We’re honoring our nearly 100-year history by including nameplates from our past. This one is from the 1950s. See page 2. Volume #103 | Issue #25
May 13, 2019 | depauliaonline.com
Mama’s
house
MAERIED KAHN | THE DEPAULIA
Branko’s sandwich shop owner Anja Branko, known to regular customers as “Mama,” staffs the counter at her sandwich shop across from the DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus quad on Fullerton Avenue.
Branko’s owner serves up home-cooked meals with a mother’s touch By Ryan Mackinnon
“If you get sad, if you’re away from home for the first time, I want you to know that I have room in this heart for everybody.”
Contributing Writer
While most are hitting the snooze button and clocking out early, Mama is working. Branko’s owner Andja Branko, known affectionately to her patrons as Mama, clocks in 100 hours a week cooking and emotionally supporting DePaul students and Lincoln Park residents. On top of this, she takes full-time care of both of her parents, who opened the restaurant up back in 1976. Mama, 58, moved from the former Yugoslavia at age 15 and has been working in her family’s restaurant for the past 43 years. She greets everyone with a kindness that can feel unfamiliar, an artifact of a bygone time when local family-owned restaurants were the staples of local communities. “Pick anything you want, sweetheart,”
Anja “Mama” Branko
MAERIED KAHN | THE DEPAULIA
Mama spends around 100 hours per week working at Branko’s on Fullerton.
she tells her adoring customers. “It’s all homemade.” Branko’s oozes familial warmth. It has an old-school vibe, with wood paneling and a yellowing backlit menu board — all
Owner of Branko’s Sandwich Shop characteristic of an old-Chicago aesthetic that seems to be disappearing by the day. “It’s an incredible experience that starts with the service,” DePaul student Abe Levinson said. “Mama treats all of her customers right.”
Branko’s, on the north side of Fullerton Ave. across from the Quad, is a student favorite and a prime example of the American Dream. The Branko family moved to America in hopes of finding a better life opportunity, so they met an uncle who lived in Chicago. “Back home, we were always business owners for generations,” Mama said. “And we knew what America had to offer, so we left our two businesses.” Mama’s father originally opened Branko’s after leaving the repressive, communist former Yugoslavia when it was in the throes of an economic crisis. He enjoyed the freedoms in his new country, something they didn’t have much of in his home country. Despite the hardships he experienced, Mama’s father was a friendly man, a quality she says fueled the restaurant’s longevity. It’s Mama’s positive strength in the face
See MAMA’S HOUSE, page 6
Discussion at free speech forum falls short of compromise By Ella Lee Focus Editor
Students, staff and administrative representatives alike expressed frustration and a lack of knowing how to move forward as they discussed freedom of expression at a forum held Tuesday, May 7. The forum led to no lasting solution or compromise. “I think, initially, I didn’t know how much this [forum] would accomplish, and afterward, it kind of feels the same way— kind of wishy-washy,” said Emma Pieroni, DePaul sophomore. “At least the dialogue is open.”
The event was organized by Acting Provost Salma Ghanem in response to an article by Jason Hill, a DePaul philosophy professor, which sparked controversy and protest on campus. In the article, Hill argues that Israel has the “moral right” to annex the West Bank, and that they should have done so previously, after the Six Day War in 1967. In doing this, Palestinians living there would lose their right to vote. Four professors — Scott Hibbard, associate professor of political science; Jason Martin, associate professor of journalism; Scott Paeth, professor of
religious studies; and Shailja Sharma, professor of international studies — spoke as panelists, and Carol Marin, director of the Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence, moderated the event. In the audience sat nearly 30 students from different campus groups and related classes, alongside a number of faculty, administrative representatives and security. Hill declined to attend the forum and could not be reached for comment for this article. He told The Washington Times that he chose not to attend because he was “not going to put [himself] into a situation where [he’s] going to be harassed.”
President A. Gabriel Esteban attended the first half of the forum but left before the floor was opened to questions. Marin said she was told he had left for a meeting. To begin the forum, each professor gave a brief statement on their personal views regarding the article. Their views were widely the same. Paeth spoke first, condemning the content as “anti-moral” and claiming that the article was written with “no knowledge of the legal or moral dimensions of thinking about what constitutes a just war.” He maintained, though, that the article
See FREE SPEECH, page 6