On a street on the near west side of Chicago, a sea of people crowded together outside of a building looks out of the ordinary. It looks like a campsite, right in the middle of a city block. There’s a woman lying on the ground, pregnant. There’s a man brushing his teeth by some bushes. There are tents of different sizes, clumped together. The building they’re huddled around isn’t just any other building, it’s a police station. Inside the station, there’s much of the same. Men and women crowded together. Women are nursing their children on the floor. Lines of people waiting to use the restroom. It’s not an everyday sight.
This scene can be found at many police stations across the city, all being used as temporary housing for more than 1,500 migrants. Altogether, there have been more than 20,000 migrants relocated to Chicago, ever since the governor of Texas, Greg Abbot, started sending buses full of migrants in August of last year. Among all of the tents and crowded lobbies, it’s clear that the migrants are trying desperately to adjust to their new home.
The migrants face numerous challenges, but they’ve been finding ways to adjust to Chicago. Many of them are looking for work, trying to find their place in communities, and specifically, playing baseball.
Juan Villegas, a member of the Little Village community on the southwest side of Chicago, is an assistant at Pan de Vida, a food distribution center in Little Village, and is also a baseball coach. This past summer, he coached a 14u team at Piotrowski Park, where there is a migrant welcome center in the district’s field house. Naturally, the coach welcomed three Venezuelan migrants to the team. At first, the cultural difference was a barrier. “Yeah, it was hard for them in the beginning,” said Coach Villegas. “But since it’s baseball, they all got along through the sport.” Regardless of their origin, they came together through baseball, forming connections despite the language and cultural barriers. A player from the team said that “they spoke level 100 Spanish. It was hard for me to understand them sometimes but I didn’t let that get in the way and we played great as a team. They love baseball. We love baseball. That’s all that mattered for us to get along.”
Baseball allowed the migrants to foster a sense of belonging in a place not familiar to them. It’s a struggle to adjust to new living conditions but baseball allowed these kids to make new friends and become members of the community through shared interests.“It was like a family team. They stood up for each other for anything,” said Coach Villegas, “They’re part of the community. They’re very active. They have nice character. They’re good kids.”
Villegas’s service to his community also goes beyond the baseball field, as he works as an assistant at the Pan de Vida food distribution center in Little Village. “We provide food for those in need and have programs to help migrants settle in easier,” he said. Food distribution sites like Pan de Vida have played a crucial role in helping the Chicago migrants with their transition. They offer a lifeline to newcomers as they settle in and help them find jobs or enroll in school.
In addition to aiding migrants, the community of Little Village does many things to help out its existing community members. The various centers in the neighborhood are open to all, and they create a sense of unity between the existing community and the community of migrants. Governor Brendon Johnson said, “The only thing that I can do is do my part, and I’m asking other folks to do their part.” Villegas also believes that progress can only be made as a community working together. “I see a lot of people trying to do community work here. It’s been getting better and better. We’re in an overcrowded community and we’re all over here trying to do our best.”
Looking to the future, Villegas hopes that his example of unity through baseball continues inspiring others to be of service to their community as he has been for his. By creating more opportunities for migrants, communities can create environments of integration, understanding, and shared success. As Michael Rodriguez, the alderman of the 22nd ward, said in a meeting of the United Business Association of Midway, “This country was founded by immigrants, and this country is strong because of migration.”