Door to Door with Ald. Ambrosio Medrano [Cont.] / Interview with Ald. Medrano and Precinct Captain Cathy Maida

Hi, Mr.

Puente.

All the members, right? How are you? Good, good.

Who's doing? Resting? Thank you for putting the card in the window.

I appreciate it.

We'll see you on Tuesday.

Thank you.

Tell your family and friends.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who's going to go first? Who's going to go first? The one standing.

I guess I'm not answering.

All right, go on to the next one.

Look at this.

Watch it, you're going to knock her cups over.

Here she comes.

Open up, Sadie.

Sadie, step here.

Come here.

Hi, Sadie.

This is Alderman Madrano.

How are you? How's everything? Come on in.

I got guests.

Let me hear about the trouble.

Oh, dear Lord.

See, my husband was Mexican.

He was, yeah.

My husband was Mexican.

I'm proud of him.

And I just...

I had my little sign whip on the top of that window where they could sit real good.

Then I brought it down.

Then from that poor window I had to shove it on the other window.

Oh, dear bless of Jesus.

Kathy's told me a lot about you.

I'm like a drunk woman right now.

I don't have nothing else to do.

I'm alone.

Follow me.

Be happy, Sadie.

Oh, you got to see my husband.

Uh -oh.

Where is he? You got him here? Oh, I got him here.

Let me see him.

I'll show you, my darling.

I'm gonna have to put it away because I cried too much.

You know what I mean? Because I love him so much.

Oh, I see.

You're looking at an old lady, but you're gonna see a prettier lady.

Let me see.

I bet I am too.

This is what Sadie was a young lady.

Sadie's an old lady.

This is my darling.

That's my dar...

my whole life.

And Esther Castile.

He was a handsome young man.

That's my life.

That's my heart.

He was a handsome young man too.

That's my heart.

He's in here.

That's why I don't care the label.

I don't care the...

You'll be alright, Sadie.

You'll be alright.

And if you need anything, you get a hold of Cathy here.

You know, we're not too far away from you now.

Thank God.

Alright.

We're gonna go out and lock some more doors.

I don't ask for too much.

I just want to be happy.

You know what I mean? I have a problem.

I'd like to put my sign up there where Cathy's seen it.

I'm not lying.

Then I had to bring it down.

Now, today she said, put it over there.

And I said to her, you don't throw the Mickey Gunnels in one corner.

And she don't like to hear me because I fight for the Mickey Gunnels.

Because they are good to me.

Even my mother was a looper.

You see over there? Oh yeah.

I live for her.

Good.

I'm gonna be 81 years old.

Well, God bless you.

And thank you for everything.

I don't want too much.

I just want a little hope.

I understand.

And Cathy, we're gonna come back and chat with you.

Oh, she's good.

She knows that I try to live a good life.

Good.

We're gonna come back and talk to you.

You sure do.

And thank you guys.

And God bless each and every one of you.

And if you're married, God bless your family.

Thank you, Sadie.

We should come and clean up this little yard.

Whose building is this? It's over there.

I'll talk to you about that.

It's alright.

We're not gonna ask you to stay out too long.

Now you know.

Now you know.

That's why I'm coming around.

Try the other garbage truck.

Good.

All of our mailboxes were small.

Well, thank you.

Not yours.

She's talking about the furniture.

I know who you're talking about.

Thank you very much.

And I appreciate anything you can do for me next week.

And I hope you win.

I hope we get something done in this store.

Thank you, Cathy, for bringing them over.

You're welcome.

Bye -bye.

Okay.

Head back this way.

How are you, Joe? How are you feeling? Good.

Nice guy, Joe.

Alright, well we hope we can count on your support next Tuesday.

We'll see you Tuesday morning.

He's the first voter in.

Great.

Great.

Every election, he's the first one in.

That's good.

Good luck.

Hi.

How are you? Nice to meet you.

They're just doing a little song for public television.

That sounds pretty good.

