Misael

How long have you lived in North Chicago, and how did it come to be your home?

I’ve been in North Chicago for 19 years, my entire life. I got here ‘cuz my family are immigrants. They emigrated from Mexico, all the way up here to cold, chilly, North Chicago for some reason. But it's a wonderful place, and I lived here my entire life so far.

As someone born and raised in North Chicago, tell me what you think an outsider's perspective is, versus what you know North Chicago to be.

Some people see it as just a place-holding city on the map; a city you go through to get to another city, or where you come to the Navy base. They may see it as just a city without a big population, and that it seems like there's poverty here.

But you know, we have a lot of small businesses: we have a lot of auto body shops, some restaurants, we have a bakery, and a bunch of other shops. It's a business city. A manufacturing city. We used to have a lot of people come here because there were a lot of jobs. We still have some of the factories on the south side of North Chicago. We have a Jelly Belly factory here. We're trying to get more. I see more businesses popping up and being created– and they're flourishing. It's so working city.

We have a lot of empty land here. For me, when I see those lots, I think "you can build more houses here, you can build a business here. Stores. Something that's helpful to the community." 

A fact about North Chicago is that most of the population that lives here rents. We don't have that many homeowners. I think it's about 20 percent. So for me, I would want to build homes, and then have people buy those homes where they can live here and increase our reputation of the city and have more income flow into the city. Tax dollars. We kind of need those to fix this place up.

You seem to have a broad, and perhaps more informed sense of your community than many young people.

I pay attention a lot to the politics around me. To my family, what I see on the internet, what I hear people talking about on the street, on TV. My opinions of things developed very early on. I want my city to flourish, you know. It's a matter of the people that you are with and what you surround yourself with.

You sometimes want to believe what your family members say, but you might have a feeling something isn't true because you heard someone else say something about that thing. So I want to check who was right. I want to see what it is, where it it came from. 

If you're talking with someone and they always seem super negative, you don't want to trust them as much. And you see someone that's really positive, you also don't want to trust them too much, because you never really know what their intentions are. Someone could be really negative, but they have some of the greatest ideas. Or someone could be really positive and have some of the worst ideas. You just have to be cautious with with the people. With the information. You just can't really trust it unless you decide for yourself. It always comes back to you.

Who in your life do you trust most, and why?

I was going to say myself but you can't really trust yourself. I feel like I would trust someone that's more open to conversation and information.

It would probably be my uncle. He's 28? 29? We would always have conversations. He would give me his side and I will give him my side and we will have conflicts– but then we would say “Actually, you know what? You’re half right. I'm half right.” We both have good points. So I would trust my uncle more, because then we can take information from each other. If I don't know something, he's the one that knows. If he doesn't know something, I'm the one that knows it.

Have you always been analytical and open to debate?

When I was in school, I was a very shy kid. I would never raise my hand. But if it was a topic that I liked, or that I would like to banter on, I would raise my hand. I would say “You're wrong, incorrect, or that part is wrong. And I would like to open up a discussion.” I like to do that. I like to talk with people. See all the different sides, the corners, everything, and just discuss, discuss, discuss.

You’re a graduate of North Chicago Community High School?

I graduated in 2021. Now, I am working for the City of North Chicago. I am an employee of Public Works of North Chicago.

Is that something you imagined or planned on doing?

No, I didn't know what I wanted to do. After high school, I knew that school wasn't for me. I decided; straight to the workforce, I'm going to find a job. 

Then, there was the Warhawk Summer Up program through the high school. It was either go to a college for a week or two, take a trip to a different part of the country, or have an internship. They have kids work in small businesses and with different departments of the City. Some kids went to the fire department, and a some kids, like me, went to Public Works. 

That's where I learned about where I work now. The internship was for about four months. I started working there and I said, “I like this. This is good. I want to do this.” It's a City job, it comes with good benefits, good pay, and it's also good for your lifestyle. You're keeping physical. It keeps you fit. I liked what I was doing. I liked what I saw my coworkers doing. I said, “I want to cut down a tree, I want to fix the pothole in the road that's been there for 10 years. I want to fix this water pipe that burst.” I just decided that it was for me. I wanted to be a working person to help out my city. That's what it leads to: I want to help out the City.

As a kid, you don't really ever see City workers. You know, when its snows, you would hear and see the snowplow trucks. You're like, how did this salt get here? Who salted the roads? A tree that's about to fall down, the branches are falling and you know, the city is helping out by cutting down dangerous trees before they even fall. Now, I've cut down a few trees before they fall in fall on someone's house or on power lines.

What are you most proud of?

The city. The people in the city. There's a store that I live very close to. Two years ago, it wasn't the best looking store, but now it looks a whole lot nicer and it’s bringing people in. I'm proud of the people that are spending their money– putting it back into the city so it looks nice. I'm proud of the people in the City that are trying to make this a better place.

I was raised in a positive household. They told me to clean up after myself. I was told, “You see something, say something or do something.” I have a sense of duty. I have a sense to do something I can.

You know, it can mean a lot of things. If I were to tell the people of North Chicago to “Keep clean,” they would be like, “What the hell does he mean by that?” I would say keep your living space clean. They would say “My house?” I would say no. Your living space. Your city. Keep your city clean. You know, you live here. Your neighbor lives here. Your family lives here. Your friends live here. You want to keep the place that you live clean.

If a genie granted you three wishes, what would they be?

That's tricky. Not sure. It's not really a wish, but to be more skillful in things. Skillful with my trades, with the trades that I would learn.

Not wealth or fame or all the steak you can eat?

I guess a regular wish would be to teach me to play an instrument.

I had a guitar. I tried learning, gave up. I had a bass guitar. I tried learning, sold it. I tried learning piano in school, I graduated. Now I don't know where to play a piano. So it would just be a wish of mine to play one instrument. One instrument.

What do you see for your future? Do you see yourself ever moving from North Chicago?

I wouldn't ever see myself moving from North Chicago. Right now, I'm trying to find a house. As young as I am, 19 years old, I want to own my own house. At least not in the next 20 or 30 years that I'm here, I will not move from North Chicago.

And what my future holds for me? I mean, obviously, wealth is one thing. And also, health for me and my family. And then I also want my future... I want to have my own business. To have photography business. I do photography a little bit. I dabble. At some point, I want to have my photography business flourish to where I can sustain myself and have a positive future with that.

Anything else we should know about you or the City of North Chicago?

North Chicago, it it's gonna get together. North Chicago will pull itself back up and be the city that it once was decades ago. It will flourish once again, in due time. And I will be here; to see it flourish and to make it flourish once again.

This conversation has been edited and condensed.