico which are organized and held by 32 women who initiated these public rallies last year to mark Oscar's 32nd year of imprisonment.

Oscar López Rivera - the Nelson Mandela of our generation - is the longest held Puerto Rican political prisoner in the history of the nation's independence movement. Activists, singers, politicians, actors, students, religious leaders and lawyers the world over have called on President Barack Obama to exercise his Constitutional power of pardon, and to grant immediate and unconditional release to Oscar López Rivera.

The group's next rally will be held in East Harlem in Sunday, November 30th.