When Maria Estela Parra saw herself on the Jumbotron at a Chicago Bulls game last month, hand-stitching Derrick Rose’s retirement banner, she pointed to the screen stunned and said, “That’s me.”
Her granddaughter captured the Jan. 24 moment at the United Center on video and within hours, Parra — the 64-year-old Mexican seamstress responsible for many of Chicago’s most iconic sports banners — went viral.
It was a long way from when the mother of two — who didn’t know how to sew and knew even less about sports — came to Chicago looking for a job. Four decades later, and now a grandmother of eight, Parra has left her permanent mark on the tapestry of Chicago sports history — literally. She’s also hand-sewn the official retirement banners for Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
“A lot of times she’s taken the back seat,” said her granddaughter Paloma Padilla. “She deserves the front seat now.”
Parra began her career in 1986. She was around 24 and a young mother of two from Guadalajara, Mexico, who had come to the U.S. in search of a better life. Though she didn’t know how to sew, her sister-in-law helped find her a job at W.G.N. Flag and Decorating Co. as a seamstress.
She learned by watching others and taking on small tasks, such as stitching together a flag’s colors. Her hands, pricked by countless pins, have made sports history with banners for the Bulls, Blackhawks, Bears and White Sox.
“Virtually every banner in the United Center was handcrafted right here,” said Carl Porter, president at W.G.N. Flag and Decorating Co. “Estela has had her hands in just about all of them, if not every single one.”
In turn, the small, family-owned flag and banner shop on South Chicago Avenue, which began in 1916, has become like a second home for Parra, she said.
On a typical day, Parra wakes up early from her home in the South Side to cook breakfast and prepare her family’s afternoon lunch before going to work at W.G.N., where she sews, stitches and trims from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“I love it,” she said. She especially loves the design aspect. “It’s where you put all the detail in, all your effort.”
For years she worked two jobs: sewing during the day and frying chicken in the evenings. “Hay que echarle ganas,” she said, a colloquial way of saying, “You have to work hard.”
Parra and another sister-in-law, Guadalupe Rinconeño, also a seamstress at W.G.N., worked on Rose’s No. 1 retirement jersey for about eight months before it was unveiled after a Bulls-Celtics game last month. A five-minute making-of video shown during the game featured Parra stitching the banner by hand.
Like Parra, Rinconeño is from Mexico and also learned sewing on the job after starting her role as a seamstress at W.G.N. in 1988. The grandmother of 10 has worked alongside Parra, helping her put together final touches on the sewing machine.
Despite hand-sewing the retirement banners for some of Chicago’s greatest athletes, Parra isn’t much of a sports fan. She attended her first Bulls game last month after her daughter got her last-minute tickets.
When she saw herself sewing on the Jumbotron, she was shocked.
“That’s her!” shouted her granddaughter as thousands of fans chanted “MVP” to Parra.
Seamstress Maria Estela Parra works on a Chicago Bulls banner at W.G.N. Flag and Decorating Co. in Chicago, Jan. 29, 2026. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Padilla captured the moment and shared the video with content creator Daniel Flores. Flores posted it on social media and captioned it: “Immigrants Make Chicago Great.” The next morning the reel had a million views; days later it was up to 4 million.
“I, a nobody, had so many people rooting for me,” Parra said. After a sleepless night after the game, she said she felt proud of herself.
The only thing she regrets? Her outfit: a striped black and white shirt with red hearts. “Why did I have to wear that shirt?” she said, unhappy about the fit.
Flores, who is from Peru, said he was inspired by Parra’s work. He said she reminded him of his own family of hardworking immigrants. He brought Parra a bouquet of flowers last month.
“I think she’s incredibly proud to be Mexican, proud to be from Chicago. She loves her job,” said Flores, 33, who lives in Pilsen. “I think that’s such a universal trait of Latino immigrants, just so humble.”
On social media, some online commenters wondered why the Bulls hadn’t given Parra better seats to the game after decades of working on their banners. “Why didn’t y’all give her better seats?” wrote one person on Instagram.
After Parra’s video went viral, the Chicago Bulls gave all employees at W.G.N. Flag and Decorating tickets to a game this season, a Bulls spokesperson said. Employees are planning to go to the Bulls game this Saturday, Porter said.
“We are grateful for all the staff who work there, including Maria Estela, and helped create the Derrick Rose number one banner,” a Bulls spokesperson told the Tribune.
A new banner honoring Derrick Rose hangs after its unveiling during a ceremony to retire his No. 1 jersey by the Chicago Bulls at the United Center, Jan. 24, 2026. Maria Estela Parra and sister-in-law Guadalupe Rinconeño worked on Rose’s No. 1 retirement jersey for about eight months. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Parra admits she is not much of a sports fan. She will watch occasionally if her family has a game on TV, and she has never been to a White Sox or a Blackhawks game, either, though she makes many of their banners.
Instead, she likes to spend time with family and cook tamales for them, each according to their preference. Some with less fat, others with less spice, she said.
Padilla said her grandmother was a “giver.”
The Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup banners hang in front of Chicago Bulls banners in 2018 at the United Center. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
“If she’s cooking you breakfast, you’re getting a five-course breakfast,” Padilla, 29, said.
Back at her work station at W.G.N., Parra continues to stitch new flags and banners as they come in the pipeline. She is currently working on a Ukrainian flag.
By her side is a set of old photos, with handwritten years. One is a photo of Padilla as a 1-year-old child in 1998; the other is a photo of Parra herself at the stitching table smiling next to Michael Jordan’s No. 23 banner. The date is fuzzed out, but judging by how young she looks in it, she guesses it’s from 1994.