Art, Music, and Sports are Paths to Peace

When Erik Bonilla, a soccer lover, settled in the Humboldt Park community with his family at the age of nine, he never imagined a future where he could not play his favorite sport because he would be bound to a wheelchair.

Two years after graduating from high school, this young Honduran became a victim of crossfire. Walking home, just two blocks from the door of his home where he lived with his parents, gang members began shooting towards Bonilla, who was then 19 years old, and his best friend since the third grade. One of the stray bullets penetrated Bonilla’s back causing severe damage to his nervous system and spinal cord. Bonilla was paralyzed from the waist down.

“Everyone in my family was hurt because I am one of the older cousins, and everyone was shocked because I was always working with my father, a mechanic,” Bonilla told La Raza.

Bonilla’s case is sadly similar to that of many residents of communities identified among the most unsafe and violent in Chicago. According to data from the Violence Reduction Dashboard established by the city of Chicago, from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2020, 13,546 people in the city were victims of non-fatal shootings. In 2020, 15% were people of Latino descent, 84% of the victims were male, and 64% were between 20 and 39 years old. Humboldt Park remains among the 15 communities pointed out by the mayor’s office and the Chicago Police Department for its high rate of attacks and murders.

To this day, the authorities have not found the culprits of the shooting that affected Bonilla, and it has not been easy for him to live in a community where the criminals who stole his ability to walk are still free. In an instant, Bonilla became a statistic and joined a new group, that of people with physical disabilities.

While the young man from El Progreso, Honduras, was learning to accept his new reality and adapt to a wheelchair, another tragedy occurred. In 2018, on his way home, he found himself in the middle of a second shooting. An unpredictable reality that no one, not even the doctors at the hospital who treated him two years earlier, could have imagined.

Being in the wrong place twice seems incredible, but in communities where gang crime prevails, the chances of being a victim of violent crime increase drastically. The period between 2016 and 2018 was termed ‘The Great Crime Rise in Chicago’ by Northwestern University. In 2016, there was a 42% increase in the number of homicides that occurred in Chicago compared to the previous year.

Deadly probabilities

Two years after Bonilla’s first visit to the emergency room, the same emergency medical service responded to his most recent gunshot wound, this time in the abdomen. Bonilla said he did not feel the initial impact of the bullet entering his body and was surprised to see blood running down his shirt. In addition, he admitted that the reaction of those who treated him in the hospital for the second time was very unexpected.

“You feel a bit stereotyped because everyone looked at me, and I know they were wondering, ‘Didn’t he learn his lesson the first time?’” Bonilla said.

Bonilla stated that moving away from the crime that terrorized Humboldt Park at that time and relocating his family to a safer community was not economically feasible. His parents tried to sell the property after the first incident and interested buyers “did not offer the value of the house because the neighborhood was not the best.”

“I was crying and sad for my family. I really couldn’t believe it. I think I felt a bit guilty for staying in Humboldt Park and not moving,” said Bonilla.

In a report published in Housing Policy Debate, authors Immergluck and Smith underline that “higher foreclosure rates contribute to higher levels of violent crime in more vulnerable neighborhoods, making them less attractive to potential buyers and, ultimately, contributing to further deterioration of neighborhoods and lower property values.”

“We chose to stay and work with our local representatives to get shot spotter cameras and more police officers. Since 2018, the situation has changed a lot, and we feel safer,” said Bonilla, who gave up his dreams of following in his father’s footsteps as a mechanic and of attending college after being a victim of violence in his community. “My biggest fear was going out because I thought other young people would see me differently in a wheelchair,” said Bonilla.

Reinventing his identity

Bonilla’s life would change for the third time after one of his rehabilitation and intensive therapy sessions. He was invited to a camp where he learned skills to facilitate daily tasks and achieve independence and self-efficacy. In that program, he met other people in wheelchairs who introduced him to the world of adaptive sports and encouraged him to overcome his insecurities. Optimistically, the Honduran progressed with his rehabilitation at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, a nonprofit rehabilitation and physical medicine research hospital based in Chicago.

