Documents show Archer protester and political operative “Maria Martinez of Brighton Park” is actually Maria Moctezuma of Clearing

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It appears the previously claimed identity of Maria “The Megaphone Lady,” a political figure and the loudest opponent of Brighton Park’s Archer Avenue traffic safety project, was as phony as a three-dollar bill.

But let me start out by saying a few positive things about Maria. After writing about her role in the Archer demonstrations for many months, my sense is that she’s overcome some challenges. She’s living her life with a lot nerve and audaciousness – “chutzpah” or “ganas” if you will – which I can’t help but respect. And I got a chuckle last July 4 when she wore a t-shirt that said “Megaphone Lady,” the nickname that I coined for her back in January.

That said, Maria has done some very shady stuff in her role as an Archer protester, as well as an assistant and Flavor Flav-like hype person for Claudia Zuno, a 12th Ward aldermanic challenger.

Zuno, front, with Maria holding the “No Parking, No Customers” sign at a February protest. Photo: John Greenfield

Zuno participated in the weekly protests in front of or near progressive incumbent Ald. Julia Ramirez’s office for months before the challenger announced her candidacy last February. In May, Juan Rangel, CEO of the “moderate to conservative” lobbying group Urban Center essentially admitted that the Archer rallies, which he promoted with press releases and mass texts, were a strategy to defeat Ramirez.

Demonstrators at the December 22 protest near Ramirez’s office Photo: John Greenfield

Back to Maria.You may ask, what has she done that’s been less-than-transparent?

Last name changes

First of all, as I’ve previously discussed, the Megaphone Lady has gone by a few different last names. In reports by NBC Chicago, the Chicago Tribune, and Fox Chicago, her quotes are credited to “Maria Martinez.” That’s also the surname she used on her business cards for Zuno’s campaign.

But she goes by the handle “Maria Yzabel” on the “Archer Guardians of Brighton Park” Facebook group.

And after she testified at a City Hall committee meeting as “Maria Moctezuma” last June, I conducted some online detective work and found evidence that her legal name as of May 2025 was “Maria Isabel Moctezuma.” I’m not going to share the materials I found here. But I’ll just say that everyone makes mistakes, and people should be allowed to move on with their lives afterwards.

Still, if you’re going to be a public figure, handing out business cards while promoting a candidate, or speaking to news outlets against projects that prevent deadly crashes, it’s unethical to use a false name.

What neighborhood does she actually live in?

Moctezuma founded the “Archer Guardians of Brighton Park” group, and news reports during the past year have stated that she lives in that community. For example, the April 2026 Fox article I referenced refers to her as, “Maria Martinez, a Brighton Park community member.”

The May 2026 Tribune article I mentioned calls her, “Maria Martinez, of Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood.”

Moreover, in addition to founding the Brighton Park-oriented Facebook group, Maria Moctezuma, posting as “Maria Yzabel,” left at least one comment there suggesting that she lives in the community and the 12th Ward. In the below post (edited for brevity) in a discussion about a bike crash in the nearby Gage Park neighborhood, she calls out Alfredo Valladares Jr. from Gage Park Cyclists, based in a neighborhood directly south of Brighton Park. Valladares co-organized weekly counterprotests in front of Ald. Ramirez’s office to show support for the Archer project.

“Why is he so concerned with #BrightonPark?” Moctezuma wrote. “It’s not his neighborhood, nor his alderman.” The obvious implication is that Moctezuma has more skin in the game because she lives in Brighton Park.

However, documents indicate that Moctezuma was living miles from Brighton Park during the December 2025 to June 2026 protests, and probably still does.

Again, I’m going to take the high road and not share the May 2025 materials mentioning “Maria Isabel Moctezuma.” But they state that her address was in the 60s on Central Avenue in the Clearing community area, directly across the street from the west fence of Midway Airport. That’s more than 3.5 miles from the western boundary of Brighton Park and the Archer project area.

But is it possible she’s moved to Brighton Park since then? Almost certainly not.

I knew Moctezuma has been working for Zuno, collecting signatures to get the candidate on the ballot. So I filed a petition request for the municipal election with the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Here’s a screenshot from the the doc they sent back. I blurred out some personal info, such as the exact four-digit number of Moctezuma’s address.

So as of September 19, 2026, Moctezuma was still living at the same address as in May 2025, in the 60s on Central Park, across from Midway.

So that’s strong evidence she allowed news outlets to believe she lived in Brighton Park, and implied that was the case on social media, when that wasn’t actually the case.

Reactions from Archer projects supporters

So how do folks who worked hard to keep the Archer Guardians from killing the traffic safety project feel about Maria Moctezuma being less-than-honest about her identity?

Again, she attacked pro-Complete Streets rally co-organizer Alfredo Valladares Jr. for not living in Brighton Park, when that was also true of herself.

The Archer project supporters at their final rally in June 2026 including co-organizers Alfredo Valladares Jr (front) and Gil Campos (waving). Photo: John Greenfield

“I wasn’t there to support the Archer project because I live in Brighton Park, but because I traverse the neighborhood on Archer every day,” Valladares told me in response to Moctezuma’s snarky Facebook comment about him. “I’m just wondering why she’s so concerned about Brighton Park if she lives miles from the neighborhood and doesn’t know firsthand about the benefits the infrastructure is bringing to the neighborhood.”

His rally organizing partner Gil Campos, a lifelong Brighton Park resident, echoed those sentiments about Moctezuma. “She has been there from the beginning, protesting against bike lanes along Archer Avenue in Brighton Park, he said via text message. “It really upsets me that she’s caused so much trouble riling the community, even going as far as creating a the facebook page ‘Archer Avengers’ [the supporters’ nickname for the Archer Guardians] where they post false narratives and information about MY neighborhood to turn everyone against each other. Makes me wonder who is putting her up to this.”

This Facebook post by Urban Center CEO Juan Rangel, about Moctezuma’s boss Claudia Zuno, basically answers that question.

I plan to share this article with all my Chicago journalism colleagues who’ve referred to Clearing resident Maria Moctezuma with words like, “Maria Martinez, a Brighton Park community member.” And hopefully if she ever gets interviewed for a news story again, she’ll be more honest about where she lives, ands who she is.

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