“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda”
John Viramontes would make Benjamin Franklin proud. Like our founding father, Viramontes has found the pen to be mightier than the sword.
A microscopic sampling of his Letters to the Editor to several major newspapers:
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7/11/05 - "Let Promotion Bloom" in Chicago Tribune, Voice of the People he defends artists’ rights
· 1/4/06 "Honor a Living Legend" in the Chicago Sun Times, Letters to the editor he writes about activist Florence Scala
· 8/21/06 "Government needs a better way" in Chicago Sun Times, Letters to the editor he takes on immigration
And this is just the tiniest, tiniest sample – Viramontes, 57, has been sourced, photographed, and published as an authentic local voice all over Chicago and the Midwest in all sorts of publications in multiple languages.
Why? Because the man is there. On the ground, in the neighborhoods, listening to people talk about losing their homes, or getting their green card, or being bilked out of their rent money, or any number of things.
“When I started helping out at the Northwest Neighborhood Federation in the late nineties, I was working on the injustices of neighborhood – housing availability, predatory lending, blight – I wasn’t looking at ethnicities, I was just trying to help people,” Viramontes told me recently. “In that work I learned I have a tremendous capacity to put myself in other people’s shoes, the ability to listen to others’ stories.”
“These are the stories of injustice, unfairness, callousness, bureaucracy,” Viramontes said, “and I’m living proof that getting justice for people doesn’t limit itself to any particular ethnicity, neighborhood or state.”
But the cool part about John? He actually gets stuff done.
In 1998 the Chicago Police Department’s 25th District issued a Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Community Service and Initiative for contributing to solving an armed robbery where a large sum of money was taken from a North Ave. near Harlem Ave. currency exchange.
In 2002 Viramontes was instrumental in getting the Ecuadorian consulate to establish the first ever office in Minnesota, organized by the non-profit National Peoples Action.
He has (and continues to) engage the American Association of Museums (AAM) through its president, to consider Heather Hope Stephens’ challenging Master’s thesis “Visualizing The Path Forward: The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 and Recommendations For a Response by American Museums.”
According to multiple people who plied me with testimonies to Viramontes’ work, he has shouldered the responsibility of allowing both the public and arts profession to know the significance of the historic case of Kelley vs. Chicago Park District which was filed using the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 statute and currently on appeal in a Chicago federal court.
The Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid? Don’t. Even. Get. Him. Started – that’s a whole ‘nother 600 words.
The bottom line here is that Viramontes – a Chicago-born, second generation Mexican-American accountant by trade, trained community organizer, and lifelong activist by heart – cares. And he translates that caring into action and results for people who are too deep in their problems to see the promise beyond them. Everyday.
“Perhaps the Irish progressive George Bernard Shaw put it best when he said: ‘I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.
Life is not a brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.’”
“Chicago Latino List 2009” was generously sponsored by the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Chicago White Sox, and Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Restaurants. All nominees were independently nominated for this recognition; their rejection and/or selection to “Chicago Latino List 2009” was not, in any way, influenced by any disclosed or undisclosed personal or professional proximity to Esther J. Cepeda or to any sponsor of “Chicago Latino List 2009”.
Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com
Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more.
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