Over eighty (80) Latinas gathered together at the University of Illinois-Chicago's Latino Cultural Center for part of a week of Columbus Day-focused anti-war and anti-Colonialist events. The standing-room-only event was sponsored by UIC campus groups Union for Puerto Rican Students and Mexican Students de Aztlan, and organized by activists from the Batey Urbano and Zocalo Urbano collectives.

The focus of the first speaker Mike Reyes, an early member of Paseo Boricua's Batey Urbano and a founder of the Zocalo Urbano, was on history. He began by quoting South American liberator Simon Bolivar and referenced other heroes ranging from Fidel Castro to the recently martyred Puerto Rican patriot Filiberto Ojeda Rios. Reyes talked a lot about the 19th Century takeover of Mexican territory by the US, the racism and slavery that ensued, the problems with celebrating Columbus Day, and the impact of the war in Iraq, 9-11 and Katrina on poor people of color. He also criticized both the Republicans and Democrats for being a part of a "one-party state," as well as white Marxists and socialists for attempting to tokenize Latino communities.

After the overview given by Reyes, the other speaker, Saul Melendez, who helped to found the Batey Urbano, focused on his experiences being recuited into the army in high school, and his experiences. After they lied to him to get him in, he saw the resistance by the indigenous peoples who lived around the bases where he was sent to in Hawai'i and Japan, and the racism of US soldiers. Samoans, a colonized people under similar circumstances to his Puerto Rican people, would get into fights with the soldiers from the Hawaiin base, leaving Melendez with a scar that helped make him conscious of their persecution. Neo-Nazi soldiers were given a slap on the wrist when they harassed soldiers of color, while the subjects of the abuse and their supporters were suppressed.

When the soldiers went to the base in Hijidi, Japan, they were prepped for the protests by the indigenous people, which sometimes included US military veterans who had been disgusted with what they had been forced to do. The military crazily blamed all dissent on communists, and as Melendez explained, soldiers were taught that "everything in the military that's bad is communist."

The event was full of announcements for upcoming events at the Zocalo Urbano, the protest against the Project Minuteman conference on Saturday, and it was also announced that the Puerto Rican activists were sending four of their own to the Millions More March. It ended with a surprise birthday cake for one of the student organizers and an appeal to the Latina youth present to help in the formation of a Chicago Latino Anti-War/Anti-Imperialist group.