CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- In honor of the upcoming Hispanic Heritage Month, Governor Pritzker visited the Pilsen community to help dedicate a parking plaza that’s a lot more than it sounds.
Governor Pritzker doesn’t often appear at parking lot dedications, but the Ray Castro Parking Lot Plaza is outside the National Museum of Mexican Art.
"Chicago is home to a lot of premier art institutions, but few embody the vibrancy and the diversity of this city, of this nation, of this world quite like the National Museum of Mexican Art," Pritzker said.
The museum's trustee Roberto Valencia said that plaza was built with the help of nearly $2 million from the state.
"The Ray Castro Plaza will have dual purposes. It is a 50-car parking lot. It will also serve as a plaza for community events and concerts," he said.
It’s named for a legendary community leader, who was also Chicago’s first Latino ward committeeman. His son Marty Castro said his dad wanted to be an alderman, and had to ask then mayor Richard J. Daley for permission. It was machine politics back then.
"The mayor said to him, no you can't run for office in the 7th Ward because you're Mexican and Mexicans don't vote," Castro said.
A lot has changed since then.
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