"It is one of our biggest projects: fighting for equitable development in terms of all families in all neighborhoods having access to green spaces, including the propagation of 'mariposarios'-butterfly sanctuaries-to help save one of our most important pollinators," said the executive director, Leone Jose Bicchieri. The group was solidified as a branch of the Working Family Solidarity, an organization that works with working-class communities to encourage policy change for just work environments. With the news that the butterfly is now endangered, she said she's committed to expand their work by partnering with Chicago Public Schools to use their spaces to plant milkweed and create butterfly gardens in the city.
This summer, the group created a milkweed garden at Orozco Community Academy and another one at Whittier Dual Language School. She named the group Women for Green Spaces, and since its creation in 2021, Galeno-Sanchez has partnered with several other butterfly lovers and organizations in the area to create gardens to benefit pollinators. What began as a family project blossomed into a solid group led by women in the community that educates and encourages others to create butterfly gardens in their homes by hosting informative workshops about the insects and giving away milkweeds-a plant that the caterpillars depend upon. Helping to raise awareness of how other families in the Chicago area can also help to save the monarchs has become a priority in Galeno-Sanchez's life. For her, the butterflies represent the beauty of migration and family. The native of Puebla, Mexico, grew up around the majestic black and orange insect. "We must do what we can to preserve the butterflies," said Galeno-Sanchez. But despite the steep decline in the last decade, the United States has not listed the butterflies under the Endangered Species Act. Then they travel to southern Canada before making their way back to Mexico at the end of the summer.Īccording to the group, the population of the insect in North America has declined between 22% and 72% over 10 years, depending on the measurement method. They are like a miracle."Įvery year, flocks of the iconic monarch butterfly migrate north after wintering in the mountains of central Mexico. "It pains me that my children may not get to see and experience their beauty. "They remind me of my childhood," she said, with her voice breaking. Though Galeno-Sanchez knew monarch butterflies were in danger, she began to sob when she learned that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch to its "red list" of threatened species and categorized it as "endangered"-two steps from extinct.
Galeno-Sanchez and her husband and two children decided to create a butterfly sanctuary after learning that they could help raise and preserve the beloved species in the city. It is filled with milkweed plants and other flowers that have helped raise monarchs for nearly five years.
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