To recognize lifelong Chicagoan Evette Cardona’s many decades of advocacy and activism, the Crossroads Fund will bestow her with the Lynda J. Tipton Memorial Award for Social Justice at the organization’s annual Seeds of Change benefit on Friday, April 4 at Malcolm X College. The award honors Cardona’s “outstanding contributions to philanthropy, the field of social work and the LGBTQIA community, with a particular focus on uplifting women and gender-expansive communities.”
Cardona said that when fellow activist Emmanuel Garcia notified her that she would receive this “wonderful award” her first response was, “No, I’m really not worthy,” because she hasn’t been doing as much activism in recent years.
“But I came to understand that they were recognizing me for the longer trajectory of my work beyond activism and in a more intersectional way,” said Cardona. “That made sense to my head and heart because it meant that they also saw me for my work as a social worker, as a philanthropist and as a teacher. And that felt very good.”
Cardona’s activist roots began after she graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where she got her bachelor’s degree in art and design. It was there that she also honed her photography and film skills.
Cardona grew up in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood, at a time before the neighborhood gentrified. When she graduated from UIC she moved back to Bucktown and into a “very cool” 2,220 square-foot space that she used as a photography studio, “with a dark room set up in the tiny bathroom.”
During that time, Cardona met other artists/activists who were using their art, skills and voice to fight against gentrification in Bucktown and Wicker Park and many other social issues that were pervasive in Chicago at the time. Bucktown and Wicker Park were home to the third largest concentration of artists in the United States when Cardona embarked on her freelance photography career there.
To effect more positive change, Cardona also joined her first nonprofit board, where she learned about the “power of community.” She also shifted her career trajectory at that time due to the early ‘90s recession. Cardona took a job at Christopher House as a project coordinator where her focus was on adolescent mothers and their children.
Cardona recalled that, back then, she knew nothing about early childhood or adolescent development, but her multitasker mindset enabled her to do “five things at once.” One of the main things she did was lead outreach and training for Christopher House’s Parents Too Soon support groups and workshops.
“Those very young mothers, who many in society saw only as failures, taught me so much about the importance of love and parenting, about the failure of systems and the safety net, and about being true to yourself,” said Cardona.
Due to Cardona’s work experience at Christopher House, she decided to go back to school to get her master’s degree in social work. She got accepted into the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice. Cardona interned as a sexual assault counselor at the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, Women’s Services and as a program officer intern at the Polk Bros. Foundation.
Cardona, who is currently the vice president of programs for Polk Bros., said that her internship at the Foundation was a transformative experience because, “Not only did I learn about the power and privilege of philanthropy and the use of and tension between private money for public benefit, but they also hired me when I graduated. I was also very fortunate that their politics and sense of justice matched mine, and I was able to continue my activism and advocacy on behalf of the LGBTQ and Latine communities.”
The ‘90s were a pivotal decade for Cardona in many ways. She knew she wasn’t straight at an early age but didn’t come out publicly as a lesbian until 1993, when she was 31 years old. Cardona said coming out became the catalyst for her work as an LGBTQ+ activist and advocate. Coming out “ignited a hunger in me” to seek out other Latina lesbians in Chicago so she could find community.
This spurred her to help co-found Women of All Colors and Cultures Together (WACT) and Amigas Latinas, which closed in 2015. Cardona also previously served on the board of directors of the now-defunct Lesbian Community Cancer Project and Center on Halsted when it was first opened. She is currently a member of the Chicago Foundation for Women’s LBTQ Giving Council.
Cardona said all these experiences were “amazing and affirming and the most transformative time in my life.”
While organizing at WACT, Cardona met her now-wife Mona Noriega, who was most recently the chair of the Illinois Human Rights Commission, one night at a Men of All Colors Together meeting where WACT organizers were invited to come learn about that organization’s efforts. Cardona recalled that Noriega arrived and started talking about the work she had done with LLENA (Latina Lesbianas en Nuestro Ambiente), an organization Cardona had heard about in her own search for other Latina lesbians.
They kept in touch off and on, co-founded Amigas Latinas together, fell in love and have been together for almost 30 years, having said “I do” three times—domestic registry in 2003, civil union in 2011 and marriage in 2014. Cardona and Noriega both say they are done saying “I do.”
Cardona said that their civil union ceremony at Millennium Park, where many lesbian and gay couples took their vows, was special because it was one of the first events that the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations, for which Noriega had just been appointed commissioner, coordinated.
“Here we are in our wedding attire surrounded by family—because we never thought we would see real marriage in our lifetime—and Mona is having one of the most intimate experiences in her life with all her brand-new coworkers running around making sure everything was running smoothly,” said Cardona. “But the extra specialness of that day was that [then Cook County Circuit Judge] Pat Logue was the officiant who did our civil union.”
Cardona and Noriega got married two days after marriage equality went into effect in Illinois in 2014. Their ceremony took place at Logue and her wife Marcia Festen’s house. She added that “Pat literally printed out the exact same vows from our civil union and used them to marry us. It is one of my most beautiful memories for so many reasons.”
Cardona and Noriega have been a fixture at various social, philanthropic and political events over the years, and have also inspired new generations of LGBTQ Chicagoans to be present and active in the community.
Cardona also recently received the Maria T. Mangual Leadership Award from Mujeres Latinas en Acción for her work on behalf of the Latina community. She said Mangual was “a true force of nature in the early days of feminism.” The two met during Cardona’s first year at Polk Bros. Foundation when Cardona joined Chicago Latines in Philanthropy. Cardona said, “I loved listening to Maria, learning from here and, after she died, working to ensure the work she leveraged through philanthropy got even stronger.”
Among Cardona’s leadership roles were as board chair for Forefront, chair of the National Funders for LGBTQ Issues and nearly three decades of work with Chicago Latines in Philanthropy.
Other accolades over the years have included the Association of Latino Men For Action Award for Community Leadership for her work with Amigas Latinas (1997); ACLU/Chicago’s John R. Hammel Award (2001); Mujeres Latinas en Accion’s Maria “Maruca” Martinez Award (2004); Illinois Women’s Bar Association’s Women with Vision Award (2004); University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice Elizabeth Butler Award (2008); UChicago’s Leadership in Diversity Alumni Award (2010); Center on Halsted’s Human First Award (2014); and Crain’s Chicago Notable LGBTQ Executives recognition (2018).
Additionally, Cardona was inducted into Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame in 2002 alongside Noriega and was one of the many individuals interviewed for the Chicago Gay History limited series.
When Cardona came out 32 years ago, she never imagined her activism and advocacy would be rewarded with so many accolades and honors. She has called herself “a reluctant leader” who ended up organizing lots of lesbians so she could find her community. That work has “shaped who I am, how I live my life and how I see the world.”
Now Cardona is set to retire from the Polk Bros. Foundation and said it has been an “honor and privilege” to work for them for almost 30 years. She will take time to rebalance, travel and do some bird watching. Cardona and Noriega (who retired last year) plan to spend more time with each other and the rest of their family, especially their granddaughters and nieces and nephews.
“Even though it’s a strange time to be retiring, given the politics of this country, I can’t imagine just sitting still and not continuing to fight for justice in whatever way I can,” said Cardona. “I also know that our collective fight for justice is going to continue for a long time, and I really hope and trust that the next generation will both learn from and also surpass my generation and past generations in ways that will take our breaths away and ensure going backward never happens again.”