DePaulia
The
Volume #107 | Issue #9 | Nov. 14, 2022 | depauliaonline.com
PRITZKER WINS SECOND TERM
PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER | THE DEPAULIA
Incumbent Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker convincingly beat Republican challenger Darren Bailey on Tuesday, Nov. 7, securing his second term as governor of Illinois. Pritzker touted reproductive rights and warned against conservative extremism in his victory speech attended by The DePaulia. Read more about Pritzker’s gubernatorial victory on page 9.
Manuel made official By Lily Lowndes Social Media Editor
Shortly after his 100th day in office, in DePaul’s 125th year as an institution, Robert Manuel was officially inaugurated as the 13th president of DePaul university on Nov. 11. University community members, Chicago citizens and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul gathered in the Holtschneider Performance Center in Lincoln Park to celebrate Manuel on Inauguration Day. A sense of excitement hung in the air as proud live brass rang in the procession of university leaders in caps, regalia and robes. The music wafted down from the balcony in a triumphant manner, guiding Manuel as the lights dimmed and the inauguration began. The theme of the inauguration was dignity. Dignity was embedded in each of the speakers’ addresses, acknowledging the opportunity DePaul has to create meaningful change as we transition into new leadership. Valerie Coleman, a Master of Fine Arts candidate in the Theatre School, read a Langston Hughes poem as a part of a musical interlude that preceded Manuel’s inaugural address. Coleman said that although “Portraits of Langston, IV. Silver Rain” is a short poem, it was important to deliver the piece the way in which it was meant to be presented. She found the poem fitting for an inauguration. To Coleman, the poem is about growth, looking ahead and appreciating the newness of life.
See INAUGURATION page 6
‘It’s an experience I don’t wish upon anyone’ Latinos open arms to migrants sent from Texas By Jacqueline Cardenas, Stephania Rodriguez, Nadia Carolina Hernandez La DePaulia Editor-In-Chief, Staff Writer, Print Managing Editor
Yumary Briseño looked at her 12-year-old daughter. Her tender eyes gazing up at her, filled with worry. “Mom, I’m hungry.” Briseño gave her daughter the only food she had in her home—a few flour arepas and a can of tomato sauce. “Mom, that’s not food.” Holding back tears, Briseño realized it was time to flee Venezuela. Briseño said she did not want to come to the United States, but with the rising economic crisis in her home country, she left in hopes to provide a better life for her daughter and mother. Her restaurant business in Venezuela was declining and had no success finding another job that paid her enough to support her family. “I had to do it,” she said. Briseño’s journey to the United States was not easy. She saw women and men raped with her own eyes. She saw migrants being robbed and shot at. She encountered fear, hunger and fatigue. She witnessed frustration grow among other migrants during her monthlong travel, many of them picking fights with each other over water. “If I could turn back time, I’d reconsider a million times about taking on the journey,” Briseño said. Oftentimes, she went to sleep on the streets fearful that she would be killed. “It’s an experience I don’t wish upon anyone,” she said. Since late August, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has bussed around 3,700 migrants to Chicago from the U.S. and Mexico border in Texas. At least 425 are school-aged children according to ChalkBeat. Most of the mi-
grants are seeking asylum, yet some are unaware they have arrived in Chicago in the first place. The influx of undocumented migrants is part of Abbott’s plan to send them to Democratic ‘sanctuary’ cities. Abbott has openly criticized on social media the Biden administration’s attempt to lift Title 42, a federal act which authorizes denying asylum seekers in the U.S. during the Covid-19 pandemic prior to the shipment of migrants. Despite her experiences, Briseño said she was one of the lucky ones. Her journey led her to spend three days at the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio, Texas where a woman at the center gave Briseño airplane tickets to Chicago. When she arrived in the city, she met pastors Jacobita Cortes and Elvira who did not want to disclose her last name.
Elvira and Cortes turned the Adalberto Memorial United Methodist Church in Humboldt Park into a sanctuary for arriving migrants. They provide them with shelter, clothes, food and education on how to navigate public transportation. Cortes said the church has received around 150 migrants. Their goal has been helping them find jobs, apartments, but most of all, help restore their faith and human rights. During a church mass, Elvira told her experience as someone who was once undocumented to the newly arrived.
See MIGRANT, page 11 Leer en La DePaulia, paginas 16 & 17