Thread: CHESTER – They are an invisible community. (I Only Wish )

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 6868&rfi=6


10/27/2006
Latinos celebrate heritage
By BELISA SILVA Staff Writer

CHESTER – They are an invisible community.


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They wash cars, mop floors, clean houses and stand on street corners hoping to be picked up for work. They are second-class citizens to many and simply ignored by many others.

They are Chester’s Latino population.

Members of the area’s Latino community were interviewed during Hispanic Heritage Month, which began Sept. 15 and continued through October.

“I feel like a stranger in this small town,” said Juana Avendaño, a Mexican-native, who lives in an apartment on Budd Avenue. “People look at me like I don’t belong in this country—like this isn’t my country too.”

Avendaño, 33, who came to the U.S. eight years ago, shares similar struggles with other Latino immigrants, who have come to towns like Chester looking for work and a better life, but find themselves unwelcome by the community around them.

Avendaño does not speak English and her interview was conducted in Spanish.


“I was born in Mexico and I have two children,” Avendaño said. “In Mexico, work is hard to find and my kids are both very asthmatic. I could not afford medicine for them, so I came here to work and send them money.”

Avendaño said she is thankful to have the opportunity to work in this country, but that she feels like a second-class citizen.

“It seems that people are suspicious of me,” Avendaño said. “I’m not here to hurt anyone or to steal jobs or money, I just want the chance to earn my wages fairly.”

In Mexico, Avendaño said she and her mother sold food and small novelties from door to door in order to make ends meet.

“Once I turned 25, I saw that I wasn’t making enough money to support my children and their illnesses,” she said. “It was hard, but I left Mexico and had to leave Jose, (now 17) and Andrea, (now 12), behind.”

Like many other Latinos living in communities like Chester, Avendaño has been a blue-collar worker.

She said she has worked at the former Larison’s Turkey Farm as well as the Chester Diner.

“It was good to work to send money back to Mexico, but it was hard work. All the Latinos would be in the back cleaning floors, doing dishes, doing the labor, and the Americans would be up front taking orders and handing out menus,” she said.

Avendaño said that sometimes her bosses would get mad when Latino workers would speak to each other in Spanish.

Diana Mejia, a Colombian immigrant, who works in Morristown and Hackettstown, has noticed the exploitation of Latinos in the area and decided to do something about it.

Mejia co-founded the organization, “The Wind of the Spirit,” located out of Morristown, as a way to teach Latinos their rights and help them find honest work.

The following interview was also translated from Spanish.

“It is supremely difficult for people to come to places like Chester or Morristown from their countries,” Mejia said. “They so want to be part of this community, but find themselves unable to feel welcome here.”

The Wind of the Spirit, whose tagline is “no human being is illegal,” is an immigrant resource center for Latinos who have just arrived in this country and find themselves without the means to integrate themselves into the community.

“These people pay their taxes, they work hard—very hard,” Mejia said. “This government offers Latino immigrants no fair and honest way to join to work force and move up in society legally.”

Mejia said Latino immigrants often don’t even begin to file the paperwork for citizenship for sometimes up to 20-25 years after being in the U.S.

“What’s happening is that families who bring their young children here, find themselves stuck,” Mejia said. “When their kids grow up, they cannot go to college because they do not have the proper documentation. This county keeps Latino immigrants marginalized.”

Mejia said many Latino families send their children to school to learn English and give them a better life, but then find themselves in the same position of having to work in the service field.

“These are people who were doctors, teachers, surgeons in their countries, and here they are cleaning floors and washing plates,” Mejia said.

All Immigrants

Mejia said she does not understand why European and Canadian immigrants are looked on with so much more respect than Latinos.

“Think about our borders,” Mejia said. “Think about how we treat the Mexican border versus the Canadian border. It’s obvious who we don’t want here—but the question is why? Is it because our skin comes in different shades? Is it because we speak a different language?”

Mejia said the Latino immigrants she works with give the “maximum amount of their energy and of themselves to their jobs.

“We respect America very deeply,” Mejia said, “so much so, that we risk everything to come here. We also want to contribute our cultures to this one, by bringing our language, history and foods to communities here. After all, aren’t we all immigrants?”

Mejia said America is a country built on the foundation of immigration and that no one culture should be held in a higher regard than another.

“As immigrants, we all share struggles, we are doing the same thing and trying to do honest work to provide for our families,” she said. “We don’t want to live under the table, we want to do things legally, but the laws do not allow us to be part of the community.”

Mejia said she also does not understand why America is so intent on the Iraq war, trying to help people that don’t want to be helped, while ignoring people on American soil begging for assistance and fair treatment.

Mejia also thinks the treatment of Cuban immigrants in this country is deplorable.

“The government renounces Fidel Castro and talks about how bad communism is, but we do not try to help them. We don’t want them here,” she said.

“These Latino workers take care of the children of American families, clean and build their houses, take care of their gardens and landscaping, but are denied basic services by the government,” she said. “They cannot even legally drive a car to work.”

Avendaño also said Latinos are not treated very well in this country and said she wishes Americans could be more compassionate to their fellow man.

“We treat animals better in this country than we do each other,” Avendaño said. “We are all human beings. People should get to know one another before judging and treat each other with respect.”

Leonora Hernandez, another Chester resident who works at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Route 206, said she also feels as though she is not wanted here.

