Four Naperville-area women are building a community group to celebrate and preserve Latino cultures in Naperville and throughout the western suburbs.
Naperville residents Lili Burciaga, Diana Torres Hawken and Laura Navarro and Bolingbrook resident Elida Estrada also launched the nonprofit Alliance of Latinos Motivating Action in the Suburbs — or ALMAS — to empower Latino leaders and amplify Latino voices in in Naperville and the surrounding suburbs.
To get more people involved, ALMAS is hosting a free party from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the pavilion at the DuPage River Park pavilion, 808 Royce Road on the city’s far southeast side. Ballet Folklorico Quetzalcoatl will perform, and there will be musical entertainment, piñatas and Mexican snacks.
ALMAS is an outgrowth of Naperville’s first Hispanic Heritage Festival organized by the city’s Sister City Commission and of a Facebook group the women started for bilingual families to interact, Burciaga said.
While the online social group was a good start, the women had trouble getting people to engage or meet for events, she said.
“I do think that people have a harder time really building true connection and community online,” Burciaga said.
While people can talk about the commonalities such as raising children and share resources with each other easily online, such forums lack the community building and the honoring of experiences that is integral in Latino culture, she said.
“That doesn’t happen naturally through Facebook groups … and for us, that’s been particularly important because of our Latino identities,” Burciaga said.
Everybody has a story; everybody has a history, she said.
Through ALMAS, which translates to souls in Spanish, the goal is to reach the hearts and spirits of area Latino residents and empower one another.
U.S. Census figures from 2020 show 6.7% of Naperville’s population of 149,540 is Hispanic.
“I think there’s about 10,000 residents, which is smaller compared to other ethnicities, but it’s still a pretty large number,” Burciaga said.
But those figures don’t portray one, single cultural experience.
“There’s many different identities and cultures,” she said. “I think in Naperville … we have a mix of identities.”
Among those are first generation immigrants. “But then we also have our young people, who are trying to figure out their own identity. … What is it like to be Cuban or Mexican or Puerto Rican, but also American?” Burciaga said.
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ALMAS also will work to establish and foster professional networks to empower existing or future leaders, she said.
“We do see that we aren’t at the table … and we’d like to be,” Burciaga said.
One place to start would be with Naperville festivals.
While they are thrilled the city created an annual cultural festival, ALMAS wants to ensure Latino residents have a voice in its planning so it’s a true representation of Latino cultures, Burciaga said.
“That’s really important to us,” she said.
Being part of the process establishes a sense of belonging for any Latino resident, she said.
It’s equally important to connect and work together with people who, Burciaga said, “want to celebrate our cultures and learn about our cultures and really work with us and empower us as well.”
She cited Naperville School District 203’s dual language program as a possible source of allies.
“It’s wonderful because we know that there’s a lot of people that are wanting to have their children be bilingual and learn Spanish, and in doing that, many times they’re also wanting to learn about Latino cultures and celebrate those cultures,” Burciaga said.
“We essentially build a stronger Naperville community,” she said.