Soon, he discovered that there are many sports options for people with disabilities, including kayaking, softball, basketball, archery, cycling, and rock climbing. Bonilla emphasized that he has the strength and spirit to continue fighting for a dream and new goals thanks to the guidance he has received from his physical therapy assistants.

Through this process, Bonilla discovered his love and skill for softball and basketball. And in the 2020 season, he won the award for the best center fielder in the local wheelchair league.

“After one season, I became a different person and was inspired by all sports. Besides, I learned to drive, applied for my driver’s license, bought a car, and said, ‘I’m going to become something’…,” Bonilla highlighted with much enthusiasm.

Almost at the end of the interview, Bonilla asked for a couple of seconds, lowered his head, and closed his eyes to endure and overcome the pain he suddenly feels and the anguish he still suffers as a result of the act of violence he experienced.

“I’ve gone from being useless to being super independent because I found something I’m passionate about, and that gives you a purpose in life,” Bonilla shared.

His wheelchair is his link to the sports world. For three years, Bonilla has been part of the Chicago Skyhawks wheelchair basketball team, a program of Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and the Chicago Park District that includes people with disabilities, including victims of physical violence.

Safer communities through sports

Changes that must occur in Chicago to make communities safer and to have fewer cases like Bonilla’s include offering more extracurricular activities and sports to young people to keep them busy and provide them with opportunities to explore the world away from unsafe streets and the usual environment.

Expanding the world of teenagers through tours of different parts of the city or trips to other states can be transformative experiences that allow them to discover new cultures and places. During these trips, participants also learn about themselves and become more initiative-taking and independent. Bonilla plays basketball in parks located throughout Chicago and travels with the Chicago Skyhawks team to different states in the country.

During these trips, like the one where Bonilla learned to mountain bike in the state of Colorado, young people develop essential skills for their future.

When he talks about his adventures, the excitement is quite significant. A total contrast to who, eight years ago, was depressed and afraid to leave his house. Today, at 28, Bonilla dazzles with spectacular aptitude in the sports he practices and his enthusiasm for excelling in all available activities for people with disabilities.

“It’s very encouraging to have overcome the trauma and depression after suffering that pain and being able to come out on the other side,” Bonilla concluded.

Healing Trauma Through Art

This summer, young victims of gun violence participating in the Project FIRE program, which stands for ‘fearless initiative for recovery and empowerment,’ will travel to Murano, Italy, for a cultural exchange with other young professionals and masters in the art of glassblowing. “I never imagined I would get to visit Italy,” exclaimed Jakwon Cross, 18, who has been studying with one of Project FIRE’s glassblowing instructors, N’Kosi Barber, for a year.

Like the Chicago Skyhawks sports program, Project FIRE is an initiative that provides support and trauma recovery for young people wounded by gun violence in Chicago. Both programs wrap participants in a series of services to motivate them to discover more about their identity and explore beyond their communities.

From a warehouse turned into an art studio, located at 2651 W. Lake in the East Garfield Park community, young participants in Project FIRE, aged between 13 and 24, learn to face their fears while creating impressive art through the discipline of glassblowing. In doing so, they develop productive skills and habits that elevate individual well-being.

The initiative started in 2015 and is part of Firebird Community Arts, supported by the Healing Hurt People-Chicago program, a violence intervention initiative. This community organization began with a grant from the Urban Health Initiative of the University of Chicago. Perla Dick, executive director and glassblower, and clinical psychologist Bradley Stolbach founded this nonprofit organization that empowers and connects people impacted by violence through the healing practice of glassblowing and ceramics.

Project FIRE works with 25 young people per session, during spring, summer, and fall. Each individual attends for 4 to 8 hours per week. Each session begins with three hours of glassblowing, followed by an hour of trauma support groups led by youth and their instructors. Recently, a group composed solely of women, some of them pregnant, was organized.

The program aims to alleviate the individual and structural trauma impacting youth, veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, undocumented immigrants, and Chicago Public Schools students living in the city’s south and southwest sides.

The organization’s logo, the phoenix rising from the flames, symbolizes the individual reconstruction that occurs in participants who fully engage in the program and emerge stronger and more resilient.

Embracing Comprehensive Services

Almost daily, Cross, who is a survivor of gun violence, calls an Uber for the trip from the Englewood community to East Garfield Park to continually improve his skills with Project FIRE in a space where he receives artistic guidance and personal growth is encouraged through group discussions named SELF.

To connect with victims of violent crime and bring them closer to well-being opportunities, the program weaves comprehensive services and creates educational pathways in communities underrepresented in the arts. Besides offering artistic instruction in fields usually not economically accessible to low-income individuals, Project FIRE connects participants with job opportunities and mentoring, art certifications, project management experience, and emotional support.

In fact, in the past four years, seven participants and two instructors have received scholarships from the Corning Museum of Glass in New York.

Moreover, young participants find in this initiative a safe place to connect with peers facing similar traumas and mentors who create positive and secure environments where participants often shine. These services amplify the impact of the arts programs in Chicago communities that most need affordable and high-quality artistic instruction and empower individuals to envision a future filled with opportunities.

Rebuilding Lives Through Glassblowing

Building a safe community is not achieved in one day, nor is an artwork made of glass, which requires multiple firings, constant motion, and tools to shape it until achieving the desired form and function. Victims come to Project FIRE following a traumatic event. Most participants choose the program from a list of healing services offered to them at Stroger Hospital after being treated for gunshot wounds and discharged.

“Working with something dangerous is like overcoming a very difficult thing. You come to face the fire and it hits you, but when you are able to stand in front of it, you realize you can overcome any journey,” shared Barber in an interview with La Raza, alongside Carina Yépez, a multidisciplinary artist and program specialist.

With the help of this program and the support of instructors, hundreds of people have rebuilt their lives, increased their empathy, overcome personal challenges, found new jobs, and made positive connections with those around them. Glassblowing has helped them recover from violence and distance themselves from circumstances that connect them to violence.

Barber smiled when asked about the support they provide, sharing that they are working to secure everything participants need for their trip to Italy, including passports and permits. They have also assisted individuals with housing applications, and Yépez has “met with parents because they needed access to support and there was a language barrier.”

Creating art and overcoming trauma requires patience and much repetition. Containers, flowers, animal-shaped art decorate the studio walls. Each piece is a reflection of the artisans’ performance who choose glassblowing as therapy. The creation of each piece displays the personal growth of each participant.

Glass is a delicate and malleable substance that awakens self-love and inspires self-esteem improvement. This is evident in each participant’s ability to manipulate the glass. “When you feel like you can’t, there’s always someone to encourage you,” says Yépez, who also works with textiles. “I can work with this material, I can feel that fire, I can feel that heat and then, once you start to mold it, play with it, and sculpt. Then you feel empowerment, and it’s a team effort,” said Barber.

One of the opportunities offered by this program is the chance to learn a new skill, create unique art, and pursue a career. In his passion to make a difference, Barber seeks to inspire young participants to see a future for themselves and to think about getting a job.

62% of Project FIRE participants remain active and join the team as mentors or instructors for four or more years. Among them is Barber, who has worked with Perla Dick since the launch of the program. Unfamiliar with glassblowing, Barber was encouraged to blow glass and switched bad paths for a unique one. Soon, the apprentice became a master.

Glassblowing, an Escape from Community Insecurity

In 2018, Firebird Community Arts moved to a warehouse next to the Green Line train tracks in East Garfield Park and expanded its services. Since then, it has continued to grow and extend its reach and impact among victims of gun violence.

Two massive furnaces keep the glass in liquid form at a temperature of 2,000 degrees. The heat is stifling, but the participants blowing glass do not give up and use a steel rod to gather the glass and begin the task of shaping it their way.

When blowing, the glass expands like a balloon and the rod must be rotated constantly and carefully to keep the glass malleable. It’s an arduous process but rewarding at the same time. Even if the artwork breaks, the glassblowers have learned stress-relieving exercises and practice relaxation techniques to focus their thoughts and calm anxiety. When they manage to calm intense emotions, they can restart the work. These techniques can be applied to difficult situations in daily life.

The current facilities occupy the furnaces, a couple of wooden tables, and an exhibition space. And every day, interest in this program that combines art and empowerment in favor of violence victims grows.

