Libraries
Gads Hill was my childhood library and for most of my life the only library. I lived a quarter or a half a mile away. I went many, many days of the week, and to me, that library was immense! The first time that my mother took me there, I remember thinking how beautiful-- all these books! I just loved going there. Diana and I talked about how we would spend money at the bookstore and buy books and books and books and books. And I felt selfish keeping them at my house when so many of the books really had such an impact in my life. We ended up making a small resource library for neighborhood women to come and borrow the books. Like a little room-- it was way tinier than Gads Hill (laughter)- Diane Avila, Festival Coordinator, May 25, 2022
At the time of the Festival, Pilsen’s Mexican community was engaged in a protracted fight for an excellent library with materials in Spanish and about Latinos, Mexico, and Latin America. Without a major Chicago Public Library (CPL) branch in Pilsen, the CPL, its small community-based library at Gads Hill Settlement House (photo below), and the host of another were invited to the Festival. According to the Gads Hill Center’s website, Diane's childhood library served as a sub-branch of the CPL branch since 1928.
El Centro Library program, a collaboration between Pilsen non-profit multi-service agency El Centro de la Causa (invited to the Festival) and the CPL, had served Chicago’s Spanish-speaking residents since 1973. As of 1975, El Centro Library (map below) had 5,000 Spanish language items (Chicago Public Library 1975, 9).
Pilsen’s Comite pro-biblioteca, a group of local residents, parents, organizations, churches, and businessmen organizing for a larger, culturally committed CPL branch asserted in two languages, “Nuestra gente tiene orgullo en su cultura y no estamos conformes con una colleccion minima de libros…/Our people have dignity for their culture. We are not satisfied with a small collection of books…” (El comite pro- biblioteca 1981?). Pilsen’s struggle for their library finally bore fruit a decade after the Festival, in 1989, with the opening of the Rudy Lozano branch of the Chicago Public Library. Its central location in Pilsen, fought for by the Pilsen Neighbors Community Council and the Comité, is a testament to the high community value of books and reading.
SOURCES:
Chicago Public Library. Narrative Report of the El Centro de la Causa Library Project, 1973-1975. November 22, 1975. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED125671.pdf
El comite pro-biblioteca, 1981?, Nosotros Somos Pilsen, Pilsen Neighbors Community Council Records, MSSO131. DePaul Special Collections and Archives, Chicago, IL.
El comite pro-biblioteca, 1981?, We Are Pilsen, Pilsen Neighbors Community Council Records, MSSO131. DePaul Special Collections and Archives, Chicago, IL.