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Arkansas held up as shining example of new Hispanic frontier
07/03/2005


LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Hector Flores' own experience as a child made him realize that places like Arkansas could be as friendly to new Hispanic immigrants as border states like Arizona, California and Texas -- maybe more so.

This week, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the national civil rights organization that Flores leads, celebrated emerging Latino communities in rural Southern and Midwestern states at its 76th annual convention in Little Rock.

Hispanics are just the latest trampled-upon immigrants in the American tapestry, Flores says, but the week's events that sought to explain these new frontiers also presented a clean slate, where Latinos can show they belong.

"I still see a more tolerant, progressive South in Arkansas," Flores said during a trip to Hope, Ark., to see the migrant-worker center that provided him with a welcome bed and shower more than 50 years ago. "And once the dominant culture here sees the Mexican-American work ethic, the focus on God and family, we will become a full part of the community."

On the other hand, Flores winces at treatment larger Latino populations are receiving in Arizona, from Minutemen vigilantes guarding the Mexican border, or in his native Texas, where he says Anglos still have a tendency "to look right through you, like you're a non-entity."

Still, the border states have their comforts and the newly celebrated Hispanic frontier has its drawbacks. Arkansas' Hispanic community is still in its infancy and faces plenty of growing pains.

Some recent immigrants say they couldn't find the Spanish-language services or government outreach offices that are readily available in other states. The state's largest hospital, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, didn't offer in-house interpreting services until 18 months ago and has two interpreters for dozens of Spanish-speaking patients a day.

Arkansas has only one Hispanic elected official, a justice of the peace in Chicot County, and until Diana Gonzalez Worthen announced her candidacy for state representative this past week, the state had never seen a Latino run for an office higher than school board.

And some Arkansas legislators have sought to mimic laws in Arizona that seek to wrest control over immigration from federal authorities and limit access to higher education for the children of illegal immigrants. However, two black legislators, supported by Gov. Mike Huckabee, tried unsuccessfully to offer higher immigration benefits to those children.

Arkansas boasts the second-fastest growing Hispanic population in the country since 1990, but it still has only about 100,000 Hispanic residents, 3 percent of the state's population and well below the national average. Its mosly rural Latino enclaves are not even as well-established as those in other agrarian, non-border states like Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.

But the emcee for Wednesday's welcome luncheon, KNBC-TV Los Angeles anchor David Cruz, singled out intense discrimination in the Midwest. By hosting the first LULAC convention focused on emerging Latino communities, Arkansas seized the mantle, instead. Downtown Little Rock was transformed into a street fiesta, with "bienvenidos" signs in storefront windows and world-renowned mariachi bands thrilling thousands on the banks of the Arkansas River.

For Arkansas' nearly all-Anglo leadership, the thrill was all theirs.

Huckabee gushed to more than 1,200 at a LULAC luncheon that he hoped Hispanics keep moving into the state to make a "traditional Southern state" more diverse. Tyson Foods Inc. chairman John Tyson, whose Arkansas-based company has had to dodge unsubstantiated claims of improper hiring of illegal immigrants, said Hispanic workers and executives have empowered the world's largest meat producer.

And Little Rock tourism officials basked in the glow of the city's most intense international attention since the Clinton Presidential Library opened in November. Clinton, three Bush cabinet members, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean and pop star Gloria Estefan all came to the Arkansas capital in a span of three days.

"This is as good as it gets," beamed Dan O'Byrne, CEO of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, as he took in another ballroom filled with Hispanic politicians, businessmen and military veterans.

The future may have been glimpsed at the LULAC Expo, in the attitudes of non-Hispanic business people manning information booths, capitalizing on the emerging Hispanic market.

"Any company would be foolish not to be here to try to attract this group to their product," said Mike Lands, director of sales for AT&T Arkansas. "We're enjoying Arkansas' new diversity, and we see migration of Hispanics into the state creating a lot more positives."