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Evelin has been explaining to me that the building now known as “La Casita” has been in regular use for at least the last seven years.

We have documentation to prove that CPS knew that it was in use, that we have programs here. We gave them the schedule of programs, and we told them, Here’s our programs that we have here.

They said, Oh, you guys can use it the whole summer. Then they said that on September tenth they were going to demolish it.

Whittier Bilingual Elementary School's growing library (Tuesday)

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You would not be likely to pick Evelin Santos out of a crowd: she’d be in the back, in the shadows of the room, her long curly hair tied out of her eyes, quietly scanning the crowd to make sure everyone’s needs get met. Reasonable fleece in a mild color atop a modest shirt and conservative slacks. Nothing flashy.

In truth, it is people like Evelin Santos you want to learn to see: the collectors, the assistants, the facilitators; the women who don’t want their names plastered on everything, or a megaphone, or attention. Such people understand that real power lies not in visibility. They know that real power lies in the act of listening.

The young Ms. Santos is on the support team at Whittier Bilingual Elementary School.

I’m a community member, and I’m here helping the moms. I’ve been helping them for a while. I’m a DePaul student, and I’ve been helping them out. I’m a volunteer. I’m helping them organize and giving them the support that they need. I study psychology right now, so when it gets hard, I’m here picking them up and telling them, It’s OK. Don’t cry. We’re doing a good thing.

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Ms. Gonzalez has been sleeping at the Whittier Elementary School field house since Thursday night—a cheerily painted location, to be sure, but not an ideal housing situation for the 46-year-old banker and single mother. But she’s been fighting to host a library in the building for seven years, and she feels ignored by the Chicago Public Schools, who instead slated the building for demolition, to make way for a new sports field. For a neighboring school.

Although CPS knew the building had been in active use for those seven years, they claimed it was structurally unsound. So the Pilsen Alliance, an organization devoted to ensuring residents in the neighborhood a voice in local development, had it inspected, by engineering firm Ingenii in Oak Park. Their findings? That the roof needs work, but that “the structure is in good condition and suitable for continued use.”

As we talk, in the brightly painted room that might be in better condition than some of the newly renovated rooms at Whittier Elementary itself, young people come in to ask Araceli questions, say hi. Other moms wave. The atmosphere is congenial. Fun, actually. And deeply caring.

There’s so much unity here. I talk to people that I’ve never seen in my life. They talk to me like they’ve known me forever in my life. They bring food, they bring water. They ask you, You OK? You need anything? Go to sleep. We got it, we’ll take care of it outside. You need to go to work.

Sign on Whittier Elementary field house

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Ms. Gonzalez, a reasonable and kind-looking woman, has been sleeping at the Whittier Elementary School field house for the last couple days and—well, I’ll just let her explain.

I have been here since Wednesday, 9 o’clock in the morning. I am a working mom, so I come back and go. I spent the night—Thursday? Yeah, I think so. I lost days. Yeah, Thursday—today’s Saturday—yes, I spent the night Thursday and I’m planning to stay today, again, and stay ‘til tomorrow until late, late, late so I can go to work Monday. I work at a bank. The girls let me go and take a shower before I go in, to get myself ready.

Supporters and occupiers of the Whittier Elementary School field house on Saturday.

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Katie Lizzie Drew is a pseudonym for one of the cutest little girls in the world. She’s Latina and lives in West Ridge, with her mom and her dad. Not too far away from Andres and Michelle Flores, in fact.

I’m 6. Well I’m 6, but I’m almost 7. I’m pretty much one of the youngest in my class so I get to go first in probably all the games.

(photo by Heather Phillips)

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Sharon’s a tall, blonde, thin astrophysicist. And she has a secret.

The different subfields of physics have different ratios of women to men. Astronomy tends to attract women more than other sub-branches of physics. Not to say that there are a lot. In our research group, there’re probably a dozen people, maybe three of us are women. I think nationally, in all of physics, it’s around 10 or 15%. We’re present but it’s definitely still a man’s field. When I was an undergrad, people were a little less sensitive, but I think it’s getting better. Every female physicist has some personal story where someone’s been very rude or said something that was obviously not kosher, and you look back at it now and you think, people are morons. But it happens. My story is—I went to Ohio University and I went to the honors tutorial program. Basically, instead of going through your regular course curriculum, your main physics class for each quarter was taught in this one-on-one tutorial. It was based on the Oxford Cambridge model. There were six of us that were in this program, so they would sort of round us up from time to time, and we’d do things in the lab. And there was this one kid in our class. I can’t remember his name. He was a real jerk. No one really liked him. [Laughs.] He would just say boorish things, because he either didn’t care or didn’t know any better.

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The blonde, waif-like Sharon Craine studies physics by day and sings karaoke by night. She lives in Ukrainian Village.

The Mutiny—I wouldn’t say I was always there all the time. When I first went it was mostly for the karaoke, but I remember we just did stupid shit. One night I remember Liz and Joe and Derrick and Pete and Rachel and I—we toilet papered the bar. At the end of the night there was toilet paper everywhere. This was totally ridiculous, but they didn’t care. Ed* is pretty laid back, as long as people aren’t getting injured, and as along as you’re having fun.

I remember Ed telling me about some band, and they would just come in and they would throw chunks of ceiling at each other. So I think that’s just sort of how it’s always been. And they just want bands. As many bands as possible. You know, other places are always worried about, How are we going to bring in money at the door? But the way the Mutiny works is, they can’t ever charge a cover, but they can charge more for the drinks or something when the bands are in. So for them it doesn’t really matter what bands are in, just get a band there. So I think it’s sort of cool that they just want bands. So they’ll sort of take anybody. My boyfriend’s band has played there.

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