“This is a beautiful country, but it does not feel like home to me,” Hernandez said. “I send my children to school here and they are treated very badly. Sometimes kids have even spit in their faces and asked them what they are doing here.”

Hernandez, who mops floors and restocks the refrigerator, said people seem suspicious of her and think she is here to rob or take jobs from Americans.”

“I just want to make a living honestly, just like everyone else,” she said.

Hernandez, like Avendaño, is planning on returning to her native Mexico in the coming years to be reunited with her family. She said she would rather live poorly and be happy.

“I do not have a life here,” Hernandez said. “Just work.”

Cultural Outlets

“We love to celebrate our culture,” Avendaño said. “We celebrate the holiday of the Virgin of Guadalupe and make tamales, moles, posoles and other traditional foods. We also go to mass.”

Hernandez said that although typical foods are not always available here, the Latino community finds ways to come together and celebrate their culture.

“We have parties and dinners with music,” she said. “We want to maintain our culture here.”

Avendaño said Saint Lawrence Catholic church in Chester has a Spanish mass for residents. She said the church is very helpful at giving her a feeling of belonging.

The Spanish mass, which starts at 8 p.m. and is on the second and forth Sundays of the month, is designed to be available for working families.

“Sometimes we go right from work to mass, so it is a good thing they have it at night,” Avendaño said.

Mejia’s organization also offers programs for Spanish-speaking immigrants.

“We want to create bridges between the community and immigrants,” Mejia said. “We have speakers come and sponsor activities that promote cultural understanding.”

This Saturday, the Wind of the Spirit will host a discussion entitled “A Humane Approach to Immigration” and will feature a variety of speakers to discuss their first hand experience with laws and issues that face Latino immigrants.

“We’ve had issues with workers being picked up off the street and not being paid for days of labor,” Mejia said. “We’ve also seen workers get injured on the job and just left on Route 287 or on the street, because the people who employed them do not want to be in trouble for hiring an undocumented worker.

“People say Latinos are stealing jobs from Americans—I ask you, who would want to live and work like this?” Mejia said.

Reynaldo Caudillo, president of the Morris County Latino-American Chamber of Commerce, whose tagline is “Unity and Progress,” said he supports Mejia’s efforts and that his organization also does what it can to help Latino small business owners to succeed.

“There are many Latino sub communities in areas around Chester,” he said. “We offer programs such as seminars in Spanish, benefits and fundraisers to help businesses succeed in Spanish communities.”

Mejia invites anyone who is interested in the organization to visit www.windofthespirit.net for more information. For more information on the Latino Chamber of Commerce, visit www.mchacc.com.





©Recorder Community Newspapers 2006

If they had come here legal they would not feel this way.
If they are doctors, teachers, etc. why did they not come in legal?
They have put this problem on themselves. We would have to follow
the laws of their land and learn their language if we want to live in their
country. They have broken our laws and should be deported and pay
the price for ignoring our laws.
How can they said they feel like second class when everyone is bending
backwards to cater to them. It is the American citizen that has become
second class - we are losing our traditions, our mix of food, music, and
language of English, that tied us all together. Where ever you go it is hispanic this and hispanic that.
If fighting for the American way in America is racist, so be it, then I am
a racist that was taught from early on that the world is made up of
different people and love your country with all your heart and fight
for what you got because you will not find it anywhere else.

"who would want to work and live this way?"

Apparently 20 million illegal aliens do. And they all want to stay!

“Think about our borders,” Mejia said. “Think about how we treat the Mexican border versus the Canadian border. It’s obvious who we don’t want here—but the question is why? Is it because our skin comes in different shades? Is it because we speak a different language?”

If we had between 30 and 40 million Canadians coming to this country and dropping anchor babies for welfare income, demanding that legal documents be printed in French, sending their children to our public schools, using our hospital emergency rooms as free clinics while the men stand on the corners soliciting work for "cash," then expecting us to pay for sheltered solicitation areas using our tax dollars, we would want to kick them out.

If the Canadians were demonstrating and flying the flag of Canada in our streets and demanding citizenship, we would want them to go back to Canada.

If the Canadians were trying to manipulate our elections by voting when that is a privilege of American citizenship, we would want to put them in jail.

But, the Canadians are not doing these things.

My complaint is with the people that are doing these things and over 85% are Mexican Nationals. Mexican Nationals come in every color just like U.S. citizens. It has nothing to do with the shade of anyone's skin but everything to do with looting of our country and the disregard of our sovereignty.

“People look at me like I don’t belong in this country—like this isn’t my country too.”

That's because you don't belong here and it's NOT your country. You are an interloper!

“We don’t want to live under the table, we want to do things legally, but the laws do not allow us to be part of the community.”

Laws do allow you to be a part of the community, but you have chosen to IGNORE the laws, hence you have put yourself outside the community.

I don't even know where to begin with this. They really don't get it, do they?

Why in heaven's name would they expect to feel like this is their country when IT IS NOT THEIR COUNTRY? They are here for 20 - 25 years before they file the paperwork to become legal?? Why do they not get that you are supposed to file the paperwork BEFORE you get here?

And then there is the forming of the organization to let them know about their "rights." They sure have more rights than any American would have who was trying to work without permission in their countries!

Canadians indeed. Yeah, those hordes of Canadians storming our borders have really gotten to be a huge problem.

I am starting to think this is all put on. Nobody could be this clueless.