United Latino/a Pride (ULP) held its first pre-launch celebration at the Rumble Arts Center in Humboldt Park May 3.
Founded two years ago, ULP is, according to their mission statement, "a community of Latino/Latina LGBTQ community members, organizations and businesses whose purpose is to work together to create awareness and support as well as celebrate the plurality of our identity regardless of religion, politics, organization affiliation or individual statues by organizing cultural, educational and social events throughout the year and during ULP week."
The group's vision is, according to its website, "to create an environment where we come together as Latino/Latina LGBTQ community members and celebrate our individual lives, families and organizations, by participating in events that educate, and celebrate in public who we are and who we love."
Approximately 20 people attended the event, including Julio Rodriguez, board president of Association for Latino Men for Action (ALMA). Attendees noshed on food provided by Victor Carrillo of Kaleidoscope ahead of a presentation by co-founders Jessica Carrillo and Kara Carrell.
The presentation featured a preview of the events that ULP will be holding during its pride week June 4-10 as well as details about the organization.
Carillo explained that she and Carrell formed ULP since there are at least 30,000 people who fall somewhere in the LGBTQ spectrum out of more than 1 million Latinos in the Chicagoland area and they wanted to have a way to celebrate who they are.
Carrillo said, "With this event we wanted to start a buzz about our upcoming pride week. We also wanted to celebrate both the Latino/Latina and LGBTQ parts of our identity and build a bridge between our two identities so we don't have to chose between the two."
"Our pride week will consist of a wide range of events for people of all age groups in multiple locations around the city which will show the rich diversity of the LGBTQ Latino/Latina community," said Carrell.
All pride week events will be free with the exception of the Unite41Nite closing party, which will be held June 10 at the Excalibur nightclub. Other events include a kick-off celebration, a business mixer, a guys-only mixer, a film screening, a youth mixer, a game night called Loteria Joteria!, a community summit, a dance at Harrison Park and a doggie day at the beach.
The collective of individuals, organizations, businesses and community groups that are involved with United Latino/a Pride includes Amigas Latinas, ALMA, Lambda Legal, vida/SIDA, Accion Chicago, Project Vida, xQsi magazine, Pantera Radio, Gozamos.com and unidos, along with many others.
See www.unitedlatinopride.org, www.facebook.com/UnitedLatinoPride or www.twitter.com/ULPchicago for more information.