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Benito Juarez Community Academy

1977 establishments in IllinoisAC with 0 elementsEducational institutions established in 1977Lower West Side, ChicagoMexican-American culture in Chicago
Public high schools in Chicago

Benito Juarez Community Academy, (commonly known as Juarez High School), is a public 4–year high school in the Pilsen neighborhood on the west side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Juarez is named for Mexican president Benito Pablo Juárez García. The school is a part of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district. As of 2014 it is the largest high school in Pilsen. It was designed by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. The school was proposed to the Chicago Board of Education multiple times but ultimately rejected. This led to protests and boycotts from many Mexican students and families. Finally, in June 1974, the Chicago Board of Education approved $8.9 million in funding to build a high school in Pilsen. Benito Juarez Community Academy opened in 1977 and as of 2017 has a 94 percent Latino student body. The school is decorated with murals and statues that portray Mexican culture and famous leaders.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Benito Juarez Community Academy (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Benito Juarez Community Academy
West Cermak Road, Chicago Lower West Side

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N 41.8529 ° E -87.6645 °
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Benito Juarez Community Academy

West Cermak Road
60608 Chicago, Lower West Side
Illinois, United States
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Church of St. Vitus (Chicago)

St. Vitus's Church Complex was a former late-nineteenth-century Roman Catholic church located in Pilsen, Chicago, Illinois at 1814 South Paulina Street, and corner of 18th Street. The church itself was closed in 1990 and the rectory and remaining space adaptively reused as the Guadalupano Family Center, a daycare and cultural center thereafter. The complex contained a 4,500-square-foot (420 m2) church (1896–1897), rectory (1898), and parish school (1902). The complex was closed 1990. The National Trust for Historic Preservation profiled the structure as a good example of adaptive reuse: "A community task force collaborated with area interfaith organizations to develop a non-profit community development corporation called The Resurrection Project. This group was organized to specifically focus on developing and overseeing uses for the complex, as well as developing numerous low-income and affordable housing units and residences in the area." The church was renovated 1992-1996 as a "state-of-the-art day care facility was designed for the former parochial school, and plans are underway for a cultural center in the now hollow sanctuary space that was destroyed by a fire….The Resurrection Project operates one of the most active community reinvestment programs in the area from the [church]," costing $1.2 million for conversion of school and $400,000, anticipated repairs to church.Its location in a Latino neighborhood enabled its large number of parishioners to work with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to explore reuse options with a team of architects, urban planners, historic preservationists, low-income housing specialists, commercial developers, and educators to create Guadalupano Family Center, a day care and cultural activity center. Opened in 1994, the child care facility "that operates on a sliding scale fee, serving the population of 6,000 children between 3 and 12 years of age living within 1/2 mile of the center. The center also employs a staff of 22 teachers."

Pilsen Historic District
Pilsen Historic District

The Pilsen Historic District is a historic district located in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Pilsen is a neighborhood made up of the residential sections of the Lower West Side community area of Chicago. In the late 19th century Pilsen was inhabited by Czech immigrants who named the district after Pilsen, the fourth largest city in Czechia. The population also included in smaller numbers other ethnic groups from the Austro-Hungarian Empire including Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats and Austrians, as well as immigrants of Polish and Lithuanian heritage. The Czechs had replaced the Germans, who had settled there first with the Irish in the mid-19th century. Although there was an increasing Mexican American presence in the late 1950s, it was not until 1962-63 when there was a great spurt in the numbers of Mexican Americans in Pilsen due to the destruction of the neighborhood west of Halsted Street between Roosevelt and Taylor Streets to create room for the construction of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Although this area was predominantly Italian American, it was also an important entry point for Mexican immigrants for several decades. Latinos became the majority in 1970 when they surpassed the Slavic population. The neighborhood continued to serve as port of entry for immigrants, both legal and illegal, mostly of Mexican descent. Pilsen's Mexican population is increasingly dwarfed by what has become the largest Mexican neighborhood in Chicago, Little Village. Pilsen became a National Historic Register District on February 1, 2006.