In about two years, in January 2026, Barber and Yépez hope to open their new 12,000 square-foot community glass and ceramics studio and facilities which will be built using $2.5 million in funds from the Chicago Recovery Grant program they received to facilitate the purchase of the land.

Currently, they are working on a fundraising campaign to complete the project and rent new equipment that will be necessary to offer more activities.

The new community art studio will be an anchor in the East Garfield Park community, expected to generate job opportunities and boost cultural and artistic experiences in the west side of the city. At the same time, the artistic project will be used to promote a safer and healthier community for the people of Chicago.

In their new facilities, Project FIRE will have triple the space available to integrate new equipment and offer more programming in different artistic mediums, such as drawing, screen printing, and ceramics. Additionally, they plan to address accessibility issues, transportation needs to access the facilities, and dedicate space for a healing garden where there will be opportunities to grow vegetables and fruits to provide healthy food to the community.

Barber explains that early intervention in young victims of violence, whose rapid learning pace facilitates the understanding of new concepts, is crucial.

When you have a hot glass in your hands, your focus is on it, and you forget everything else. In communities where the fear of violence and the perception of insecurity are prevalent, for self-protection, it’s necessary to disconnect from daily life. Daily activities, like walking home from school, can be traumatizing.

The arts offer an escape and a viable way out of the common problems in many young people’s lives, such as domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, neighborhood violence, and a lack of opportunities.

“We offer the chance to grow, and each participant has the potential to learn something new,” said Barber.

“Here they can share their stories with each other to achieve that release and recover from trauma,” Yépez explained enthusiastically.

Recently, Barber and Yépez invited kids from the juvenile detention center to their studio and worked with them to expose them to art and offer them a way to grow mentally. And Project FIRE collaborates with other organizations to guide young people and inspire them to imagine a future away from crime and violence.

“The training workshops I lead are to learn about integrating art into the healing process. Participants just need a space to feel safe and supported,” said Yépez, of Mexican descent.

Among the young people who have participated in Project FIRE, some have shown interest in becoming professional artists. To encourage their aspirations, the sale of their artworks is allowed in an online store, and they are motivated to design their exhibitions to gain business experience.

Community Insecurity is Remediable

With the opening of a larger space, Barber explains that the goals are to invite more young people from the community to participate and reach them before they become victims of violence.

Community insecurity is also a consequence of the lack of resources and the limited availability of activities and community centers to keep young people involved in enrichment programs, assured Barber.

And they face various challenges. Some of the participants who are mothers learning glassblowing have difficulty finding reliable childcare options and daycare to leave their children. The lack of resources impacts the stability of their participation.

Barber pointed out that our communities need more adults to become leaders and role models to curb crime and improve neighborhood environments.

Through Project FIRE, young people have the opportunity to be artists, exhibit their work, obtain employment, support their families, feel empowered, break intergenerational cycles of violence, travel to the other side of the world when they have never left Chicago before, and plan a future without fear.

“When they return from the trip, they’ll think ‘I just went to Italy, I can go here, I can go there, I can do more than I imagined with my life’…,” exclaimed Barber.

Music Breaks Barriers and Promotes Solidarity

The musical group and cultural initiative Sones de México Ensemble has revealed, through a recent concert series, details about the relationships between Mexican and African American cultures with the aim of increasing knowledge between both groups and thus inspiring a reduction in tensions and violence between them.

The need to spread knowledge about Afro-Mexican musical fusion inspired the project ‘The African Music of Mexico’, conceived by Sones de México Ensemble and inspired by the art exhibition titled ‘The African Presence in Mexico’ which was displayed at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen in 2006.

“We are not anthropologists, we are musicians. What we do is through the lens of music, and we are trying to be responsible in providing an honest history about the origin of this music and about those who contributed to the music we all love and celebrate,” explained Dr. Eric Hines, drummer and percussionist of the group Sones de México since 2015 and a native of Chicago.

Sones de México creates solidarity between Mexicans and African Americans to combat community violence with each of its free concerts and cultural encounters with experts in the field. In 2023, the group performed 10 presentations, in different Chicago communities, with Mexican songs that incorporate rhythms and instruments of African origin.

