In 2019, Cicero residents turned journalists founded Cicero Independiente to fill a critical lack of investment in independent bilingual news coverage specifically for communities of color in Chicago's southwest suburbs.

Using guidance from the Listening Post Collective’s Playbook, Irene Romulo began by circulating a flier asking local residents to talk to her about their lives in Cicero. The interviews she conducted helped us shape our initial editorial priorities and gave us an idea of the kind of news organization Cicero residents wanted to see. Ankur Singh, who was in graduate school at the time and had been reporting in Cicero for the past year, saw the flier and connected with Irene. Max Herman, a friend from City Bureau, connected Irene with April Alonso, another Cicero resident, who had also been dreaming of creating Spanish language media and shifting the way the Latinx community was reflected and featured in media. 

All of us agreed that a bilingual, independent news organization in Cicero was needed to push for transparency and accountability from local governments. We were tired of seeing how decision-making spaces in the area often exclude monolingual Spanish speakers or generally make it difficult for people to get involved. We wanted to create journalism for an immigrant community that equips people with skills and creates opportunities for civic engagement, that is accessible in multiple languages and formats and that showcases our complexity as humans. We felt that too often, journalism about immigrant, communities of color centers on trauma and does not center on our needs or autonomy. 

We held our launch event in the fall of 2019 at the house of one of our initial supporters. Over 80 residents joined us to watch a documentary Ankur created about local youth who ran for school board. We also hosted activities to learn more about attendees’ information needs and celebrated the launch of our newsroom. 

Since then, we’ve gone from being a volunteer-run organization to having two full-time staff and a committed steering committee. By reporting on inequality and injustice, by choice and design, we’re bringing attention to issues that systematically affect and hurt communities of color like Cicero. Our reporting is ensuring that people who want to get involved become aware of the tools at their disposal. We’re amplifying the solutions proposed by residents of this town and documenting our existence for generations to come so that they may have a record of the strategies employed in our lifetime. 

We’re also seeking new, more equitable and just ways of running a nonprofit newsroom. We’re currently participating in an education series hosted by the Nonprofit Democracy Network titled Collaborate to Co-Liberate and will be incorporating as a worker-led nonprofit.