They're trying to follow a couple of politicians around, but more importantly, I wanted to come out and meet you.

And ask you to give me a hand next Tuesday.

I don't see why not.

Thank you very much.

And anybody that you can talk to on my behalf would be greatly appreciated.

I'll do that for you.

Alright, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Take care of yourself.

You too.

See you Tuesday.

I'm Alderman Madrano.

I'm getting my wife out of here.

I'm taking a picture.

I'm Alderman Madrano.

I met you the other day.

Father Vincent's brother.

That's right.

Oh, that's right.

Yes, sir.

We're just doing a little campaigning.

I'll tell Father Vincent that I can say hello.

You look like a working man, not like a politician.

We'll see you later.

Take care.

That's right.

He's the brother -in -law.

No, this is the brother.

Oh, this is the brother.

The father of Vince.

The father of Vince at St.

Michael's.

And there's a mother.

And then his sister.

Yes, Sister Augustine.

Want to go down this way? Yeah, let's go see if Tony thought of something.

Yeah, let's go see if Tony thought of something.

Yeah, let's go see if Tony thought of something.

I don't know if he's tagged on the ground.

I don't know if he's tagged on the ground.

There's actually one over there.

That much.

And some people wouldn't.

Hi, is your dad home? Hi, Karen.

Hi.

Is it my home? No, it's your dad's.

Listen, tell your dad that Alderman Medrano stopped by.

Just tell him we stopped by to say hello.

Alright, bye -bye.

Michael Ling? Kenny Ling.

Kenny Ling, alright.

Michael Ling, Kenny Ling.

We're just trying to get people out to come out to vote next week.

We're from today.

Alright.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Town London.

Oh, Town London, yeah.

Get over on Western Avenue.

Of course.

Well, thank you very much.

Listen, you tell Tom I haven't talked to him in a while.

You tell him I said hello.

Alright, well you tell him I said hello.

Alright, bye -bye.

Tell the son I said hello.

Hey, if he can vote, it's alright.

I didn't see two.

I saw one.

Unless I was...

Maybe you saw two in the car.

That could be.

I don't know.

Is that a good thing? Yeah, I think so.

I think we got everybody.

I think we did just as well as does it.

Who do we have on the other side of the school? So I'm gonna want to come and do this all the way around.

All the way.

It's in its...

Oh, there's a guy.

I brought you to walk.

What's up, gang? I said you're smart.

You're with the right guy.

He's the winner, that's why.

What do you think? Talk to you later.

Alright, take care of yourself.

Hey, I need those people on 24th Street to come out.

Alright.

I'm gonna tell Frankie Rita, Ralph, Carmen, all those people to come out.

It's gonna be nice.

We can do the whole precinct.

The whole...all the precincts.

I'm kidding.

You seem to know everybody on the block.

Oh, yes.

Yes, I do.

I was born and raised here.

So I know everyone.

They're all friendly.

That's what makes a good precinct camping.

And I think that's what these old organizations were built on.

And not that we want to out with the old and in with the new, but I mean, door to door is a very effective way of getting people to know who you are, what you're doing, trying to convince them that you're the right candidate.

And as you heard on some of the people that we've talked with, it works better sometimes than a direct mail piece.

People throw out the other literature and they like the person to person contact.

They like to be able to talk to someone and they like to be able to see someone.

And I think it needs to be done more throughout this city.

You know, people are constantly talking about this new technology, but I really don't think that in terms of politics you can beat that one to one relationship.

So we're out here canvassing the precinct and we're going to continue to do it until next week, Tuesday.

And hopefully we'll come home a winner because of it.

I keep in touch with the people all year round, not just election.

So that helps a lot.

Right, right.

Summertime I'm walking around talking to them, you know, not just for election, all the time.

It's Croatian.

This neighborhood is Croatian, Chinese, Italian, some Hispanic.

It's everything.

German, everything.

But the ultimate is Mexican, right? Yes, that's correct.

