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Marisol Luna is a Mexican-American character depicted by the newest American Girl book in which she learns she must leave her Pilsen neighborhood for the suburb of Des Plaines. In the story she says, "[My mother] explained it was no place for me to grow up. It was dangerous, and there was no place for me to play."
After the doll was released in January, the Pilsen community expressed outrage over the story's misrepresentation of their community.
"We had an opportunity to shine, but someone at a national level considered Pilsen a dangerous neighborhood," said Gloria Rodriguez, a student at St. Ignatius High School and Pilsen resident.
In response to American Girl's depiction of the Chicago's Pilsen community, UIC's Latino Studies program hosted a community panel discussion Thursday, Feb. 24 at the Rudy Lozano branch of the Chicago Public Library in Pilsen. The program was entitled "Marisol Comes Back to Pilsen."
The program consisted of four panel speakers who were familiar with different aspects of the Pilsen community. Francis Aparicio, director of the Latino Studies program at UIC, moderated the discussion.
Christina Gomez, a professor of sociology at Northeastern Illinois University and panel speaker, said that the aspects of gentrification are not addressed by the story. "Many people can no longer afford to live here," she said. With developers buying out property to rehab and re-sell as well as the university "growing by the day," Gomez feels the American Girl story is missing a complex aspect of the neighborhood.
She feels the book also fails to include the issues of Marisol's strong education.
"These issues are not in the book. That's something that can be done better by American Girl," Gomez said.
Claudia Romero, another panel speaker and board member of the Pilsen Alliance said she would have liked to see a more realistic depiction of the neighborhood.
"You see people coming from the suburbs to my neighborhood... they look at our murals, eat at our restaurants, and hear the music coming from our stores... They don't seem to be afraid. Either we're the latest zoo, or maybe we have something here."
Rodriguez, who was also one of the panel's speakers on behalf of Pilsen youth, said living in Pilsen never led her to dong drugs or joining a gang. "Pilsen has taught me we have to fight for what we want," she said.
The panel felt that American Girl was negligent in selecting author Gary Soto, who is a Mexican-American from southern California, to write the story.
"I thought a gringo wrote the story," said Romero. "If they were committed to getting a Mexicano author, why didn't they get a local one? [American Girl] couldn't have picked a more-wrong person to write this Mexican-American story."
Ray Salazar, a writer for WBEZ-FM's "Eight Forty-Eight," and panel speaker for the forum addressed how the misrepresentation of Pilsen will affect children in the community.
"What does it do for [our children's] self-esteem when they read that this city isn't good enough," Salazar said. "Pilsen isn't perfect, but it's home."
In questions from community members towards the panel, possible courses of action were discussed. Ideas included a boycott of the American Girl products, requesting that company retributions go to benefit the Pilsen neighborhood, as well as simply letting the whole situation blow over with the special edition doll finishing production at the end of 2005.
"There are so many other fires that are possibly more important than this doll," Romero said. "I hope we can take this momentum and solve some other issues."
Members of the community looked towards their alderman for answers, asking, "Where's Danny?"
Daniel Solis, the Alderman of the 25th ward, which includes the Pilsen neighborhood, was not in attendance for the discussion and had not responded to his invitation.
Another discussion is scheduled on March 10 at the Institute for Latino Programs, 2570 S. Blue Island, to address these issues with city lawmakers and officials from the American Girl Company.
"This neighborhood is what makes me feel successful. This is where I choose to stay," Romero said. "I wish Marisol had the same option."
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