{"id":2430794,"date":"2026-05-25T00:17:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2430794"},"modified":"2026-05-25T00:17:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:17:02","slug":"chicago-latinos-show-up-and-show-out-at-first-suenos-since-operation-midway-blitz-targeted-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/chicago-latinos-show-up-and-show-out-at-first-suenos-since-operation-midway-blitz-targeted-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Latinos ‘show up and show out’ at first Sue\u00f1os since Operation Midway Blitz targeted communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This year Sue\u00f1os Music Festival took place after Chicago saw one of its largest immigration enforcement operations in recent history.<\/p>\n

But at Sue\u00f1os on Sunday, Chicagoans showed up showcasing their Latino identity, waving flags, sporting cowboy boots and hats and singing along to songs in Spanish. Several said the weekend music event \u2014 one of the largest Latino music festivals in the country \u2014 offered them an opportunity to \u201cshow up and show out\u201d and celebrate in hopes of something better.<\/p>\n

Last fall, Chicago and its surrounding suburbs were the target of immigration officials in a campaign the feds named \u201cOperation Midway Blitz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latino residents endured weeks of targeted operations and detentions based on their identity, skin color, accent or occupation.<\/p>\n

Fast forward five months, and the two-day music festival Sue\u00f1os hosted attendees for its fifth year to see headliners such as J Balvin and Kali Uchis<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Chicago, the Latino population is predominantly Mexican. That was in full display on Sunday, where the headliner was popular regional Mexican banda Fuerza Regida.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what some festivalgoers told us about returning to Sue\u00f1os this year.<\/p>\n

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Jesus Ramos, 21, Chris Luna, 22, and Raquel Castro, 20 on day two of the Sue\u00f1os Music Festival in Grant Park.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a big step, like being able to come outside and connect with everybody and seeing everybody finally together and celebrating for something better. It definitely brings me a lot of joy.\u201d \u2014Raquel Castro, 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event is a really beautiful moment, when all Latinos come together as one to celebrate our differences and everything. So, I think it\u2019s pretty, it\u2019s pretty amazing.\u201d \u2014 Jesus Ramos, 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come from immigrant parents, so like, just being here celebrating is definitely, you know, something beautiful, you know. And I feel safe here.\u201d \u2014 Chris Luna, 22.<\/p>\n\n

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Anthony, 21, Priscilla, 21 Michelle, 26, Ale, 25 and Eric, 29, on day two of the Sue\u00f1os music festival in Grant Park.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

\u201cI love that Sue\u00f1os bring unity vibes, party vibes, everything.\u201d \u2014 Ale, 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just feels like it shows who we are, and it shows like how positive we are, and coming together as a community.\u201d \u2014 Michelle, 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it shows the resilience of the Latino community, and that we\u2019re able to always stay united and show up and show out.\u201d \u2014 Eric, 29.<\/p>\n\n

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Karina Melendrez, 20, and Brian Salgado, 21, on day two of the Sue\u00f1os Music Festival in Grant Park. <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely very difficult to see the community in something so hard, but it makes me very proud to see, like, all the Latinos out there today, like celebrating together. It\u2019s very strong.\u201d \u2014 Karina Melendez, 20.<\/p>\n\n

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Alejandro Peinado, 26 with Alex Ramirez, 34 on day two of the Sue\u00f1os Music Festival.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

\u201cIt was tragic. We were affected too. There were deportations in our household. And well, for now we\u2019re gonna enjoy the moment out here in Sue\u00f1os and we\u2019re just killing it. We bought our ticket a year ago so we have been planning this for over a year. \u201d \u2014 Alejandro Peinado, 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think immigrants are important. Immigrants are needed. We are a strong factor in the local economy and we are seeing and feeling the effects of the immigration agents in our local economy. But I\u2019m happy to be here.\u201d \u2014 Alex Ramirez, 34.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.wbez.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year Sue\u00f1os Music Festival took place after Chicago saw one of its largest immigration enforcement operations in recent history. But at Sue\u00f1os on Sunday, Chicagoans showed up showcasing their Latino identity, waving flags, sporting cowboy boots and hats and singing along to songs in Spanish. Several said the weekend music event \u2014 one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2430795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2430794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chicago-Latinos-show-up-and-show-out-at-first-Suenos.com2Fbrightspot2F512F232F28a.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2430794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2430796,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430794\/revisions\/2430796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2430795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2430794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2430794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2430794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}