PILSEN COMMUNITY MARKET

The Pilsen Community Market has been a Community and food advocate for eleven years in order to educate in better options for food sources and sustainability. The PCM came to form as a community market first, looking to connect local artisans, farmers and makers to their local consumers, as well as a meeting place for the community to come together. PCM is comprised of an entirely minority board.

Pilsen Community Market
Sunday, August 25

music by
FRANCES KARIM CHIROQUE

Frances Karim Chiroque has completed a Masters Degree in Music from Conservatory of Puerto Rico with a major focus in Classical Guitar, making her the first puertorrican female obtaining this diploma from this recognized institution.

She has studied with world renown musicians such as Iván Rijos and Manuel Barrueco. Awarded with a Berklee Schorlarship and selected for Wilson Center Guitar Competition as semifinalist, Frances dedicates her love and committed to represent the classical guitar community from Puerto Rico in the United States.

Currently, Ms. Chiroque has been selected for a donation of a $15,000 value guitar thanks to a joined partnership with Connor Guitars and Augustine Strings family, in efforts to give hope in her musical career after Hurricane María (2017) in Puerto Rico. Most recently, she has also partnered as a Sales Representative with Frank Cruz Classical Guitars , located in Chicago, IL . Together, they offer quality concert guitars for sale and rentals.

María Parra

was born in Mexico City. At early age moved to the country side, in Guanajuato. Then, in 1990, she migrated to Florida and started working in the strawberry fields. After seven years working as a farm worker in Florida, she began following the harvesting season from Florida, to Texas, to Virgina, back and forward until she settled in Michigan. She has been harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, blueberries, apples, oranges, blackberries, zucchini, and almost all imaginable produce. She has also labored in a tomato cannery where her children began to work: Johnathan and Mary Sánchez. After working in the fields for 28 years, in 2018 she decided to invested in a tractor a decided to start working for herself and became a vendor at the Pilsen Community Market. So all the produce that she sells in the market, she and her family plant it, take care of it and harvest it right before she drives to Chicago. This season she will be featuring in her market stall: onions, tomatoes, zucchinis, watermelon, peaches, poblano and serrano peppers, green tomatillos, kale, potatoes, squash strawberries, and many more fresh products.

Pupusas El Cipote

Carmen García migrated to Chicago 35 years ago. García left her homeland because the Civil War was devastating El Salvador; she became a refugee. Upon arrival in the city, she got involved with solidarity groups that were supporting the peace process in her country. She contributed by making pupusas (the traditional street appetizer from El Salvador) to raise funds for the cause. She learned the art of making pupusas in San Salvador, her aunt had a pupusería; at 16, García began helping her. During three decades, García prepared pupusas for special events in Chicago and last summer she began selling them at the Pilsen Community Market. Week after week, there are long lines of customers waiting to taste this Salvadoran delicacy in Pilsen. At the Market, García offers three kinds of pupusas: traditional refried beans; chicharron prensado (tomato, onion and meaty pork belly); cheese with loroco (a vine with edible flowers, widespread in Central America). Nowadays, Carmen García has two goals on her mind: 1) Teach her granddaughter the art of making pupusas so that she can continue with the long family culinary tradition, and 2) continue helping social organizations engaged in making progressive change in society. García’s philosophy is, “I was born to help those in need and I will die helping them. I don’t care about the color of the skin. I only care about social justice and positive change.”