Good afternoon, Chicago. ✶
On Sunday, Chicago residents watched from afar as Mexico elected its first female president, a moment that has some feeling hopeful about the progression of women’s rights, my colleague Elvia Malagón reports.
In today’s newsletter, we’ll look into what this election means to Mexican American women in Chicago.
Plus, we’ve got reporting on streetwear brand BAPE’s new home on Oak Street, who’s behind the giant cicada sculptures spotted all over the city and more community news you need to know below. 👇
⏱️: A 7-minute read
— Matt Moore, newsletter reporter (@MattKenMoore)
TODAY’S TOP STORY
For Mexican American women in Chicago, Claudia Sheinbaum’s victory in Mexico sparks hope
Reporting by Elvia Malagón
Witnessing progress: When Erika Espinosa was growing up in Mexico City, she saw more women take on leadership roles and develop a stronger voice in society. “Our generation could start to demand more than what we were used to as women in Mexico,” she said.
President Claudia Sheinbaum: That progress reached a new height Sunday when Mexico elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor. For women of Mexican descent living in Chicago, this historic moment offers some hope for gender equality, even to those who may not have voted.
Casting votes: On Sunday, Mexican nationals who wanted to cast a ballot waited in long lines in U.S. cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston, though many left frustrated, unable to vote. About 10,560 Mexicans in the Chicago area had registered to vote, WBEZ reported.
Key context:The watershed moment came 71 years after women in Mexico were granted the right to vote and decades after laws pushed for gender parity among political candidates, said Lila Abed, acting director of the Mexico Institute at the Washington, D.C.-based Wilson Center. It also stands against a backdrop of gender inequality and staggering violence against women in Mexico. Even Sheinbaum, Abed said, did not have the best track record as mayor of Mexico City when it came to dealing with feminist protests.
Key quote: Little Village resident Maria de los Angeles Murillo, 61, told the Sun-Times that she didn’t think she would see the day a woman would become president. Still, she has witnessed more women elected to local offices in her native Jalisco. “We hope that [Sheinbaum] does more for us as women,” Murillo said in Spanish. “That’s what we want — to have more support, and we hope that’s what happens. Even though you live here now, we could be living over there awhile later.”
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- BAPE opens Chicago store: Popular Japanese streetwear brand BAPE has launched a 5,000-square-foot store near the Gold Coast, which joins a roster of 40 global locations, including New York, Seoul and Paris.
- 80 years since D-Day: Veterans of World War II this week, many of them centenarians, arrived in Normandy, France, to commemorate the June 6, 1944, landings, the Associated Press reports. They also bore a message for generations behind them: Don’t forget what we did.
- Gov. Pritzker signs budget: The $53.1 billion budget relies on $1.1 billion in revenue and includes a child tax credit. Wednesday’s signing came a week after the Illinois House barely cleared a revenue measure with a 60-45 vote.
- 2 stars for ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’: Starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, the bombastic and cartoonishly over-the-top Bad Boys installment is one loud misfire, writes Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper.
SUN-TIMES BOOK CLUB 📖
New book revisits Mies van der Rohe’s groundbreaking Farnsworth House
Reporting by Lee Bey
It’s a 60-mile haul from Chicago to Plano, Illinois, to see the Edith Farnsworth House, the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed residence built along the Fox River. But it’s certainly worth the trip.
Designed in 1945 (but not completed until 1951) the pavilion-like, one-room house helped kick open the door to steel-and-glass postwar modernism and laid the groundwork for Mies’ revolutionary work, including 860-880 N. Lake Shore Drive and Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
The Farnsworth has been a house museum operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation since 2004.
Author and IIT College of Architecture professor Michelangelo Sabatino seeks to bring the Farnsworth from Plano to your coffee table with his new book, “The Edith Farnsworth House: Architecture Preservation Culture,” published by Monacelli Press and released last week.
The 270-page book also chronicles the 2003 battle led by Landmarks Illinois and the National Trust to buy the residence at auction, saving the home from the possibility of being dismantled and hauled off by an out-of-state buyer.
“So you’re getting three books for one, because it also reveals the complexity of what it means to inhabit a modern, single-family house and the groundbreaking, pioneering role that Edith played in that,” Sabatino said.
“And so we want to tell her story, but we also want to tell the story of the people that came after that stewarded it and worked to acquire it,” he said.
BRIGHT ONE ✨
Insect Asylum aims to inspire with public cicada art, now on display in Chicago neighborhoods
Reporting by Erica Thompson
For those enjoying the hunt for cicadas in the city, you’re in for a big treat. Really big.
In Ravenswood Manor, residents have spotted a rare silver, jewel-eyed cicada, as well as one with blue eyes and multicolored wings. Another cicada has the familiar red eyes and orange wings, but its shell is a plastic shopping bag.
These new creatures are 18-inch plaster sculptures decorated by local artists, and they are popping up in parks, in front of homes and even on light poles.
They are part of a public art initiative called “Cicada Parade-A,” launched by artist Michael Bowman in Baltimore. Bowman has partnered with the Avondale-based Insect Asylum to bring the project to Chicago. Earlier this year, artists were encouraged to buy cicadas for $75 each or adopt them for free in exchange for decorating and displaying them.
A whopping 1,300 sculptures were claimed, with nearly 250 submitted for inclusion in the Insect Asylum’s forthcoming interactive map on theinsectasylum.com. The sculptures are being installed and will remain on view until Labor Day. Insect Asylum is still accepting requests to help sponsor the project.
“Cicada Parade-A” coincides with the emergence of real-life 17-year and 13-year broods in Illinois, which are overlapping for the first time since 1803.
Participating artists were encouraged by the Insect Asylum to reflect on the last 17 years of their lives as they designed their sculptures.
“My life has been so transformative,” said Rebecca Zemans, 43, whose cicada is on display in LaPointe Park in Ravenswood Manor, where she lives.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
What was your life like when the 17-year cicada brood was last here?
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Editor: Esther Bergdahl
Newsletter reporter: Matt Moore
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