Andy Barillas, 37, came to Clarke Square as an infant with his family in the 1980s, after they fled the civil war in El Salvador. His family was one of the first El Salvadorian families to settle in Milwaukee. Barillas is happy that the Clarke Square neighborhood is still one of the first stops in Milwaukee for immigrants arriving from Latin American countries.

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Raised in a South Side neighborhood where he still lives, Edgar Mendez is the managing editor of the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Mendez is a proud graduate of UW-Milwaukee, where he double majored in journalism and sociology, and of Marquette University, where he earned a master’s degree in communication. He won a 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and 2014, 2017, and 2018 Milwaukee Press Club Awards for his reporting on taverns, marijuana law enforcement, and lead in water service lines. In 2008, he won a Society of Professional Journalists’ regional award for columns dealing with issues such as poverty, homelessness and racism. His writing has been published by the Associated Press, Reuters, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other media. He has also co-authored three articles published in scholarly journals.