maldon.qxd
The history of Humboldt Park is about a community that has been in an embattled position for virtually the whole of its time in this city. I grew up here with my family in the 1950s and ’60s, and I watched my community expand as many new immigrant families from Puerto Rico chose to settle in the area. Thereafter followed the anger and racial hatred against a people and race who simply wanted an opportunity to work. We shielded ourselves the best we could through the onslaught that became worse and more violent as I grew older. Some of the attacks originated with those sworn to protect us. As Puerto Ricans became more rooted, we demonstrated and looked to civil rights for solutions. Some of us went to war and came back to riots. So much for the heady days of 1968.
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The organizers of the LAMA project may be well intentioned, but their decision to look broadly overshadowed their looking at the ground on which they stand. This is why so many turned away from the LAMA project. Some of us who argued against the project did it vocally, and many more of us did it as we have always done, with quiet despair. But the failure of the LAMA project should not be seen as a failure of the community. Its failure rests on its own terms.
PS: Speaking of names, the initial statement on the cover about “ethnic rivalries” is misleading and incorrect. The principals interviewed in your story, including myself, are all Puerto Ricans, with one exception–Carlos Tortolero, a Mexican. Carlos Tortolero has no interest in LAMA and is a strong supporter of the Puerto Rican community. Puerto Ricans are a single ethnicity comprised of three races, and the suggestion of there being “ethnic rivalries” is a mischaracterization.
