COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

While attending Neighborhood Association meetings, I befriended an older
Mexican-American woman who lived in the neighborhood. Sylvia, was about seventy
years old, and lived in Oak Park for many years. She had a son who was a dancer and a
daughter who was a lawyer, both of whom lived in New York City. Sylvia was a retired
teacher who had worked for the CSUS Math, Engineering, and Science, Achievement
(MESA) program in Sacramento for many years. She had an active lifestyle and enjoyed
participating in community events, taking Latin dance lessons, and traveling around the
world. We became friends quickly and Sylvia helped me secure a part-time student
assistant position with the MESA program. At Neighborhood Association meetings we
sometimes sat next to each other and talked about a variety of topics, from work to travel
to neighborhood events.
A few months after we met, Sylvia invited me over to her house to talk about a
project she was working on. I was intrigued and excitedly agreed to meet with her.
Sylvia had long felt that the Neighborhood Association meetings had an
underrepresentation of Latino residents attending meetings. She wondered why such a
large number of Latinos lived in Oak Park but did not attend the meetings. Sylvia felt
there were many reasons why Latinos did not attend Association meetings, the language
barrier being a main reason. Many Latino residents in Oak Park were recent immigrants
or first-generation Latinos who did not speak English, and Neighborhood Association
meetings were conducted in English. Sylvia told me that for a long time she had always
wanted to hold meetings in the neighborhood that were bilingual and benefited the Latino
residents. At Neighborhood Association meetings, she felt decisions in the neighborhood
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