Teresa Fraga

Teresa Fraga, born in 1944 in Mexico, came with her family to the US when she was 7 years old. In 1966 Fraga, her husband and their children moved to the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago. Pilsen, a neighborhood that has been home to new waves of immigrants since the late 1800’s, was going through a particularly rough time. Besides crime and drug problems, the public schools were vastly inadequate. Fraga’s activism and community organizing began with educational issues but soon graduated to community issues as she became Treasurer of Pilsen Neighbors Community Council, Co-Chair of the Pilsen Planning Committee and President of the United Neighborhood Organization.

Why this stop? The Pink Line’s Western Avenue stop is one of the L stations that serves the Pilsen neighborhood.

Listen to Theresa Fraga describe gentrification attempts of the Pilsen neighborhood as well as her involvement in the development of Benito Juarez High School.