“We have built musically a relationship that has been fruitful, and we model this bond to make it known among the audiences to whom we play, and I hope that at the same time we are improving relations [between Mexicans and African Americans] through our music,” explained Juan Dies, co-founder and executive director of Sones de México Ensemble, a Grammy-nominated Mexican folk music group based in Chicago.

The impetus behind this project goes beyond providing knowledge about the history of African roots in Mexican culture and music derived from it. As a result of conversations with experts in the field and a series of demonstrative concerts, Sones de México has managed to create a bridge between the Mexican and African American communities of Chicago by highlighting similarities and connections in the music and dances they perform.

Two years ago, Hines, a researcher of Afro-Cuban music and a variety of African, Caribbean, and Latin American music styles, met with Dies to identify the songs, rhythms, and instruments of the original peoples that will feed the cultural program of Mexican music during the group’s presentations.

They received a grant from the Excellerator Fund, a collaboration between the community organization Latinos Progresando and the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation to boost collaboration between Mexican and African American communities in Chicago and foster unity through investments in community groups.

“I had never seen an African American and a Latino organization come together to support social services, social justice, and the arts in the community. Upon receiving the grant, it was our goal to respond with a program that resonates between these organizations, and we decided to focus it on a presentation and educational program,” said Dies in an interview with La Raza.

It is not the first time Sones de México collaborates with African American musicians. In recent years, it has collaborated and played alongside trumpeter Orbert Davis from the Chicago Jazz Institute and with Billy Branch, a harmonica and blues legend. In fact, the first time they played Afro-Mexican music was in the 1990s when they were invited to participate in a conference organized by Columbia College, which has a center for African music research.

In celebration of African American History Month, Sones de México held a talk sponsored by the National Museum of Mexican Art in which Dr. Carol L. Adams, former president and executive director of the DuSable Museum of African American History, and Dr. Elena Gonzales, curator of Civic Engagement and Social Justice at the Chicago History Museum, attended to inform, educate, and inspire the public about ‘The African Presence in Mexico’. During this talk, the history of slaves, their presence in the Americas, and their contributions to contemporary Mexican identity were discussed.

Music that Preserves History and the Meeting of Identities

The fundamental goal of Sones de México is to promote the understanding of regional music called son or sones, originating from different parts of Mexico, and to have an honest conversation about folk music and the cultures that influenced its development.

The drive to present these versions of Mexican sones with African influences is to build alliances and improve relations between Mexicans and African Americans, who together make up about two-thirds of the population in Chicago.

For example, the lyrics of the song ‘El Son de la Negra’, which some call ‘the second Mexican anthem’, reveal a little-known reality about the history of Mexico and its people. The call-and-response features that characterize this song are equivalent to African music styles. Mexican polyrhythms, originating from the region of Jalisco, also have roots in African culture. In fact, rich and vibrant tones of African ancestry feed many of the fundamental syncopated melodies in Mexican musical genres.

The diverse African-origin sounds that strengthen music in the American continent are recognizable in Caribbean music, including salsa, rumba, and son. However, Caribbean musical genres are not the only ones characterized by fusion with African rhythms. In Mexico, there has been a population of African descent for centuries, but there are very few records highlighting the presence of African rhythms in Mexican music.

During their performances, Sones de México uses instruments like the quijada and the Mexican zambomba, which is called “bote,” in the song ‘Danza de los Diablos’ from the Costa Chica region of Guerrero, where a significant Afro-Mexican population resides. The rhythmic rattling sound heard by scraping the instrument made from an animal’s jawbone, typically a donkey’s, is fundamental in this music genre. The zambomba is a percussion instrument with a piece of skin stretched over a resonator box and derives its sound from the friction created by moving a stick.

On the other hand, in the regional theme ‘La Rabia’, a son from the Tierra Caliente of Michoacán and Guerrero, the cajón is incorporated, a wooden instrument placed between the musician’s knees and played with the fingers, palms, or sticks.

These instruments are fundamental in African music and were incorporated into popular Mexican music since the arrival of Africans, mostly slaves, in Mexico in the 16th century. Hines explains that in music, much of African culture influence can be admired in the use of certain instruments and the structure of the song.

Cultural Ties Between Communities to Improve Coexistence

Sones de México is one of the pioneers in researching information about popular music and disseminating it to audiences in the United States in a way that invites the viewer to ask questions and interpret the material.

