Logan Square’s Latinos fight for a place in their community – Chicago – Logan Square had become too expensive

Maria Marquez’s Logan Square neighborhood–a place she loves–has often made her life very difficult.

Marquez, who has lived in the near northwest neighborhood for 29 years, remembers how the area suffered from decades of gang violence and street crime, but she stayed. She lived with her son in her mother’s cramped two-bedroom apartment on West Armitage Avenue, right next to a vacant lot.

A former tutor at a local elementary school who hopes to become a public school bilingual teacher, was there as the neighborhood miraculously improved. Investors renovated old homes and new people started moving in. Marquez wanted to have a slice of what the newcomers were enjoying, and in 2005, she finally moved into her own apartment in Logan Square with her teen-aged son.”*

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