Nadia Sol Ireri Unzueta Carrasco, BA
Heritage Garden Educator
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Pronouns: They/Them/Theirs Ella/Elle
About
Ireri Unzueta Carrasco was born in Mexico DF and has lived and grown up in La Villita since the age of seven. Despite having lived in the US for 12 years, Ireri did not really start to feel at home until 2006, after joining a group of artisans and musicians who organized free art and music classes for the kids in Little Village. The group called itself Arte y Realidad, and the classes took place in a church garage, behind a cafe, and in public parks in Little Village, working with kids as young as two and as old as who ever showed up. It was a space that encouraged people to try to learn new skills, and held the central idea that everyone has something to teach and learn from one another. Ireri continues to hold this view as central to their work with young people, with immigrant communities, and with plants and ecosystems.
Ireri started out at UIC in 2005 through the College of Architecture, Design and the Arts, joining the Industrial Design program. Even though Ireri did not graduate with that degree, the Industrial Design program left them with an appreciation of how different peoples have practiced and still practice the cultivation of a relationship to the ecosystems around us of reciprocity, generosity, and community building, rather than the mainstream relationship of extraction, expendability, and individualism. And it was in the Gender and Women’s Studies Department that Ireri was able to delve deep into discussions of identity, class, gender, citizenship or lack of, migration, through a historical and cultural lense that helped them make sense of the injustices they saw in their daily life. These lenses continue to shape how Ireri analyses and sees the world. Ireri graduated from UIC with a Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Women’s Studies in 2009.
In 2009, tired of the frustrations and obstacles placed by a lack of immigration status, Ireri joined the Immigrant Youth Justice League, a group composed of young undocumented people working to diversify the narratives about being undocumented and creating spaces and resources for undocumented young people to navigate different aspects of life. Now, Ireri still collaborates with groups that uplift the organizing of undocumented immigrant communities, particularly working with Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), and collaborating with Chicago Community and Workers Rights (CCWR). Ireri is also a proud worker owner of the workers’ cooperative Catatumbo Cooperative Farm in Chicago.