Founded in January 2004, the Humboldt Park Participatory Democracy Project (PD) began engaging residents in a serious dialogue meant to insert longtime residents into the process of building the future of Humboldt Park. Our efforts are geared at challenging gentrification and preventing the displacement of Chicago’s last standing Puerto Rican community. PD is an initiative of the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center, a 35-year community organization based on the philosophy of self-determination, methodology of self-actualization, and the ethics of self-sufficiency of the Puerto Rican/Latino community.

     With a holistic approach, PD seeks to encourage active participation in community building as strategy to stabilize and preserve longstanding homes and organizations. Our practice has shown that ownership over one’s home, block, and community can only be fostered through consistent, deliberate, and culturally relevant engagements. PD aims to facilitate the involvement and leadership of an ever increasingly number of residents in shaping the community’s vision. Through education, relationship building, and community engagement, the Humboldt Park Participatory Democracy Project hopes to counter displacement by establishing and nourishing spaces of creative connections for the residents of this community.

Informing and Advocating 
for the Preservation of our "Pedacito de Patria" in Chicago

     
La Voz de Paseo Boricua is a grassroots newsletter of the Juan Antonio Corretjer Purto Rican Cultural  Center. We work in collabortation with Various Community organizations to stabalize and strengthen the Puerto Rican community in Humboldt Park. During this historic moment, our objective is to provide our community with regular and reliable news and updates on community programs. 

     
Contact us at lavoz@prcc-chgo.org


The views expressed in the pages of La Voz del Paseo Boricua do not necessarily reflect the views of the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican  Cultural Center and/or the editorial board of La Voz deldPaseo Boricua.

Exercises in Self-Determination: The Humboldt Park Participatory Democracy Project Michael Rodríguez Muñiz Who should determine the future of a community?1 In our complex world, this seemingly simple question is rarely posed, and even more rarely answered. However rare, I believe that the overwhelming consensus, and the only ethical response, would be that a community should determine its future. But like all systems of oppression, the forces of colonialism and its urban overseer, gentrification– continue to contradict our ethical sensibilities. In Chicago’s Humboldt Park/ West Town area, gentrification is threatening the future of the Puerto Rican community. Gentrification, a process of spatial de-concentration, destroys inner city communities (often of color) through various methods. Without so much as a vote or an opinion poll, developers and speculators are attempting to determine what is to become of Humboldt Park. Obsessed with the construction of luxurious condominiums, they have developed strategies to displace the long-time residents of area. As property taxes rise, so do rent costs, resulting in more and more families being economically forced out, against their will. Still more, gentrification does not end with displacement; it continues with the confiscation and subsequent obliteration of a community’s legacy. Click link for the rest of article ---> http://www.prcc-chgo.org/prcc_confronting_gentrification.htm