Our Story
Latinos Progresando first opened its doors in 1998 in a single office on Chicago’s 18th Street — its only employee, the founder and current CEO Luis Gutierrez, the son of Mexican immigrants and a Little Village native.
For close to 30 years, Latinos Progresando’s story has been one of heart, vision and grit. It’s one of many hands and many hours. At every point, we’ve brought new meaning to the phrase “other duties as assigned”…all in the name of building something bigger than ourselves.
Today, Latinos Progresando is the standard bearer for quality and professional service in the immigration legal field. Entire families, from more than 60 countries around the world trust Latinos Progresando and choose us to guide them through some of the most critical points in their lives. We’re now serving the children and grandchildren of some of our very first clients.
We’ve grown from one to 25 employees (and we’re still going!). We’ve done that hiring from the community, training and promoting from within. Right now, seven of our full-time, professional staff were once agency clients.
With the network of partners we’ve cultivated, we put the Marshall Square neighborhood back on the map, revolutionizing authentic neighborhood collaboration. Today that collaboration extends beyond Marshall Square, connecting with our neighbors in North Lawndale through the One Lawndale initiative, and to Auburn Gresham through the Excellerator Fund, and throughout the city.
Latinos Progresando continues to amplify and celebrate the Mexican experience in Chicago, highlighting history and culture with our signature speaker series, MEX talks and more.
We opened our doors with little more than a dream — just $200; now, we’re proud to extend our services from two locations on Cermak: a former branch of Marquette Bank turned Resource Center, and a long-vacant Chicago Public Library branch into a Community Center.
LP’s success belongs to so many people — those who have been here since 1998, those
we’ve just met, and everyone in between.
Mission-driven work requires sacrifice, hard work, and hope, but it also brings us great joy. Each day we find new reasons to dig in and challenge ourselves with what’s next, so stick with us — we still have work to do.