07/09/2020
Back in 2017 I had a dream of putting together an art gallery that honored the first entrepreneurs I ever knew growing up, Eloteros.
I set out to photograph every Elotero I could find in Logan Square, then invite their family to see giant portraits of their loved ones because to me they should be celebrated. I wanted to buy out entire elote carts and have every visitor be immersed in the Chicago summer vibe I loved. I wanted it to be a huge get together, but life happens, and it wasn’t until now with the climate we find our country in that I realized it’s time to celebrate the day 1 hustlers our communities recognize. This is my work in progress. I hope to finish it.
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This idea came to me while I was living in Logan Square and seen gentrification washing away family roots everyday. I swear there were days after work where I was the only Latinx walking on and off the train at the California train stop. How long have Latinx’s been living in this neighborhood that’s a few stops from the well paying jobs of downtown, and yet they weren’t the ones riding the train with me at 8:30 AM? Till this day I still count how many Latinx people I see around me in places. Recently, the days I would get out of work around the Financial District and walk towards the West Loop I would scan the crowd walking across the bridges, all racing towards the Metra, and couldn’t find one Latinx around me sometimes.
This project was my way of making sure a part of the beauty of our Latinx culture in Chicago is seen. This project was my way of insuring our faces are preserved in the history books of these neighborhoods. This project was my way of saying, we can celebrate ourselves and our neighbors, anytime of the day, everyday hustlers can be our local superheroes.
This wasn’t the first time I photographed Elotero’s, for a college freshman assignment I met up an Elotero, who was the uncle of a high school homie actually, in Albany Park to document his morning from 5am to 9pm in a Chicago winter. The hustle I seen that day was engraved into my memory.
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As safely as possible, I hope to find these Eloteros this summer, give them their prints and say thank you again. Tip your street vendor!
