The Puerto Rican official talks about preparations for the Democratic convention, which will attract nearly 50,000 people to the city.
Chicago, Illinois.- As the right hand of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Puerto Rican Cristina Pacione-Zayas has been ‘on the front line’ to deal with the administrative complications of managing the municipality before and during the Democratic presidential convention, which attracts some 50,000 people to this city.
“We have been planning this for over a year. The announcement (of Chicago’s selection) was made literally a week after Mayor Johnson won the mayoralty ,” said Pacione Zayas, whose father is Puerto Rican and was born in Coamo, and who
was a state senator for Illinois until the city government appointed her deputy chief of staff.
As of April 2, Johnson promoted Pacione Zayas to the position of chief of staff, making her his top adviser.
As a state senator, Pacione Zayas –with a PhD in Educational Public Policy– authored legislation that created Illinois’ first cultural district in Chicago’s historic Puerto Rican neighborhood, which under the “Pueblo de Borikén” project will provide access to funds for economic development initiatives and support for Puerto Rican cultural heritage.
Presidential conventions are a national security event, with the Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in charge of security matters.
Illinois and city police, supported by officers from other states, primarily Milwaukee, Wisconsin – which hosted the Republican convention – are helping with the Chicago event, which runs from Monday through Thursday, when Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to officially accept the Democratic nomination for the White House .
Chicago, home to nearly 95,000 Puerto Ricans, also sent a significant number of police to the Republican convention in Milwaukee last month.
Although he has an official in charge of coordinating the details of the DNC with the city, any key issue addressed to the mayor could fall into Pacione Zayas’ hands.
The federal government provided $75 million to fund the city’s preparations. Chicago has hosted 26 such events — 14 Republican conventions and 12 Democratic ones — since 1860. “We have some muscle memory,” Pacione Zayas said.
None of the past conventions has been more historic than the 1968 Democratic one, which, like now, had a president who decided not to seek reelection, Lyndon B. Johnson. But the event was marked by mass protests against the Vietnam War, which led to violent clashes and repression by the National Guard.
That year, black civil rights leader Martin Luther King and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy had also been assassinated.
This time, the protests during the presidential convention will be related to the war in Gaza. A group of pro-Palestine organizations have called for demonstrations around the convention. And the city says it is prepared.
“Because of the mayor’s (Johnson) history and his past as an organizer, he has been emphatic in making sure that we are protecting people’s First Amendment rights to safely assemble and demonstrate,” Pacione Zayas said.
On July 25, Mayor Johnson signed a proclamation advocating for Puerto Rico’s self-determination and calling for the reinstatement of federal legislation that would lead to a Status Convention on the island.
In this way, Johnson became linked to a public policy also assumed by the City Council, Cook County and the Illinois State Legislature .
“(The mayor) believes deeply in liberation and self-determination around the world. That is why he was also the decisive vote in the Council in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza,” said Pacione Zayas, interviewed in the offices of the executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago, José López Rivera, on Paseo Boricua.
Pacione Zayas said that the mayor, since his time as Cook County commissioner, “has been closely aligned with the work done by the Puerto Rican community in favor of new investments, affordable housing, spaces and places of cultural affirmation.”
