SEPTEMBER 2019 | CHICAGO 21
PHOTOGRAPH: BRIAN CASSELLA/
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Illustration by PETE RYANThis month’s
essential cocktail
party fodder1 Marijuana culti-
vators must start
growing this month
to have a crop ready
for recreational sale
in January, accord-
ing to pot experts.
White Castle and
Taco Bell are pre-
sumably planning
accordingly as well.2 Things could get
prickly at Chicago
Public Schools: A
report prepared by
CPS and the union
on salaries and
benefits released
this month will help
aides, security offi-
cers, and custodians
decide whether to
strike. The union
authorized a walk-
out but must wait 30
days after the report
comes out to do it.3 Derrick Rose uses
the title everyone
secretly wants for
their own memoir
for I’ll Show You,
out Sept. 10. Yes,
he talks about his
2016 rape trial. No,
he doesn’t offer any
details beyond blan-
ket denials.4 Is John Dillinger
really buried under
three feet of con-
crete in an Indiana
cemetery? Maybe
not! His family
doubts it’s him and
plans to exhume the
body for DNA test-
ing on Sept. 16.Talking
Points
The New Proletariat
These aren’t your grandma’s Cold War–era socialists.
Inside Chicago’s far-far-left political wavelet. By EDWARD McCLELLANDA
NDRE VASQUEZ DOESN’T LOOK LIKE ANYONE WHO’S EVER SET FOOT ON THE CITY
Council floor. Over the summer, the freshman alderman held an open house in his
40th Ward office, a former dry cleaner whose windows are now adorned with a gay
pride flag and a Black Lives Matter poster. Vasquez’s arms were covered with tattoos.
He wore a “No Human Being Is Illegal” T-shirt and a City of Chicago baseball cap.
Vasquez doesn’t think like many other aldermen, either. He’s one of six democratic socialists
who took office this year, giving the Chicago City Council the largest socialist contingent of any
major city in the United States — and its first socialist bloc since the early 20th century. Vasquez’s
story, and the story of how socialism gained a foothold in Chicago politics, is a story of changing
generational attitudes and of a reaction to two trends — fiscal austerity and gentrification — that
have been gaining strength here over the past decade.
The 40-year-old Vasquez, a former battle rapper and a son of Guatemalan immigrants, first got
involved in politics in 2016 as a volunteer for Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont