Doll from around the world arrives in Chicago for “Mexico Week”

admin — Wed, 10 May 2023 17:28:27 +0000

Lele, a 13-foot doll crafted by hand in Queretaro, Mexico, was on exhibit Tuesday at a fiesta in Daley Plaza that featured CPS students performing traditional Mexican music and dance.

The “usually empty” Daley Plaza near Jaime Ortiz’s office was converted into a scene reminiscent of the plazas his family knew while living abroad on Tuesday, complete with music, dance, and even a 13-foot-tall doll.

After watching a video of his niece and nephew, who are both dancers in a local Mexican dance group, getting ready to perform on stage on social media, Ortiz, 27, went to the square at Washington and Dearborn streets.

He was aware that some neighbourhoods in Chicago, including Pilsen, cherished Mexican culture, but the downtown fiesta felt like a level of acknowledgement he had never experienced before.

“There was always Cinco de Mayo, but seeing something like this in Daley Plaza,” he stumbled to finish. “It just feels happier than it did 20 years ago.”

The celebration was a part of Mexico Week, which the Mexican consulate in Chicago organised to highlight distinctive Mexican customs and highlight Chicago’s connections to its southern neighbour.

Mexican immigrants have historically found refuge in the city, and today, more than 200,000 people call Chicago home, more than any other nation, according to demographer Rob Paral’s study of data from the 2020 census.

A team specialising in Aztec dances as well as the Ballet Folklorico from a Southwest Side school, as well as a recent CPS graduate, sang mariachi solos during the downtown event.

Numerous people went to watch the performances and view the gigantic doll sent by the Mexican consulate, Lele, the travelling mascot for the Mexican state of Queretaro, as well as to hear from representatives from the Mexican consulate and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who was born in Mexico.

Martinez stated, “We want to celebrate the various cultures that our children in our district have.” It is the reason why Chicago is unique.

Claudia Reyes, Ortiz’s sister, watched as her son Nathaniel, 8, took Martinez’s place on stage and, along with another dancer, performed while unrolling a giant crimson ribbon.

Both Reyes, 42, and her spouse are of Mexican ancestry. They reside in Archer Heights, where Edwards Elementary School, a CPS institution nearby, just so happened to provide a traditional dance programme.

Reyes saw it as an opportunity for her children to reconnect with their ancestry.

They are experiencing Mexican culture closer to home because we don’t travel to Mexico or practise its traditions, she claimed. They now have a better understanding of their father’s origins thanks to it.

Together with Sophia De Santiago, age 9, of Archer Heights—the daughter of another Mexican immigrant—Nathaniel knotted the ribbon into a knot.

Carmen De Santiago, her mother, left Mexico 20 years ago. She claimed that Mexican Chicagoans may honour Mexican ideals during Mexico Week.

De Santiago, 41, said, “It’s important teaching kids the traditional values so we don’t forget it. Mexico is a part of us even though we’re not there.

Outside the stage, onlookers paused to take pictures with Lele. Chicago is the last stop on the doll’s journey, which has also taken her to Denver, Philadelphia, and New York City. The doll was produced in Queretaro.

On Wednesday, Lele will visit O’Hare Airport, and on Saturday, Little Village.

Sergio Perez halted so that he could capture a picture of his son in front of the toy. A 3-year-old boy just about reached the doll’s legs.

The two tourists from Puebla, Mexico, were in Chicago to visit family when they got lost in the city centre and stumbled onto the events.

43-year-old Perez stated, “It’s absolutely fantastic. “We celebrate special occasions frequently in Mexico, and our people here in this country shouldn’t lose that tradition; it is preferable that they hold on to their roots.”