Thread: Salvadorans get day in America

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Salvadorans get day in America
By DANIEL GILBERT
dgilbert@potomacnews.com
Monday, August 7, 2006


WASHINGTON - Salvadorans gathered Sunday to celebrate the first Salvadoran-American Day, a national event honoring immigrants from the tiny Central American nation, reflecting the oversized impact they have had on the U.S.

The smell of grilled meats, fried plantains and cheese-filled pupusas - a Salvadoran specialty - wafted across the open field by Francis Junior High School in northwest Washington, D.C.

A mariachi band trilled as the sun blared down on the dry tufts of grass dotting the field, chasing most into the shady perimeter of food tents, where they sipped cool mango juice or bit into snow cones topped with tangy tamarind fruit.

A banner pinned to the stage set up at one end of the field read in Spanish, "With your work and ours the best is yet to come."

In a move that underscores the growing political importance of the immigrant community, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution on July 18 declaring Aug. 6 as Salvadoran-American Day, recognizing Salvadorans in the U.S. for their "hard work, dedication, and contribution to the stability and well-being of the United States."

The festivities on Sunday were, on the one hand, a celebration of an immigrant population coming into its own; on the other, the holiday was a small tribute coming from the same congressional body that last year voted to criminalize illegal immigration and erect over 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Notwithstanding the House stance on immigration reform, the Consul-General of El Salvador, Ana Margarita Chavez, was exultant.

Framed on stage by Salvadoran and American flags, she praised Salvadoran immigrants for adding to the richness of American society.

"I thank all the Salvadoran immigrants who have made this day possible," said Chavez in Spanish. "I thank those who crossed the border with so much tenacity."

Metropolitan Washington has the second-highest population of Salvadorans in the country, trailing only Los Angeles.

The wave of immigrants from El Salvador - Central American's smallest country - is one of the fastest growing, nearly doubling between 2000 and 2004, when the Census counted 1,201,002 nationwide.

On display at the celebration Sunday were the trappings of an immigrant community beginning to flex its economic muscle, as well as the nagging concerns that have startled the community into political activism.

A real estate company, Vilchez and Associates, set up a booth from which they played the company's musical theme, "Orgullosamente Hispana" - "Proudly Hispanic."

An air-inflated figure anchored by the stage flopped and flailed, advertising Bancomercio, a Salvadoran-based bank that exclusively handles money orders from the U.S. to Latin America.

Two area restaurants set up kitchens on site, serving up the traditional Salvadoran food now ubiquitous in Prince William, Arlington and throughout the metro region.

But in the shade of the fiesta lurked a few less ecstatic shreds.

A week old, brittle newspaper beneath a section of metallic bleachers featured a half-page spread on the immigration debate in Congress, and more news on the deployment of National Guard troops to turn back the tide of illegal immigrants.

Piled on a table near the back of the festivities lay a mountain of brochures in Spanish, bluntly urging Salvadorans to renew a temporary visa, warning that failure to do so could result in the word many immigrants dread: deportation.

At Chavez's side was Mirian Vargas, head of El Salvador's newest consulate, which opened last year in Woodbridge to accommodate the influx of Salvadorans into the region.

While Chavez and Vargas sang and danced cumbia on Sunday, the 16 Salvadoran consulates that dot the U.S. remained open Sunday to help applicants fill out the paperwork to renew their "temporary protected status."

Last Sunday, Chavez spent the day in College Park, Md., as part of a consular team helping Salvadorans renew the TPS.

In her blue and red dress with white frills, Chavez said that no one much had showed up at the Washington consulate; they were all coming to the fiesta.

"It's going very, very well for us," she said.

"I thank all the Salvadoran immigrants who have made this day possible," said Chavez in Spanish. "I thank those who crossed the border with so much tenacity."

Great, so many of these guys are illegal, and they are allowed to gather in public to celebrate breaking the laws.

Piled on a table near the back of the festivities lay a mountain of brochures in Spanish, bluntly urging Salvadorans to renew a temporary visa, warning that failure to do so could result in the word many immigrants dread: deportation.

So obviously many of these guys are now illegal with expired visas. And where is ICE? Not one arrest made. Pathetic.

What is the House doing? Something don't smell right....

Last Sunday, Chavez spent the day in College Park, Md., as part of a consular team helping Salvadorans renew the TPS.

In her blue and red dress with white frills, Chavez said that no one much had showed up at the Washington consulate; they were all coming to the fiesta.

Party, Party, Party. NO RESPECT They are assimalating so well