Currently, the state House has 32 so-called majority-minority districts and the Senate has 13 similar districts. The proposal from the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations would result in 38 majority-minority districts in the House and 18 in the Senate.

A coalition of ethnic and religious groups today proposed a legislative redistricting map that would create 11 new state House and Senate districts in which a majority of the voting-age population are racial or ethnic minorities.

The coalition challenged Democrats who control the state legislature to give groups ample time to see a new state redistricting map. At a news conference in Daley Plaza, coalition members wore buttons that read: “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine. Redistricting 2011.”

Because Democrats lead the House and Senate and hold the governor’s office, they have virtually unfettered ability to draw new maps that help Democrats and weaken Republicans.The state’s 118 House and 59 Senate district boundaries are required to be redrawn every decade to represent population changes documented in the 2010 federal Census.

Chicago lost about 200,000 residents over the past decade, primarily in the African-American community. At the same time, the Latino population grew by 33 percent, primarily in the suburbs.

With tensions developing over whether Latinos would potentially gain legislative seats at the expense of African-American majority districts, more than 20 organizations representing Hispanic, black and Asian groups signed onto the coalition map. Despite African American population declines, the map would preserve the existing 18 House and eight Senate districts on Chicago’s West and South Sides that have a black majority population—and keep intact an African-American majority district in East St. Louis.

At the same time, the coalition proposal would create add another two House districts and a Senate district with majority Latino population on Chicago’s South Side and add a Hispanic-majority district in Aurora. In addition, the map proposes another nine new majority-minority state House districts and five Senate districts outside Chicago -- in Franklin Park, Evanston, Waukegan, Rockford, the Elgin-Carpentersville corridor, Schaumburg, West Chicago and Romeoville.

“We stand here today with our Latino brothers and sisters to say, ‘You’re gain is not my loss -- that the only way any of us will win is if we win together,’” said Rev. Robin Hood, pastor of Redeemed Outreach Ministries in North Lawndale and executive director of a group of West Side pastors.

C.W. Chen, chairman of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, said the map creates three districts in which the Asian population constitutes at least 20 percent. Chen successfully worked for a new law aimed at keeping the Chinatown area from being split into several districts.

“As minority communities, we have a shared destiny, a shared interest and a shared experience,” Chen said. “Any equitable redistricting for one group should not have to be at the expense of another.”

Sylvia Puente, executive director of the Latino Policy Forum, said there have been “no assurances that the map will be shown” publicly before it’s scheduled to be voted on in the legislature later this month.

During the weekend, powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan, the Southwest Side lawmaker who also chairs the state Democratic Party, said he couldn’t say how many new districts would be drawn to accommodate an increased Latino population. He said rifts had developed among various Hispanic groups over how the lines should be drawn.

“In addition, there are African-American groups, Chinese-Asian groups, there’s a whole variety of people and groups that are interested in the map-making process,” Madigan said. “We’re going to work with everybody and produce a fair map.”

But Puente said other than appearing before legislative hearings and submitting copies of the map, there have been no conversations with Democratic leaders on redistricting.