Latinos Progresando opened its doors on Jan. 15, 1998 in a small office in Pilsen. Before founding the organization, Executive Director Luis Gutierrez, states that he was unaware of how much people wanted to help others.

“I was just going about my day. What was important for me was going to work. I was an electrician at the time. It was very routine. I wasn’t really involved in any social justice work,” Gutierrez said.

That all changed when a friend asked him to volunteer at a citizenship workshop. After many attempts to get him to attend, Gutierrez finally succumbed and went to a workshop located two blocks from his house.

“When I walked in I saw, what is to this day, one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. It was a gymnasium full of people. It was all these young, Mexican, Latino brothers and sisters helping out all these people that looked like my parents, who wanted to apply to become citizens of the United States. I had never experienced anything like that before. I had no idea what it was but it made me feel really good,” Gutierrez said.

After that experience, Gutierrez realized he wanted to help out more. He volunteered at Hermandad Mexicana Nacional every Saturday and was eventually offered a job. After a year, he was laid off due to the organization’s lack of funding so he started working at other places, including a Burger King.

“I loved working at Burger King for a number of reasons. They taught me a lot and they paid well, but I didn’t have that feeling I had when I walked into that gymnasium some years ago and so I put some money down on a spot on 18th street…and here we are, ...