Is Chicago famous for having a lot of ethnic rivalries? It doesn't matter what anyone is.

He's a person.

I think Chicago's gone a long way in that sense.

I think that we've kind of broken those barriers a few years back.

And I think that people are beginning to understand that just about anyone from any ethnic group can represent anybody else's ethnic group just as well.

Again, I think it's the relationship, the contacts, the involvement someone's had in their community.

It's all important, you know, coming to the church, coming to the community organizations, coming to the neighborhood clubs, the boys' club.

I mean, you know, you can go on and on as long as they see some involvement and as long as they see that you're there.

I think that you're a part of the community no matter what ethnic group you come from.

The situation that you were in with Sadie, is that a common situation? What happened there? Oh, yeah, Sadie, being that she's old and she's alone, you know, and she calls me all the time.

Just go get me anisins at the store or fill out my circuit breaker or anything, you know.

She always calls me.

And it's common.

That's how she is.

When she moved, we helped her look for an apartment, you know.

Is that something you encounter, though, when you're just going door to door? All you want to do is ask somebody for your vote.

Something else happened there? Well, I mean, it doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen.

And it happens all over the ward.

Last week I was walking a predominantly African American part of my ward.

Same thing.

Come on in.

I need to talk to you.

You know, the sidewalks in front of my house or the street in front of my house or the alley needs to be repaved or, you know, somebody stole my garbage can.

You know, you can count on me, but I'd like to know I can count on you.

And that's the point.

They need somebody they can count on.

And in return on Election Day, I know I want to be able to count on them.

And that's what it boils down to.

Would anybody ever ask you where do you stand on an issue like abortion? Where do you stand on...

You know, not really.

I'll tell you what the biggest issue or the biggest...

The concerns that people are most...

have uppermost in their mind.

Crime and taxes.

People want to be able to walk to church.

They want to be able to walk to school.

They want to be able to walk to the corner store without being hassled by young thugs or old thugs or any thugs.

They want their streets and alleys kept nice and neat.

They want to live in a decent environment.

And they don't want to have to pay a lot for it.

It really bothers them when the property taxes go up.

But like with anything, I mean, there are a lot of reasons why property taxes go up.

I mean, it could be because your next door neighbor decided to remodel his home.

It could be because you decided to remodel your home.

It could be because a new business has moved to the area.

So as long as you explain things to people, and as long as you can convince them that they're getting the most for their money, I think even that is not a problem.

We haven't had to vote on a property tax increase for city services in three years, and I'm very proud of that.

And the last property tax increase that we voted on was in 1991.

Only increased property taxes by about $35 a home.

So we're very proud of that.

The classic view of Chicago, old politics and old man daily, you know, it was a machine.

It was Irish, it was Italian, it was Polish.

Okay, things have obviously changed.

I know you went over this a little bit, Louis, question.

Tell us what your background is.

Were you fit in as a representative? Well, actually, I'll tell you what.

I'm a product of an era of the late 60s, early 70s, when people were demanding change in my community.

This was not a part of my community before.

I grew up in a predominantly Mexican, Mexican -American community, a large immigrant community.

And for years, we had been represented in the city council, in government, by white ethnics, whether they were Poles or Italians or Czechs or whatever.

And as you know, there was a time in this country when people felt that other people should have some opportunities as well.

And we were able to get those opportunities.

This is my first term.

I'm very proud to have been able to serve the people of my community for the last three and a half years.

I look forward to working with them and serving them again another three and a half years.

But my community has changed somewhat.

I'm not only a representative for the Hispanic community.

Not that I'm not any less proud of that.

I'm still very proud, but I'm more proud of the fact that I have other ethnic groups who have come to my support and who have said, look, yes, he is Hispanic, but what does that got to do with it if he represents us well in the city council and if he's doing his job? And that's what I'm most proud of.

Well, she probably means that because my name ends in a vowel, she probably took for granted that I'm Italian.

And I should my remark, my immediate response should have been, I'm not Italian either.

