POLL:
Are you OK with Cicero flying a Mexican flag alongside the U.S. flag? Yes or No?
STORY:
Some in Cicero take issue with flying of Mexican flag in park Officials say they fly different flags to correspond with ethnic holidays
By Joseph Ruzich | Special to the Chicago Tribune October 2, 2008
In a town once predominantly Eastern European but now mostly Mexican, there's a flag flap blowing in the wind.
Cicero residents recently complained that the Mexican flag was flying at the town's new Cicero Community Park.
Although the U.S. and Illinois flags, as well as a sports flag, are flown there, some longtime residents accused town officials of being un-American and demanded the Mexican flag be taken down.
"We are at war and you're flying a foreign flag?" Susan Masek, 56, said at last week's town meeting. "We want that flag down. This is the United States. Only the American flag should be there."
Cicero resident Helen Brave, 75, said she was shocked to see the Mexican flag flying when she attended the opening of the South Laramie Avenue park, which is touted by town officials as their version of Millennium Park.
"You know, it really hurts me," Brave said. "There were a lot of different people at the park, including Polish, Lithuanian and Italian people. Yet they were flying the Mexican flag?"
Cicero Town President Larry Dominick—who is up for re-election next year and often must juggle the concerns of both longtime residents and newer Hispanic residents—said last week that the Mexican flag was flown during the park's Labor Day weekend opening in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
He said the flag was taken down shortly after but put up again around Sept. 15 to celebrate El Grito, a holiday honoring Mexico's independence.
The flag was taken down last week, Brave said.
At the Town Hall, foreign flags— including Mexican, Italian, Irish and Greek—are normally rotated, a town official said.
Brave said Cicero should pass an ordinance that would prohibit the flying of foreign flags on public property.
Officials have no plans to pass such an ordinance, a Cicero spokesman said, adding the town wants to recognize and celebrate the heritage of all people. Town officials said other foreign flags will fly at the community park during ethnic holidays.
Other suburbs with growing Hispanic populations, like Berwyn and Aurora, do not have flag ordinances.
"I've never heard of Aurora even considering banning the flying of any foreign flag," Aurora spokeswoman Amy Roth said.
But Aurora last year passed a controversial ordinance that includes the banning of celebratory flag-waving aimed at curbing what some people have deemed out-of-control impromptu celebrations.
In Cicero, Town Trustee Maria Punzo-Arias told residents the demographics have changed in the town of about 82,000.
"You have to understand that Cicero is more than 80 percent Hispanic now," Punzo-Arias said. "I got a lot of calls when the town removed the flag [the first time]. We are trying our best to keep all the ethnic groups in town happy."
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