LEAVE YOUR MARK: Standing Up For Her Community

— -- One evening last October, in a small, simple church on Chicago's southwest side, Maria Chávez carefully places a small white wooden cross a stand near the altar. Written on it in back ink is the name of her dead son, "HECTOR CHÁVEZ" and his age when he died, "19."

This is a special memorial mass for victims of violence and the church, in the city's infamous Back of the Yards neighborhood, one of the most violent and gang infested parts of the city, is filled with nearly 200 people. As people wait patiently in line to place their white crosses at the front of the dimly lit church, the only sound is their crying and sirens wailing in the night.

The bishop leading the mass talks passionately about the despair felt by those who have lost loved ones to violence and says, "We cannot give up. We have to work to change this, we need to do something."

Chávez, 50, is one of those who is doing something. She is fighting to stop the violence and has devoted herself to making a difference in her community.

In the late afternoon of September 12, 2001, Chávez heard shots ring out from the street in front of her small second floor apartment. It was nothing new. Gunshots were a common sound in the neighborhood. What alarmed her was that Hector had just left the apartment with a friend.

Chávez ran outside and found Hector lying in the middle of the street with a large head wound. She knew instantly her youngest son was dead, and all she could do was cradle him in her arms until an ambulance came.

Hector had become involved in a gang named La Raza when he was just nine years old. It was hard to avoid. Gang members were always hanging around outside his elementary school playground trying to recruit young kids. Chávez didn't discover he was in a gang until four years later and was consumed with guilt that she hadn't been paying closer attention. When she talked to him about it he told her he felt trapped and explained that if he tried to get out he could be killed. Chávez knew how gangs operated. She had lived in the neighborhood for nearly 20 years after moving to Chicago from Michoacán and had seen countless people shot or beaten by gang members.