CHICAGO -- Sundays are special for David Pasqual Ruiz. He honors the memory of his father by inviting others to run through the neighborhood where he once walked holding his dad’s hand as a child. Pilsen for him means family. The murals, the sounds and the tamales all remind him of his community, he said.
So when he learned that a local tamale stand was targeted in a the string of armed robberies of street vendors in the last few months, Pasqual Ruiz and other leaders of the Tortugas Run Club decided to organize a run to help the tamale stand owner, Aurelia Alvarez.
The success of the event inspired the club to keep helping neighborhood tamaleras, women who make and sell tamales. After all, the running club Pasqual Ruiz founded in 2021 is about more than just the sport, he said. In fact, the running comes second; it is family, friends and culture that come first.