But that's OK.

She caught me off guard.

But you know what? Again, it doesn't make a difference.

I mean, she how how much clearer can you make it? She's not Italian.

She thought I was Italian, but she would have voted for me anyway.

I don't think it would have mattered if she knew I was Hispanic or whatever, you know, African -American or what have you.

She would have come out and voted.

Why? Because of the contact that the precinct captains that I have working for me in this area and the volunteers that I have working for me in this area.

And because she saw me.

People want people want that.

What is it happening over here where Hispanic politicians are seemingly fitting into this coalition, coalition politics in Chicago really easily, maybe more easily than some ethnic groups that have been here for a long time? What is it about Hispanic politicians? Is there something about the experience? Well, maybe it's maybe it's a happy medium between black and white.

I don't know.

All I know is that I've represented African -Americans.

Right now I'm representing Italians and Hispanics.

Now I'm getting an opportunity to serve the Chinese community.

The community.

This community is the largest Chinese community in the city of Chicago, and I'm getting an opportunity to represent them.

I feel very proud of that.

But more importantly, it's because I think we understand their problems.

They're a large immigrant community, just like my community is.

They have a high they have a very high rate of people not turning out to vote.

They have a large population that is not that are not citizens.

They have a language problem.

In many cases, the same way that we did our first our first language was not English in many occasions.

So I think that because we understand the problems and we want to work with them, we were able to overcome a lot of barriers.

You have a special thing for Chinese American families in your pocket.

Sure.

It happened to be the Chinese New Year last month, January, and it happens to be the Year of the Pig.

And they have an annual procession annual parade.

And so what I did was I ordered up some Chinese cookies with a fortune inside.

And basically what it says, it says, elect Ambrosio Medrano Alderman of the 25th Ward.

So, you know, we had a little ethnic touch to it.

I mean, you know, I'm just like anything else.

We try to we we don't shy away from our cultural past.

And I don't expect anybody else to.

And as a matter of fact, I think we would all be better off if we would all be better off if we began to understand each other's ethnicity and cultures.

What's this? Oh, it's translated.

Translated.

It's a Chinese.

That is.

Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

Mr.

Wing.

Mr.

Wing.

Hi, how are you? How's everything? Who happens to be my landlord.

He had this translated that the office just opened, so we had the full number.

It's basically an announcement just saying that we're open.

We're open for business.

Right.

And we're here in between the Chinese and the Italian American Croatian community and that they can come here and, you know, come and see us for just about anything they need.

It doesn't mean that we'll always come across, but we're going to do our best.

You know, you spoke about the woman that we encountered who was 81 years old.

I'll tell you what.

Preaching captains of today are no longer just preaching captains.

They have to have a little touch of being a social worker because, I mean, we could have been in that house for an hour easily if we had let ourselves be put in that predicament.

And you know what? Sometimes that's all they want.

They just want somebody to talk to, somebody to discuss their problem with.

That's all they want.

You'd be surprised that talking with that woman for the 10 or 15 minutes that we were in her house will probably give me another five or six votes.

Why? Because she's going to say when she goes to church or when she steps out to the store and buys her groceries, oh, Alderman Medrano was by my house.

And, you know, he took time out to listen to what I had to say.

And he's helped me do this and he's helped me do that.

And I've called his office and that's what it's all about.

That's it right there.

It's OK.

I know it's a number of groups, but the dominant coalition in this election seems to be between the white ethnics who are part of the older machine and Hispanics.

Can you explain to us what's going on? I think you'd have to give credit to that for the late Richard J.

Daly.

I think that a long time ago he realized that the Hispanic community was a very special one to him.

The Daly name in the Hispanic community is very, very popular.

His son, Richard M., has done his best to keep up that affiliation as he's done with other ethnic groups throughout this city.

And again, I think it's because of that sensitivity that he's been able to build a coalition of different ethnic groups to support him in his re -elections.

So I'm going to be out there probably.