Man Charged With Battery at Chicago Mexican Dance Studio

Robert Villanueva, 50, now faces five misdemeanor counts of battery after police say he poured liquid from a balcony onto children and adults leaving a Mexican folk dance studio in Avondale last week.

The incident happened around 10 p.m. on a Friday night outside Ballet Folklorico de Chicago, located at 3006 N. Pulaski Road near the Avondale and Belmont Cragin border. Students and their families were wrapping up the evening and heading out when two residents of a neighboring apartment building confronted them. A video shared by the neighborhood group Belmont Cragin United captured what happened next: a woman shouting at the families to leave while a man poured a container of clear liquid from above. Police believe the liquid was water.

The victims include four teenagers, three girls ages 13, 14 and 15 and a 13-year-old boy, along with three adult women.

The woman in the video can be heard telling the families, “You’re lucky ICE is not here.” She was not charged. Villanueva was arrested Tuesday and is scheduled to appear in court April 9.

Ald. Felix Cardona (31st) shared news of the arrest on social media Wednesday, thanking Chicago police and the studio’s leadership for their response to what he previously called a “hate incident.” Police did not file hate crime charges against Villanueva. In his statement, Cardona urged residents to let the legal process move forward. “While we understand the strong emotions surrounding this situation, we ask that community members refrain from attacking or harassing the assailant,” he wrote. “The police are actively working to ensure that those who were attacked are safe and that the situation is handled appropriately.”

The incident drew swift condemnation from elected officials, community organizations and Latino groups across the city. After the video spread widely, the two neighbors gave an interview to a local television station, saying they were not racist and not supporters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They identified themselves as Latino and said they had received harassment and death threats after the incident went public. The man acknowledged he “lost his cool.” Their central complaint, they said, was ongoing noise from the studio and its visitors, which they claimed had gone unaddressed despite repeated complaints.

Ofelia Guerra, founder and executive director of Ballet Folklorico de Chicago, told reporters the Friday encounter was not an isolated one. The studio had already called police after the man got into a confrontation with a studio family over a parking space. According to Guerra, the neighbors also approached children playing outside the studio and told them to go back inside or ICE would come for them.

That detail matters. A single late-night argument over noise or parking is one thing. A pattern of targeting children with threats involving immigration enforcement is something else entirely, and it landed on a community that has plenty of reasons to take those threats seriously.

Ballet Folklorico de Chicago has been part of this neighborhood’s cultural life for years, teaching traditional Mexican folk dance to young people who might otherwise have few affordable options for arts education. The studio represents something specific to Avondale and Belmont Cragin, neighborhoods that have long been home to Mexican and Latino families building something lasting on the Northwest Side.

What the video captured was not a neighbor dispute that spilled over. It was adults in costumes being doused with liquid in the dark, kids who had just finished dance practice getting targeted on their way to their cars, and a voice from above invoking federal immigration authorities as a threat. That combination drew the response it drew because people recognized what they were seeing.

Villanueva’s court date is set for April 9. The woman who shouted at the families has not been charged. Guerra and the studio have not announced any changes to their programming, and there is no indication they plan to.

The kids who got soaked on a Friday night were just leaving dance class. Their studio is still open.