West Side

One of Kansas City’s pickup soccer hot-spots is right around the corner from the upcoming FIFA Fan Festival. Players and employees at The Soccer Lot hope fans from around the world might pop in for a competitive but laid-back match.

What began as an annual celebration of Mexican immigrants and their cultural roots has grown into a weekend-long block party filled with music, food and the chance for longtime supporters to reconnect.

Kansas City previously honored farmworker advocate and union leader César Chávez with murals and a street in his name on the Westside. But some community leaders are reconsidering after a bombshell investigation accused him of sexually abusing multiple girls and women.

For more than three decades, customers have come to love the Mexican family recipes served up at La Fonda El Taquito. With the restaurant closing for good at the end of January, the Medina sisters who own the spot have been busier than ever.

Organizers, developers and local politicians and officials hailed the new $4.3 million pool as a testament to community.

Through a new partnership with Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, a rural maternal health clinic will bring doula services to Kansas City’s Westside.

Primitivo Garcia Elementary School is now home to the first-ever baseball and softball field in Kansas City Public Schools. Students and school leaders say it's more than just an athletic facility to them.

Kansas City based painter and tattoo artist Juan Moya has spent the last three decades helping to maintain an iconic Westside mural he originally created for free. He recently finished redoing the space, but this time his community made sure he walked away with more than just pride in his work.

Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, officially begins Nov. 1, but local Kansas City events kick off as early as Saturday, Oct. 19. The holiday is a chance for Kansas City's Latino community to gather and honor deceased loved ones.

Armada con una grabadora, la bibliotecaria de Kansas City, Irene Ruiz, capturó la evolución de la historia del vecindario de Westside e hizo de la biblioteca un lugar más acogedor para los inmigrantes mexicanos y latinos que vivían allí. Hoy en día, la sucursal del vecindario de Westside la Biblioteca Pública de Kansas City, que cuenta con la sólida colección de idioma español que Ruiz comenzó, lleva su nombre en su honor.

Armed with a tape recorder, Kansas City librarian Irene Ruiz captured the evolving history of the Westside and made the library a more welcoming place for the Mexican immigrants and Latinos who lived there. Today, the Westside branch of the Kansas City Public Library — featuring the robust Spanish language collection that Ruiz began — is named in her honor.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine has been a central part of life for Latinos in Kansas City’s Westside neighborhood for more than 100 years. Repairing it will require raising nearly $1 million, but community members refuse to let their history fade away.