Sam and Jonathan Nunez were obviously excited.
Once we’d said our good mornings and shook hands over a table at Mother’s Restaurant in Aurora, the two brothers couldn’t wait to share news from an Aurora University professor they had run into while waiting for me to show up for this interview.
AU started its own mariachi band this fall, which will make a public debut at the Cultural Fest for the university’s homecoming on Oct. 10. And that’s a big deal because these Mexican folk bands are usually made up of older men. The fact there is now one at the university, they both insisted, is a big deal, indeed.
The Nunez brothers know something about making history themselves.
At age 33, Sam – the more quiet one who prefers working behind the scenes – is in his second term as an Aurora Township trustee. And when his 35-year-old brother Jonathan – more direct, more decisive – won a seat on the Aurora City Council in April, the siblings likely can lay claim as the first millennial Latino brothers to become local elected officials in the Aurora area.
It’s a distinction that points to just how much change has taken place in the last three decades since I’ve been covering this community. For one thing, when I started in this newsroom, neither of these Aurora leaders were even in preschool. And as my interview with the duo during the final days of September’s Hispanic Heritage Month came to an end, I couldn’t help but think I could be chatting with a future Aurora mayor.
That’s significant as well, for over the years the city has seen a surge in Hispanic leadership, a fact not lost on Jonathan or Sam, who view their roles as a continuation of the legacy of hard work and sacrifices made by their parents and grandparents.
The family’s multi-generational history starts with one of the first Mexican American families to live in Aurora city limits: maternal great-grandfather Hilario Vera, who came to the Chicago area in 1910, and eight years later moved to Aurora, where he worked on the railroad as well on the Mastodon Lake project at Phillips Park.
Paternal grandfather Celso Nunez left his mark too. In the early 1970s he founded Imperial Construction, leaving behind concrete stamps with the company’s name across the city, including the old police station and around Aurora University.
And when their father came to this city from Mexico as a 16-year-old later in the 1970s, he worked three jobs while also taking care of younger siblings when his father became ill.
Samuel Nunez, according to his sons, started as “a broom pusher” with a recycling company 37 years ago and rose to superintendent, while also operating on the weekends a Joliet banquet hall he co-owns.
“We always felt it was our responsibility to take it one step further,” noted Sam, who was instrumental, along with now-State Rep. Barbara Hernandez, in starting the LULAC youth group as a student at East Aurora High School, and got involved as a Democratic precinct committeeman soon after graduation.
“It is out of respect to previous generations that you do your best,” added Jonathan. “Because of the hard work they put in, we got that head start they did not have. They made sure we had every opportunity to go to college, to find and develop our skills as leaders.”
“Chin up, chest out,” their dad would tell his children, also instilling the importance of dressing respectfully because you never know who you will meet. And above all else, be “humble and kind,” Sam recalled, because what was earned through hard work “could easily be taken away.”
All are lessons from the father neither takes lightly.
The Nunez family of six children grew up in a boisterous but loving Pigeon Hill household at a time when Aurora was still in the grip of gang violence. Their childhood home, now owned by their sister, shared a yard with the house where 6-year-old Nico Contreras was killed in a 1996 drive-by shooting. And their grandparents, they recalled, lived on Valley and Liberty, where the kids were instructed to never go past a certain house on the block, and when the occupants at the dead end ventured their way out, to immediately go inside.
The brothers credit their dad and mother Patricia with keeping them on the straight and narrow, in large part by making sure they were “busy at all times,” said Jonathan.
He and Sam began emerging as young role models, first as altar servers, then as lectors at St. Nicholas Catholic Church, where they also learned about servant leadership from the late David Engbarth, St. Nick’s iconic pastor who became one of Aurora’s most passionate anti-violence advocates.
In high school, the brothers stepped up their activities: baseball, golf, theater, mentoring, school newspaper, with Jonathan serving on the student council and Sam becoming student representative on the District 131 school board.
All of this was accomplished while holding down jobs.
Later, while going to college for a business degree from Aurora University, Sam Nunez got involved with the Aurora Democratic Party and the Aurora Hispanic Heritage Advisory Board. He successfully ran for township trustee in 2021, where he’d once worked as a youth outreach coordinator and had come to appreciate the difference its program made for kids, seniors and those struggling to make ends meet.
Jonathan, an AU marketing grad, told me it was after establishing his career in business development that, with the blessing of wife Mariah, he decided to run for 4th Ward alderman, even before longtime incumbent Bill Donnell announced he would not seek reelection.
History is definitely being made in the Fox Valley – not all of it so positive, however.
While the Nunez brother did not experience the same assimilation challenges as those who came before them, they know what it is like to be put into a “bucket” because of how they look and where they come from.
“This country is founded on freedom of speech but our moral compass is way off,” insisted Sam, who recalled an incident in Nebraska, where a business owner he was calling on for work saw his last name and told him he did not want him in his shop.
Jonathan shared a similar story: While talking to his 14-year-old son in Spanish outside a North Dakota restaurant, he was confronted by a local resident who barked at him, “If you speak that language, why don’t you get the hell out of here.”
Even as the three of us were enjoying a second cup of coffee, Sam got a text from wife Iliana, informing him about reports about possible ICE agents in their Marywood neighborhood, which sent his mother-in-law, a legal citizen taking their small children for a walk, rushing home in fear.
It was a stark reminder, both brothers told me later, of the importance for Hispanic residents, no matter what their immigration status, to carry documentation with them.
As concern about ICE picks up in the Aurora neighborhoods, the Nunez brothers are hearing more from concerned constituents. Local officials are restricted in their powers, as both point out. But they want the community to know their voices are important and will be heard.
Jonathan – who said he’s experienced ICE at his own family’s business – points out meetings he’s had with leadership at East and West Aurora school districts, as well as the Boys & Girls Club, to discuss safety. He’s also attended “know-your-rights” training and is distributing information to the community while also remaining in contact with other elected officials to ensure accurate updates are being communicated regarding arrests.
On his Facebook page Jonathan wrote, “I understand how unsettling these events are and I am committed to continuing open communication, supporting impacted families and ensuring our community has the information and resources needed during this time.”
Written like a rising elected official?
And so I asked the new 4th Ward alderman the question playing in the back of my mind since our first cup of coffee: Do you see yourself running for mayor some day?
Jonathan Nunez looked at me in silence for what seemed a long moment.
Then he smiled.
dcrosby@tribpub.com