This work is a notable tool for promoting community safety since discrimination manifests in various ways, including violence between Latino and African American groups. Thus, Sones de México plays an important role in showing cultural confluences that contribute to defusing conflicts between people from different racial backgrounds.

Racism can be identified in several aspects of daily life, including limited access to education, housing, and social services. These social trends occur more frequently in economically disadvantaged communities. Education, music, and the awareness they create are ways to confront discrimination, racism, insecurity, and violence.

“Knowledge could have repercussions on crime prevention because I believe that a socially unjust society leads to crime. Therefore, I think that some of the existing prejudices will definitely be alleviated when both groups [Mexicans and African Americans] realize the [cultural] influences that exist in both communities,” explained Dies.

Sones de México postulates that knowing the history and meaning behind the origin of musical styles helps to fully appreciate and respect them.

“A few years ago, we recognized that when we talk about Mexican folk music, the conversation was also empty of African contributions. Therefore, this project’s main goal is to research African influence through Mexican son and identify the regions of Mexico that have strong traits that can be associated with African contributions,” explained Hines.

Mexican culture places a lot of emphasis on its three primary roots –the indigenous world, Iberian contributions, and the influence of contemporary identity– but there is little knowledge of African contributions to many styles of Mexican folk music.

In Mexico’s history, the existence of an Afro-Mexican identity was not recognized until recently and was not included in the national census. “I think it was only from the 1980s that ethnomusicologists began to investigate, and research began,” Hines told La Raza.

Today, the recognition of the African root as one of the sources of Mexican identity is growing.

Music Eases Tensions

In 2023, Sones de México performed in Chicago neighborhoods with a high presence of migrants and where there have been frictions between the Latino and African American communities. One of their presentations was at the South Merrill Community Garden, in the South Shore community, a predominantly African American area that has received many of the new migrants, asylum seekers, coming from Venezuela and Central America. The arrival of these migrants to the area has caused conflicts between both groups.

“I think we helped to ease this tension there with this program, and I have to say that we were very well received. The people who ran the garden were all African American and wanted their community members to hear how we are alike and that we have many things in common,” said Dies.

Dies added that some of the audience members approached them to let them know that, in their guts, they identified Mexican folk music as African and moved to the rhythm just as they would to a song of African origin.

The reaction of those who attended Sones de México’s presentation at the 79th Street Renaissance Festival, in the Auburn Gresham community in the south of the city, was similar.

When they heard the musical performances of Sones de México and identified familiar elements, they recognized that “there are these common points that undeniably the African diaspora brings to us,” noted Dies.

The Mexican music performed by Sones de México invites African Americans and Mexicans to make that connection and to accept African contributions to their collective identity. This acceptance is a step toward better relations between these groups, paving the way for a better understanding and reducing the tensions that sometimes lead to violence.

Contact Information for the Organizations

Shirley Ryan AbilityLabn / Adaptive Sports

Address: 541 North Fairbanks Mezzanine, Chicago, IL 60611

Phone: 312-238-5001

Email: sports@sralab.org

Website: www.sralab.org/services/adaptive-sports-fitness-program

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/ShirleyRyanAbilityLab

Chicago Park District / Adaptive Sports

Address: 4830 S. Western Ave. Chicago, IL 60609

Phone: 312-742-7529

Email: special.recreation@chicagoparkdistrict.com

Website: www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/special-recreation-programs

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/ChicagoParkDistrict

Chicago SkyHawks

Instagram: www.instagram.com/chicagoskyhawks

Project FIRE

Address: 2651 W. Lake Street Chicago, IL 60612

Phone: 773-907-0841

Email: info@firebirdcommunityarts.org

Website: www.firebirdcommunityarts.org

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/FirebirdCommunityArts

Sones de México Ensemble

Address: PO Box 13261 Chicago, IL 60613

Phone: 777-728- 1164

Email: info@sonesdemexico.com

Website: sonesdemexico.com

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/sonesdemexico

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The production and publication of this story by La Raza have been made possible in part thanks to a grant from the Chicago Community Trust through its Cross Community Impact grant program.