VO: On the far South Side, this sprawling parcel of vacant lakefront land was home to a steel mill called South Works, from the 1800s until it closed in 1992.

On a small part of the site, a new park gives residents in the community of South Chicago access to our beautiful lakefront for the first time in more than a century.

This sculpture on the site honors the union steelworkers who labored here and their families.

The artist who created it, Roman Villarreal, was once a steelworker himself.

- [Roman] I came to work in the mill in 1967, - [Geoffrey] And so you were, I mean this was a steel mill?

- Oh yeah.

Like right now- - [Geoffrey] Like, can you show me, like point to where you used to work?

- I used to work on the docks, which basically was behind us.

The boats would come in from that angle over there.

[Roman] My job, at the time, I was a laborer, and my job was basically to keep it safe, clean the area.

So it was interesting.

But my father put me in there because I was having too much fun in the street.

He said, "You gonna work."

- How old were you?

- 17.

- You came here at 17?

- [Roman] Well, at 17, 16, if your parents signed you, you could come to work in the mill, three to 11.

That was the main shift for us at that age.

And we lived across the street from the steel mill.

I remember always noise.

Noise was a very dominant thing in this community.

Clanging, banging.

I mean, the trucks were constant.

- [Geoffrey] But it was a positive world in the community too, right?

The mill?

- [Roman] Oh of course, because that was money.

It was one of the main things that everybody in this community had pocket money.

So it was a different atmosphere, because everybody had money.

There was no, it was always a happy time.

And people started buying cars.

Started buying homes.

I always tell people that we almost got to middle class.

- [Geoffrey] Almost?

- Almost.

Then it hit the fan, and everybody else, next thing you know, foreclosure.

They came for your car.

- [Geoffrey] The mill closed.

- [Roman] The mill closed, and it just, the world changed for everybody, you know?

- [Geoffrey] What does this park mean to the community?

Or what does it say about the future, or where the community might be going?

- Well, the main important part of this park above all is that we were here.

The steelworker.

In other words, there was a group of people that came here and believed in the steel dream.

That was their whole world, this mill.

This mill was their bread and butter.

This was their retirement.

This is what they were proud of.

See, you could be an average person out there, but the minute you stepped in the mill, you were somebody important, because you were the steel worker.

- [Geoffrey] So how did you land on this idea for the sculpture?

This design?

- My idea for the sculpture was when the mill closed, I always wanted to leave a mark.

- [Geoffrey] So what does it say?

What does it mean to you?

- [Roman] Well, the steelworkers always to me was family.

I could have gone over here and did a steelworker with a sledgehammer, and somebody working on it, but that's really not what the mill was about.

The mill was family.

Because every man that worked in the steel mill was a family man.