Highwood keeps a low profile - North Shore Latinos fear controversy could bring attention to quiet community

Highwood keeps a low profile - North Shore Latinos fear controversy could bring attention to quiet community
By Antonio Olivo
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
May 16, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-highland-park-hispanics-20100515,0,984242.story


About a mile from Highland Park High School, where earlier this month officials decided to keep the girls basketball team from traveling to Arizona, a quiet North Shore community has been guardedly monitoring the firestorm that brought the nation's heated arguments over illegal immigration to its doorstep.

It is in Highwood — where boutique pubs, antique shops and the occasional Mexican restaurant line the small town's commercial strip — that most of Highland Park High's Latino immigrant students live, local activists and parents say.

For that reason, the school district's self-described effort to protect its students from controversy over an Arizona crackdown on illegal immigrants has brought concerns about an unwanted spotlight to Highwood — even though, according to some students, it appears that none of the girls on the current basketball team are immigrant, Latino or Highwood residents.

"I'm a little bit wary of the situation," said Highwood Ald. Quintin Sepulveda, who is Puerto Rican and the first elected Latino official in the town of roughly 4,100 residents. "As good as [the district's] intentions might have been, some of the people I know who live here, they're a little nervous."

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The anxiety stems partly from the reality that some of Highwood's immigrant residents are in the country illegally, local activists said. But it also has to do with concern that the controversy will attract the attention of bloggers and radio personalities to this mostly middle-class town of wood-paneled homes, art galleries and outdoor festivals.

"I'm really afraid they're going to bring in (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and that they'll start doing raids here and that's going to be real bad for the community," said one local activist, who asked that her name not be published. "For years, Highwood has been known as a friendly enclave of immigrants from all over the place."

For decades, up until the 1980s, the city was largely home to Italian immigrants. Their imprint is still visible in the Italian bakeries and pasta shops decorating the downtown restaurant district.

Affordable housing advocates say Highwood has for years been one of the few pockets on the North Shore where lower-income people can find places to live. That dynamic has made the small city an attractive destination for immigrants who have found work in the more upscale surrounding communities, such as Highland Park.

By 1990, with more restaurant jobs and work in construction available along the North Shore, about a quarter of the people living in Highwood were Latino, U.S. Census figures show. A decade later that proportion increased to about 40 percent, with many Latino immigrants arriving directly from Mexico, Guatemala and other Latin American countries.

About 15 percent of Highland Park High's students are Latino, though it's unclear how much of that population hails from Highwood.

Leonel De La Cruz, who moved to Highwood in 2002, said the town's calm reminds him of his childhood in rural Guatemala.

"I go to work, come home, relax and there's no problem," the restaurant cook said. "Here, nobody bothers you. It's a good place to have a family."

When word about the Arizona law began spreading, Highwood's Latino residents reacted like others around the country — with a feeling that their ethnic group was being targeted.

"Why are they always picking on (Spanish-speaking) people?" asked Michelle Fergus, a Miami-born Cuban, who was out with two toddlers at a nearly empty town park. "There are Italian immigrants. And Chinese immigrants, but it's always the (Latino) people. There's a fear of Arizona spreading."

Idalia Alvez, 18, a senior at Highland Park High who grew up in Highwood, said the district's stance on the law wasn't surprising, because the high school has long emphasized cultural tolerance.

"We have a lot of programs dealing with race," she said. "We have a lot of Latinos, Asians, blacks and students from other countries in our school. It's really diverse."

But although immigrant students have been active in many sports at Highland Park High, the basketball team has not been as diverse, said Yesenia Alonso, 18, another senior who is friends with several team members.

"They're really upset because they've been raising money to go to Arizona," she said. "For the school to do that is unfair. They all just stated that they just want to play and that they don't want to get involved in politics."

District officials have been sensitive to accusations that it was immigration politics that guided their decision. In an e-mail to students after the policy was made public last week, district Superintendent George Fornero noted that the Arizona law could apply to students who are not yet on the team.

One student said there are Latinos on some of the school's athletic teams who might be apprehensive about going on a trip like the one planned for Arizona.

"Most of us grow up in this community our whole lives," she said, as a stream of elementary school-aged children wandered into a nonprofit center that caters to Latino immigrant families. "But they still might be afraid."

Tribune reporter Rex W. Huppke contributed to this report.

aolivo@tribune.com