HUMBOLDT PARK — Outgoing Ald. Roberto Maldonado has endorsed community leader and activist Jessie Fuentes for 26th Ward alderperson.
In a statement posted Monday to Facebook, Maldonado said Fuentes is a “hardworking, passionate community organizer, public safety advocate and activist raised in Humboldt Park” who has “devoted her life’s work to fighting for the most vulnerable in our community.”
“Without a doubt in my mind, she is the best person to represent our ward in City Council. Therefore, I strongly urge you to support Jessie Fuentes as the next Alderperson of the 26th Ward,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado is retiring after serving as Humboldt Park’s alderperson for 13 years and working in Cook County government for nearly 30 years. He withdrew his candidacy in early January, then made his retirement official a few days later with a farewell letter to residents in which he touted his commitment to fighting gentrification.
Fuentes, 31, grew up in Humboldt Park and has never left.
Fuentes was the program director of Humboldt Park youth center Café Teatro Batey Urbano and worked for about a decade as the dean of students at two Humboldt Park schools: Pedro Albizu Campos High School and Roberto Clemente Community Academy.
In the lead-up to launching her campaign, Fuentes was the director of policy and youth advocacy for the Humboldt Park-based Puerto Rican Cultural Center and co-chair of the Puerto Rican Agenda, another local group.
In recent years, Fuentes has become one of neighborhood’s most active community leaders, leading numerous news conferences around Puerto Rican disaster relief and other happenings, most of them focused on Humboldt Park’s Puerto Rican community.
Fuentes has regularly appeared alongside Maldonado and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center’s executive director, Jose Lopez, Maldonado’s close ally and longtime friend, at press events.
In an interview with Block Club last year, Fuentes said as alderperson she would push for more affordable housing to prevent further displacement of Humboldt Park’s longtime Latino residents and for well-funded social services and public school programs.
“I am the daughter of drug addiction. I am the daughter of an incarcerated parent,” she said. “I truly understand what it means to be at the center of some of these systems of oppression, and I also know what it means to be on the policy side and really work to create a system that undoes systems of oppression, particularly for families of color.
“My campaign will seek to address the root causes [of the ward’s issues], not just create policies that are Band-Aids.”
Maldonado said Fuentes is a “tireless champion for young people, seniors and working families.”
“I trust Jessie to take the baton and guide the future of our beloved constituents of this great ward — the 26th Ward,” he said in the post.
If elected, Fuentes will be the ward’s first queer Latina leader. She would also be the area’s youngest alderperson in many years.
Fuentes is running against popular DJ Julian “Jumpin” Perez and 26th Ward Democratic Committeeperson Angee Gonzalez Rodriguez. For more information about the 26th Ward candidates, go here.
Fuentes didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Maldonado’s endorsement.