Aurora University’s Schingoethe Center is offering visitors a chance to artistically experience one of Chicago’s iconic neighborhoods forged by immigrants with a new exhibit, “Mapping Territories: The Art of Exile in Pilsen-Chicago.”
The exhibit, which opened Jan. 13, runs through May 15 at the facility inside the Hill Welcome Center at 1315 Prairie St. on the university’s campus in Aurora. It features 59 works produced by 32 printmakers “demonstrating the social and political struggles migrants face and the resilient cultural neighborhood they created,” according to a press release from the Schingoethe Center.
The release adds that Rene Arceo, a Chicago-based artist, educator and curator, organized the exhibit.
In the release, Arceo said that the prints “provide an opportunity to visualize the evidence of collective struggles, stories of migration and the building of community away from home. All this resonates with current spirited struggles of Mexican and other Latino communities in Chicagoland.”
Arceo was on hand for the opening reception for the exhibit on Jan. 13 and explained that the show was put together through the collective efforts of a number of other curators who “went through hundreds of prints” before selecting from a pool that numbered more than 70 works.
Natasha Ritsma, the center’s executive director, said the exhibit has been in the works for quite a while.
“We actually started putting this show together more two years ago before we had any idea the world would be as it is,” Ritsma said. “However, it is very timely and our student population – over 40% are Latino and Latina – so I feel like it connects very strongly to our student population as well as to our residents living here in Aurora.”
Ritsma added that the show “was important to hold here at our Schingoethe Center to show solidarity with our students as well as our community,” adding that she hopes people will learn more about “the struggles of immigrants as well as the Pilsen neighborhood which is very similar to Aurora.”
“This helps people learn about the process of immigration and the tough parts of being an immigrant and daily life,” she said of the exhibit. “It deals with tough topics to show why people immigrate and what they go through and risk and struggle with. Hopefully it makes people more empathetic and gives people in our community a voice and the opportunity to have a voice.”
Visitors on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, look at art on display at a new exhibition at Aurora University’s Schingoethe Center called “Mapping Territories: The Art of Exile in Pilsen-Chicago.” (David Sharos/For The Beacon-News)
Carlos Barberena of Chicago was one of the artists who took part in the opening reception and said that three of his prints are included in the show.
“There are three different print portfolios that Rene (Arceo) has invited me to use in the past, including one called ‘Santitos’ or saints,” Barberena said. “This related to the show about the Pilsen neighborhood because there were a lot of immigrants that came from Michoacan, Mexico, in that area of Pilsen and some of the stories about these people crossing the border talked about people being helped by the saint in the picture who is called Toribio Romo – his nickname is Santo Pollero – the saint of the immigrants.”
Danica Sebastian of South Elgin is a junior at Aurora University who attended the opening reception.
“It’s pretty cool to have this here and think this immigration exhibit is pretty powerful,” Sebastian said.
The exhibition at the Schingoethe Center can be viewed from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The museum will also be open on Saturday, April 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The exhibition ends on May 15.
Admission is free to the museum, which is open to the public. For more information, go to aurora.edu/museum.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
